Acquisition of a Visible/Near-IR Raman System

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9704127 Rabolt This award provides partial support for the acquisition of a new Raman system for the departments of Materials Science, Chemical Engineering and Chemistry at the University of Delaware. The Raman instrument utilizes a high sensitivity Charge Coupled Device (CCD) for detection of the laser light scattered from the materials under investigation. In order to be able to investigate a large collection of materials ranging from catalysts to polymers, the input laser excitation must be varied from the visible to the near infrared region (532.-950. nm.). Hence this Raman system will include a frequency-doubled diode pumped Nd:YAG laser which will be used to pump a tunable solid state Ti:Sapphire laser together which will provide the large range of wavelengths needed to study the problems of interest in all three departments. The proposed instrument will be used by researchers in a number of different areas of advanced materials design and characterization. These include high surface area materials used for chemical separations, transition metal oxygen-anion catalysts, organic self-assembled monolayers on metallic substrates, microemulsions, high temperature superconductors, polymers and ionomers. This Raman system will serve as a focal point for materials research, bringing together a multidisciplinary group of researchers who have a common goal-to understand the structure/property relationships in advanced materials. The presence of such an instrument in the Materials Science Department at the University of Delaware will serve to facilitate interaction and collaboration between the different research groups on campus but, just as importantly, it will also promote industrial interaction/collaboration in the more global materials community in Delaware. A number of small companies have expressed interest in exploring the use of Raman spectroscopy in the characterization of materials in a process-monitoring mode, a capability which could be acc omplished with fiber-optic probes. Limited feasibility studies could be conducted at the university with the proposed Raman instrument. This instrument will also be utilized as part of a larger course in materials characterization which is required for all graduate students pursuing an advanced degree in materials science. In addition it will be used to train students in chemical engineering, physics and chemistry because of the large amount of materials-intensive work that is currently being carried out in those departments. ***