Lab Tour

General-Use Equipment
Click on image for Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). Contact David Potts (dspotts2 at Illinois dot edu) to request training on any of the equipment. Link to sign-up calendars.

Contact: Ching-Tien Chen (cct at Illinois dot edu) The Raman system includes a Linkam cell for in situ and operando gas-phase studies as well as a custom-built liquid cell to obtain Raman scattering data and determine the identity of the relevant surface intermediates that are formed during the catalytic cycle. This includes a custom-built gas manifold which can be customized to flow specific gas mixtures.	Contact: Chris Torres (chris3 at Illinois dot edu) This Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy system is equipped with a tunnel cell using a cylindrical internal reflection element (ZnSe) to collect vibrational spectra of adsorbed catalyst. Gases or liquids are introduced via mass-flow controllers and high-pressure piston pumps. A mass spectrometer is connected for gas-phase operando studies.
Contact: Tomas Ricciardulli (tomasr2 at Illinois dot edu) This transmission infrared spectroscopy system is equipped with a high-pressure gas-phase cell to study different types of surface species and adsorbates (e.g., pyridine, CO, etc.) to characterize the surface of various heterogeneous catalysts.	Contact: Chris Torres (chris3 at Illinois dot edu) This ATR-IR tunnel cell uses cylindrical ATR elements (ZnSe and Ge) which allow for multiple internal reflections to increase S/N levels. Catalysts are deposited on the surface and gases or liquids are flowed using the attached gas- or liquid-manifolds to study surface intermediates during reaction.
Contact: Chris Torres (chris3 at Illinois dot edu) This custom-designed and built single-bounce ATR-IR cell uses Ge right-triangle-prism ATR elements to observe the surface species during reaction of supported metal catalysts and porous thin films of Pd and Au.	Contact: David Potts (dspotts2 at Illinois dot edu) This modular UV-vis system is equipped with diffuse reflectance and transmission probes to study the UV-vis absorbance features that emerge and attenuate during the various reactions. This includes a custom-build gas- and liquid-phase cell to study the surface species that form during reactions on heterogeneous catalysts.
Contact: Ching-Tien Chen (cct at Illinois dot edu) This Pfeiffer THERMOStar mass spectrometer is primarily for use with the operando UV-vis semi-batch system, but is used also with the Raman and IR systems for gas-phase analysis of reaction products.	Contact: Claudia Berdugo (ceb4 at Illinois dot edu) This Pfeiffer ThermoStar mass spectrometer is primarily used with the operando Raman and ATR-IR system, but is used also with the TPR/O/D system.
Contact: Ohsung Kwon (oskwon2 at Illinois dot edu) This gas chromatograph is equipped with a flame ionization detector to identify and quantify the products that are formed in liquid-phase reactions. The auto sampler allows for up to 100 samples to be loaded at a time for analysis.	Contact: Richa Ghosh (richag3 at Illinois dot edu) This gas chromatograph is equipped with a flame ionization detector to identify and quantify the products that are formed in liquid-phase reactions. The auto sampler allows for up to 100 samples to be loaded at a time for analysis.
Contact: Claudia Berdugo (ceb4 at Illinois dot edu) This system can run temperature programmed reactions, reductions, oxidations, and desorptions over packed beds of catalysts. Additionally, this is equipped with neumatic actuated valves to perform Steady State Isotopic Transient Kinetic Analysis (SSITKA) of isotopically labelled molecules.	Contact: Matthew Jacobson (maj9 at Illinois dot edu) This titrator is enclosed in an inert atmosphere to eliminate contributions from atmospheric CO2. This is used to titrate a sample suspended, generally, in water to quantify the number of Brønsted and Lewis acid and base sites.
Contact: Ohsung Kwon (oskwon2 at Illinois dot edu) This fume hood and hotplates are used to synthesize the various catalysts our lab uses as well as stir and heat our array of batch and semi-batch reactors.	Contact: Danim Yun (danimy at Illinois dot edu) These hotplates at IGB 1200 are used to stir and heat our array of batch and semi-batch reactors.
Contact: David Potts (dspotts2 at Illinois dot edu) This gas and vacuum manifold is used for the air- and water-free synthesis of our catalysts. This includes a Fischer Maxima C vacuum pump and a dedicated Ar line to provide an inert atmosphere.	Contact: Ohsung Kwon (oskwon2 at Illinois dot edu) There are three autoclave ovens with one at IGB 1200 with elevated pressure chambers used for hydrothermal synthesis of catalysts.
Contact: Jieun Lee (jieunl3 at Illinois dot edu) This centrifuge has variable speed (up to 5000 rpm) and temperature control for the separation of solid nanoparticles from liquid solutions.	Contact: Richa Ghosh (richag3 at Illinois dot edu) This three-zone horizontal furnace is equipped with a gas manifold to heat treat (up to 1000 oC) catalysts using a variety of gases (e.g., He, air, H2, CO, NH3) with the attached gas-manifold system and can accommodate up to ~20 g of material (depending on density) at a time.
Contact: Chris Torres (chris3 at Illinois dot edu) This single-zone furnace can operate up to temperatures of 1000 oC and is equipped with a gas manifold to control the flow of air.	Contact: David Potts (dspotts2 at Illinois dot edu) This convection oven is used to dry glassware at 125 oC for use in air- and water-free synthesis conditions.
Contact: Claudia Berdugo (ceb4 at Illinois dot edu) This chemisorption unit is designed to measure the volumetric uptake of probe molecules (e.g., CO, H2, O2) in order to quantify the number of surface atoms and determine catalyst dispersion.

Dedicated Equipment

Contact: Suchi Vijayaraghavan (sv29 at Illinois dot edu) This fully-automated system is designed to measure the steady-state kinetics of the direct synthesis of H2O2 on various supported catalysts. Gases (H2, O2 CO2) and liquids (H2O and CH3OH) are fed at controlled rates at industrially relevant conditions in a trickle-bed reactor.	Contact: Tomas Ricciardulli (tomasr2 at Illinois dot edu) This fully-automated system is designed to measure the steady-state kinetics of the direct synthesis of H2O2 on various supported catalysts. Gases (H2, O2 CO2) and liquids (H2O and CH3OH) are fed at controlled rates at industrially relevant conditions.
Contact: Ohsung Kwon (oskwon2 at Illinois dot edu) This gas-phase epoxidation system includes multiple liquid injection ports with on-line GC-FID/TCD for steady-state kinetic measurements. The system can be coupled with an in-line Fourier-transform infrared spectrometer for operando measurements.	Contact: Claudia Berdugo (ceb4 at Illinois dot edu) This high-pressure hydrogenolysis system consists of a packed bed reactor with the capability of fully automated temperature, pressure, and gas- and liquid-flow control. An on-line gas chromatograph measures steady-state product formation rates and selectivities.
Contact: Matthew Jacobson (maj9 at Illinois dot edu) This high-pressure system consists of a packed bed reactor with the capability of fully automated temperature, pressure, and gas- and liquid-flow control. This includes a Teledyne ISCO 500D syringe pump to control liquid flow rates (>1 uL min-1). An on-line gas chromatograph measures steady-state product formation rates and selectivities.	Contact: Yangsik Yun (netiyys at Illinois dot edu) This system for ester reduction to ether is designed to measure steady-state product formation rates and selectivities on various supported catalysts in trickle-bed system. Liquid (ester and solvents) and gas reactant are introduced into reactor by HPLC pump and mass-flow controller, respectively. Automated system allow liquid products and gas products to be analyzed by on-line GC accessorized by methanizer.
Contact: David Flaherty (dwflhrty at Illinois dot edu) This custom-built system is designed to study the reaction kinetics on model catalysts (e.g., Ru(0001) or Pd(111)). This system has differentially pumped chambers to perform reactive molecular beam scattering, thermal evaporation; is equipped with Auger electron spectroscopy and low-energy electron diffraction to characterize the catalyst surface.	Contact: Suchi Vijayaraghavan(sv29 at Illinois dot edu) This semi-batch system is used to measure the transient kinetics of the direct synthesis of H2O2 on various supported and homogeneous catalysts. Gases (H2, O2 CO2) and liquids (H2O and CH3OH) are fed at controlled rates and the reaction media is monitored in situ via UV-vis, while reactant concentrations are measured using an on-line mass spectrometer.
Contact: Ching-Tien Chen (cct at Illinois dot edu) This reactor system is used to measure steady state product formation rates in the ethylene oxide formation process. Reactants are introduced into the reactor using MFCs while temperature control is maintained using two solid stainless steel heating blocks with cartridge heaters. The system currently operates at atmospheric pressure. The on-line gas chromatograph is used for steady state rate and selectivity measurements.	Contact: Richa Ghosh (richag3 at Illinois dot edu) The potentiostat is a single-channel electrochemical workstation. It is capable of performing a wide variety of DC electroanalytical techniques like cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry, and AC electroanalytical techniques like Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy and uncompensated resistance measurement.

Equipment within Access
In addition to the equipment listed above, we have access to various pieces of equipment (e.g., Transmission Electron Microscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy, Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluroescence, X-ray Diffraction, etc.) at the Frederick Seitz Materials Research Lab and Beckman Institute for Advanced Science & Technology. We also routinely utilize various techniques (e.g., Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emissions Spectroscopy, CHN Analysis, ThermoGravimetric Analysis, MicroCalorimetry, Physisorption, Solid-state and Liquid-phase NMR, etc.) at the School of Chemical Sciences Microanalysis Lab and NMR Lab.