Laboratory

303 Morrill Hall

Equipment

• Fluorescence spectrometer, Perking Elmer LS55.  Equipped with automated polarizers and a temperature controlled Peltier mixing cell (0 to 100 ^oC) for biomembrane anisotropy measurements.  Optional photomultiplier tube improves red sensitivity and extends wavelength capabilities to 200-900 nm.
• Ultraviolet-visible spectrometer, Varian Cary 50.  Equipped with a Peltier heating/mixing cell (-40 to 100 ^oC).
• Differential scanning calorimeter, TA Instruments Q10. Large operating range (-180 to +725 ^oC) and moderate sensitivity (+/-0.05 ^oC; +/-1 uW) for phase transition measurements.  Hermetic pans can be filled with liquid samples, such as a liposome/biomembrane suspension.
• Langmuir film balance, Nima Technology 102M LL. Miniature film balance for analysis of monolayers at liquid-liquid or liquid-gas interfaces.  40 ml sub phase with 105 cm² surface area, a 0.1 to 100 cm²/min scan rate, and a 0 to 240 mN/m measurement range with 1 mN/m resolution.
• RF induction heating source, Ameritherm Inc. HOTSHOT 1 – Inductive heating source with a remote heating station with water-cooled conductive copper coils that delivers 1 kW of power over a frequency range of 150 t 400 kHz.  Programmable heating profiles over 0.01 to 10,000 seconds.
• Additional biomembrane (vesicle/liposome) processing equipment – Rotary evaporator, analytical pH/conductivity meter, vacuum oven, a temperature controlled sonication bath, additional temperature baths, and vesicle extrusion system.
• Differential Scanning Microcalorimeter, TA Instruments Nano DSC. Operating range -10 to +130C) and very high sensitivity (+/-0.0001^oC; +/-0.015 uW).  Capillary cell uses 0.33 ml of sample.
• Hyperspectral darkfield optical microscope, CytoViva®. This instrument was purchased in 2015 with a grant from the The Champlin Foundations to enhance nanotechnology education at URI across STEM disciplines.

Rhode Island Consortium for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (RIN²)

• JEOL JEM 2100 Transmission Electron Microscope with  GATAN 626 DH cryotransfer system. Vitrobot robotic controlled environment vitrification system from FEI. Teitz TVIPS F224 slow scan Digital camera for the TEM. Full image analysis capability.
• Zeiss SIGMA VP Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope. GATAN cryotransfer system.
• Rigaku Ultima IV multipurpose X-ray diffraction (XRD) system.
• Malvern Zetasizer Nano ZS (dynamic light scattering, DLS, and zeta potential).