The Materials Characterization Laboratory
The Materials Characterization lab offers thermal, optical, microscopic, electrical and magnetic characterization of materials and elemental analysis of surfaces via a wide range of instruments including spectrophotometers, optical and electron microscopes, a SQUID magnetometer, and an X-Ray Photoelectron Spectrometer among many other characterization tools. The facility is located in Young Hall, rooms: 1033, 1041 and 1043. Members of the UCLA community, other academic institutions, and commercial enterprises may use our instrumentation after training.
All users will have their grants recharged for use of the NMR spectrometers. Users from Departments other than Chemistry and Biochemistry must request a 6-digit recharge account prior to use of the instrumentation (download application form).
To learn more, please contact Ignacio Martini: martini@chem.ucla.edu
Instrumentation
- XPS with UPS and SAM MPMS3 with AC, Oven and Ultra Low fields (DC and VSM measurement modes)
- Zeiss Optical Microscope (reflectance optics, CCD camera)
- Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) with EDS
- GPC with UV, MALS and dRI detectors
- Spin Coater
- TGA
- DSC
- Contact Angle Goniometer
- Fluorimeter with integrating sphere (for quantum yield) and time-resolved capabilities
- Dynamic Light Scattering
- Sputterer (Au, Al, Pt)
- UV/Vis/NIR Spectrometer (transmission, specular reflectance)
- FTIR Spectrometer and Microscope with ATR capabilities
- AFM/STM
- Polarimeter
- Tube Furnaces with multi-step temperature controllers.
- Small instruments: Vacuum Oven, Centrifuge, Balances, Multimeters, Keithley Source Meter, LCR meter (conductivity/capacitance/impedance of devices and films), Potentiostat / Galvanostat (cyclic voltammetry, anodic stripping voltametry, etc.), Sonicator bath, Probe sonicator, Ocean Optics Fluorimeter, MiniMatcher Color Viewing System, UV Ozone cleaner, Shaker.
Instrument Rates
If your funding is managed in a department other than Chemistry and Biochemistry, please apply for a chemistry recharge account (download application form)
Once you have been given access, the account number that you provide will be charged an access fee every month. The current rate is $30/month/user. Access fees are only charged to a maximum of 5 users per Research Director. This charge is assessed whether or not you use the lab. Thus, you should notify us that youraccess should be removed if you no longer plan to use the lab. Please make sure that your research director is aware of this charge policy.
Additionally, usage of some of the instruments in the Materials lab will be recharged based on the amount of time they are used. The current rates for the recharged instruments are: (printable version)
(A) SEM image of a sectioned W11B12 ingot in backscattered electron (compositional) mode indicating compositional uniformity of WB4.2 (bright) grains. (B) Backscattered electron SEM image of a fractured ingot of an arc-melted sample in the ratio W:B of 1:12. Light regions are the tungsten-containing phase.
Andrew T. Lecha, Christopher L. Turnera, Reza Mohammadib, Sarah H. Tolberta,c,d, and Richard B. Kanera. 2015. PNAS, 112:3223-3228.
https://www.pnas.org/content/112/11/3223.short
SEM
- UCLA: $50/hour
- Federally funded External: $90/hour
- Commercial External: $140/hour
Sputterer
- UCLA: $22/hour
- Federally funded External: $40/hour
- Commercial External: $60/hour
AFM
- UCLA: $10/hour
- Federally funded External: $20/hour
- Commercial External: $40/hour
TGA & DSC
- UCLA: $15/hour
- Federally funded External: $30/hour
- Commercial External: $50/hour
Light Scattering
- UCLA: $10/hour
- Federally funded External: $20/hour
- Commercial External: $40/hour
Access Fee
- UCLA: $30/month
- Federally funded External: $55/month
- Commercial External: $110/month
XPS
- UCLA: $245/day
- Federally funded External: $420/day
- Commercial External: $620/day
SQUID
- UCLA: $150/day
- Federally funded External: $260/day
- Commercial External: $420/day
Consultation
- UCLA: $120/hour
- Federally funded External: $220/hour
- Commercial External: $380/hour
GPC
- UCLA: $15/hour
- Federally funded External: $30/hour
- Commercial External: $50/hour
User-Run Helium Leak Detector
- UCLA: $100/day
- Federally funded External: $180/day
- Commercial External: $350/day
Reservations
You must be at UCLA or use UCLA VPN to access the Materials reservations web site (http://matrl1.chem.ucla.edu/web_res.php). To place a reservation:
- Click on the instrument you would like to reserve.
- Click on a certain day to view availability.
- Log on with Your (Last) Name, and your reservation Access Code.
- Place your reservation.
Instrument Log in Instructions
- If the log in window is not open, click on this icon:
- Double click on matrl1.chem.ucla.edu
- Log onto the user account “mat” with password: “mattam1”
- Type “linlog” to open the log in program
SQUID and XPS reservations are managed by https://clms.cnsi.ucla.edu/cnsi/clms/
If you are a new user:
- Request an account here, and choose the “Materials Lab at The Molecular Instrumentation Center (MIC)” under: ‘labs you are interested in’.
- Email Ignacio at martini@chem.ucla.edu to activate your account.
Please follow the reservations rules below that apply for the different groups, not just individual users:
- If you are reserving time for any month other than the current month, you can reserve a maximum of 4 days/month.
- For the current month: Before the 15th, you can reserve up to a total of 6 days during that month. On or after the 15th, it is completely open for the rest of the month.
- For every 3 days you use the instrument, at least one of those days needs to be a weekend day. Holidays count as weekend days as well.
- Days go from 9 AM to 9AM, and are identified by the first calendar date (Typically reserved from 1AM to 11PM). However, you should always check with the next/current users to confirm for the turn over time.
- For the time being, only full day reservations are allowed. Half day reservations might be allowed in the future.
Iris E. Rauda, Veronica Augustyn, Bruce Dunn, and Sarah H. Tolbert (2013). Enhancing Pseudocapacitive Charge Storage in Polymer Templated Mesoporous Materials. Acc. Chem. Res., 2013, 46 (5), pp 1113–1124.
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/ar300167h
Training & Handouts
For training on any instrument in the Materials Lab, please contact Ignacio Martini by email: