Capabilities
We aim to focus on creative solutions that can be applied to real-world issues promoting the societal, economic, and environmental benefits of sustainable and green engineering.
The research labs are located in the LEEP2 building on the University of Kansas Lawrence campus. The facility has 5,000 sq. ft. of state-of-the-art lab space and 2,000 sq. ft. of office space for graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, visiting scientists, and research faculty. The facility has 10 laboratory fume hoods (5 bench level and 5-floor mount level), 3 ventilated enclosures, a backup generator with uninterruptible power, four Scott air monitoring systems, ventilated cabinets for storage of flammable and toxic gases, and safety interlock systems.
They have extensive capabilities in thermophysical property measurements of gases and vapors in materials using a variety of characterization techniques. The group specializes in gravimetric measurements for determining the solubility and diffusivity of H2, He, O2, N2, NH3, CO2, CO, Ar, Kr, SO2, H2S, N2O, hydrocarbons (HCs), hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), and hydrofluoroolefins (HFOs) in a range of materials such as polymers, ionic liquids, zeolites, silica, carbon, catalysts, and membranes to name a few, over a wide range of temperatures (-196 ºC to 1000 ºC) and pressures (0.01 bar to 200 bar).
Advanced Sorption Analysis
Two XEMIS Gravimetric Microbalances
Two Hiden Intelligent Gravimetric Analyzers
Hiden Intelligent Gravimetric Sorption Analyzer
Setaram High-Pressure Calorimeter
Gas Separation and Characterization
Pressure-swing Absorption System
Automated bench-scale pressure-swing adsorption (PSA) system with four 1 kg beds to study gas separation such as removal of N2 from natural gas. On-line analytical capability using Hiden process mass-spectrometer with multiple sampling locations and automated sampling valve. National Instruments LabView data acquisition and control system. Operating pressure up to 50 bar (~750 psi) and a temperature range from ambient to 500 °C
Micromeritics ASAP 2020c adsorption instrument for measuring BET surface area and pore volume distribution as well as chemisorption capacity.
High-pressure view-cells for vapor-liquid equilibrium, vapor-liquid-liquid equilibrium to pressures of vacuum to 300 bar (~4500 psi), temperatures from -70 to 200 °C, with sample sizes from 0.5 to 10 grams.
Densitometers and Viscometers
Both ambient pressure density and viscosity, as well as high-pressure density and viscosity, can be measured. Density can be measured from -70 to 200 °C over a pressure range from atmospheric pressure up to 1370 bar (20,000 psi) with a precision of ± 0.0001 g/cm3. Viscosity can be measured from -70 to 200 °C over a pressure range from atmospheric pressure up to 1370 bar (20,000 psi) for fluids with viscosity ranging from 0.2 cP to 10,000 cP. Sample sizes for both techniques are in the range of 10-30 mL.
Porous Materials Library
Dr. David Corbin who retired from DuPont in 2016 donated his library of zeolites, carbons, silicas, clays, alumina, ion-exchange resins, catalysts, and other adsorbents to the University of Kansas in 2017. The materials library contains >3000 unique samples of many types of porous materials for research.