MRI: Acquisition of NIR Chemical Imaging Spectrometer to Study Novel Organic Composites

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The Department of Chemistry at the University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez will acquire a Near Infrared Chemical Imaging (NIR-CI) spectrometer with this award from the Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) program. The instrument will support research and education efforts in materials science, analytical chemistry, and pharmaceutical engineering at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, and through the NSF Engineering Research Center on Structured Organic Particulate Systems (ERC-SOPS), research efforts at Rutgers University, the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), and Purdue University in novel organic composites will benefit. Various research projects will be undertaken including the development of real time methods, based on material properties, to monitor and control pharmaceutical and polymer manufacturing processes; characterization of electrospun polymeric fibers; the processing and structure of liquid-crystalline polymer based composites.An infrared spectrometer provides information of the structure of materials by identifying vibrational motions characteristic of the chemical bonds that make up the material. An imaging infrared spectrometer allows the study of spatial information as one scans over the materials, acting essentially as a microscope probing across a sample. It is a necessary tool for understanding the composition of complex materials. This instrument will be used by research students at all the collaborating institutions and by students in laboratory courses at UPR-Mayaguez where it will be housed.