Ayres Research Group

Our labs are well equipped for polymer science research, including a wet chemistry laboratory with 12 fume hoods and air-free lines, and an instrument room with polymer characterization instrumentation. We have provided brief descriptions of our analytical instrumentation below, we can provide more information on our capabilities and resources upon request.

Agilent 1100 Series HPLC (comprising solvent cabinet, degasser, isocratic pump, and autosampler) equipped with a Varian PL gel (5 µm) guard column and two Varian PL gel (5 µm) mixed-C columns with a filtered THF mobile phase at a flow rate of 1.0 ml/min and miniDAWN TREOS light scattering, Optilab rEX differential refractometer, and Viscostar II viscometer (Wyatt Technology Corporation) detectors.  ASTRA software v. 3.4.13 is used to determine polymer characteristic values

Agilent 1200 Series HPLC (comprising solvent cabinet, degasser, isocratic pump, and manual injector) equipped with a Varian Polar Gel (5 µm) guard column and two Varian Polar Gel M (5 µm) columns with a filtered DMF mobile phase at a flow rate of 0.5 ml/min and Optilab rEX differential refractometer (Wyatt Technology Corporation) detector.  ASTRA software v. 3.4.13 is used to determine polymer characteristic values.  The DMF GPC is calibrated against narrow molecular weight distribution PMMA standards (Mp = 850 – 1 960 000 g/mol)

Combines a patented drag cup motor, a second generation magnetic bearing, force rebalance transducer technology (FRT), and True Position Sensor (TPS) into a single-head Hybrid rheometer. The HR-2 model offers a torque range of 2 nN.m to 200 mN.m, ultra-high resolution of 10 nanoradians, high angular velocity to 300rad/s, and normal force up to 50N. It includes patented Smart Swap(r) geometries and new TRIOS Software for performing Flow, Step Transient (Creep and Stress Relaxation), and Oscillation experiments. TRIOS comes standard with a comprehensive data analysis package that includes curve fitting, user defined models, TTS, and viscoelastic transformations. The rheometer is equipped with an air cooled Peltier circulator and DHR & AR series smart swap advanced Peltier plate. Available geometries in the Ayres group are a 40 mm plate, 40 mm, 2 degree cone, and 20 mm plate; these are all used with the lower Peltier plate

DMA 8000 Dynamic Mechanical Analyzer will be used for characterization of materials' bulk properties such as modulus, compliance and damping (tan delta). It measures changes of rheological behavior under dynamic conditions as a function of temperature, time, frequency, stress, atmosphere or a combination of these parameters. The instrument has a temperature range -190°C to 400°C and a rotating analysis head that can be orientated up, down, horizontally, and at 45 degrees between. The instrument is equipped with an ultra-efficient cooling system with the ability to cool down to -190 °C without immersion using liquid N2 using low-pressure liquid nitrogen vessels for simple, convenient operation. The 1 L Dewar provides cooling to -190 °C in approximately 15 minutes. There is a quartz window for visual inspection of the sample and clamping system throughout an experiment without interrupting the temperature profile or other experimental conditions. The window also allows UV/Vis irradiation for curing and other studies and video recording of the sample during an experiment. Six geometry modes available covering the full range of sample testing needs; single cantilever bending, dual cantilever bending, tension, compression, shear and 3-pont bending