Applications for Environmental Chemistry
IMSERC houses a large pool of modern instrumentation for environmental chemists. Our center is integrated with the Chemistry Department at Northwestern University where scientists run their experiments on a 24/7 basis. From monitoring reactions to full structure elucidation, researchers and students have access to a variety of techniques that can be used for:
Crystallographic atomic structure determination, identification, and refinement of organic and inorganic compounds for extraction of structural information such as:
Determination of unit cell and bonding environment (bond-lengths, bond-angles, cation-anion coordination, site-ordering, etc.)
Determination of packing of molecules and co-crystals
Determination of extended structure and packing of building blocks
Determination of (non)centrosymmetric or chiral topologies
Refinement of modulated and twinned structures (incommensurate, commensurate, composite superstructures)
High resolution data for charge density measurement and precise assignment of atoms with similar chemical environment
Powder evaluation of sample purity (sensitivity of ~2% by weight)
Quantitative determination of individual crystalline phases and impurities in mixtures of powder
Monitor reactions in real time as a function of time, temperature, pressure, and gas flow/pressure
Probe catalytic changes to substrates
Investigate decomposition mechanism
Construction of phase diagrams
Rocking curve measurements for evaluation of defect density and quality of crystals
Texture measurements and orientation of grains in a polycrystalline sample
Strain analysis
In-situ monitoring of crystallization processes with increasing temperature
Crystallographic atomic structure determination of nanomaterials, nanoparticles and amorphous materials
Particle size of crystalline phase
Total scattering techniques in combination with synchrotron and/or neutron radiation
Modeling and atomic structure determination of nanoparticles and glasses
Decomposition temperature using ThermoGravimetric analysis which can be coupled with GC-MS for the identification of the decomposition products
Temperature of combustion with ThermoGravimetric analysis and identification of combustion volatiles using GC-MS
Mass Spectrometry
Quantitative determination of analytes of interest in environmental samples down to low parts-per-trillion
Mass spectrometry has the ability quantitate a wide range of analytes to a very low level while still maintaining many orders of magnitude in dynamic range. Specifically, mass spectrometry can readily measure pollutants in drinking water, soil, waste water, sludge etc., as well as perform untargeted or targeted chemometric profiling of the same.
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
Non-destructive in vivo and in situ study for environmental samples
Identifying a wide range of structural and metabolic changes during plant growth
Determining soil structure and the interactions between key soil components
Determining the molecular composition of a living organism from solutions to solids
Thermal analysis which can be coupled with GC-MS for the determination of:
Melting point using either Differential Thermal Analysis or Differential Scanning Calorimetry
Crystallization transition using either Differential Thermal Analysis or Differential Scanning Calorimetry
Glass transition using Differential Scanning Calorimetry
Decomposition temperature using ThermoGravimetric analysis which can be coupled with GC-MS for the identification of the decomposition products
Temperature of combustion with ThermoGravimetric analysis and identification of combustion volatiles using GC-MS
In-situ monitoring of solid-state reactions using Differential Thermal Analysis
Qualitative and Quantitative elemental analyses
Halide determination (Chlorine, Bromine, Iodine) in solids or liquids using X-ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy
Survey of impurities and elements heavier than Sodium with X-ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy
Optical spectroscopy
Determination of functional groups and likely solvent molecules using Infrared (IR) spectroscopy
Vibrational stretches using Raman and IR Spesctroscopy
Color, band gap, and absorption measurements using Ultra-violet (UV), visible (Vis), and IR spectroscopies
Photoluminescence, lifetime phosphorescence, and emission measurements using spectrofluorimeter