Facilities
The CEBC laboratories house a wide array of reactors and instrumentation for catalysis research, much of which is available for industry-sponsored projects. These facilities, worth more than $4 million, are further complemented by the laboratories of individual faculty members and by major instrumentation operated by KU core laboratories.
| Stirred Reactors | Several mechanically stirred Autoclave Engineers and Parr reactors are available in sizes ranging from 50 to 500 mL. Reactors are configured for batch, semi-batch, and continuous operation. All reactors are controlled and monitored by computer data acquisition and control systems. |
| Fixed-Bed Reactors | 1/2" ID and 3/16" ID fixed bed reactor systems are available for testing small quantities of novel materials. The reactors are equipped with on-line GC sampling and liquid product collection. |
| Membrane Reactors | Three continuous, well-mixed membrane reactors have been constructed from stainless steel MET membrane vessels that have been equipped with polyimide or ceramic membranes and retrofitted with mechanical stirring. |
| Spray Reactor | A custom-made continuous 4L spray reactor features all-titanium construction, automated level control and a product take-off vessel. |
| ReactIR Systems | Three ReactIR systems (Si ATR-IR probe) are interfaced with 50 mL stirred Parr reactors for real-time FT-IR spectra collection. |
| Medium Throughput Screening Reactors | A Parr parallel reaction system features six independently controlled 50 mL reactors with magnetic stirring for catalyst screening studies. |
| Bruker Tensor 27 FT-IR | IR spectrometer equipped with a Pike diffuse reflectance cell for characterizing heterogeneous catalysts, including adsorption/desorption studies. |
| Bruker Senterra | Raman microscope with flow-through Linkam stage. |
| Horiba J-Y 2000 ICP-OES | Horiba ICP optical emission spectrometer provides sensitive elemental analysis for catalyst composition and leaching studies. |
| Quantichrome Nova 2200e | “Any gas” physisorption for surface area, pore volume, and pore diameter measurements. |
| Micromeretics Autochem 2910 | Chemisorption experiments (TPO/TPR/TPD) for probing heterogeneous catalysts. Interfaced with a Pfeiffer mass spectrometer for off-gas analysis. |
| Micromeretics Gemini | N2 physisorption for surface area and pore volume measurements. |
| Perkin Elmer Lambda 850 UV-Vis | UV-visible spectrometer with diffuse reflectance capability for heterogeneous catalysts. |
| Rupprecht & Patashnick TEOM | Tapered Element Oscillating Microbalance Flow-through reaction/adsorption/desorption cell with buoyancy-compensated mass measurement, for coke laydown determination, etc. |
| Gas Chromatography/ Liquid Chromatography | Several GCs and HPLCs in various configurations for routine quantification of reaction products. |
| GC/MS | Two GC mass spectrometers (Agilent, Varian) are available for identification/confirmation of chemical compositions. |
| GPC | Agilent gel permeation chromatography enables molecular weight determination of soluble polymers and large biomass-derived molecules. |
| Jerguson Cell | Two high-pressure view cells are used to study expansion behavior in gas-expanded liquids |
| Viscometer | A high-pressure, high-temperature vibrating piston viscometer can measure liquid, gas-expanded liquid, and slurry-phase viscosities. |
