Critical Replacement of Thermogravimetric Analyzer to Leverage Materials Discovery and Innovation

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Our team requests funds for the purchase of a thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA) for advanced materials thermal analyses. This request stands as a critical replacement of the 22 year old, obsolete and out-of-use TGA 2950, the only dedicated TGA of the Université de Montréal Campus MIL. Thermogravimetric analysis is an essential aspect of materials analysis. Thus, the lack of access to this instrument impedes the timely progress of at least 7 research programs, including those of 2 early career researchers, while preventing the acquisition of industry-sought expertise for 250 HQP on a 5-year period (50 core users yearly) on a cutting-edge thermal analysis instrumentation. TGA measurements must be routinely conducted in our research activities ranging from materials design & synthesis (Kornienko, Skene, Wuest) to formulation & processing (Dollé, Laventure, Martel, Pellerin), as well as for several applied project involving our industrial partners. Thus, the acquisition of a new TGA equipment is a sine qua non condition to sustain our NSERC-funded research programs, nurture our industrial partnerships, and strengthen some of our advanced undergraduate teaching activities by developing a new case study for students. The TGA will be hosted in the LCMP, an open and shared instrumentation platform managed by a skilled research associate. The equipment will be accessible to the Canadian R&D companies of the area, who will benefit from advanced TGA features and expertise, thus increase their competitivity. The applicants all lead vigorous research programs in materials chemistry standing at the forefront of fundamental and applied research. They address fundamental questions in polymer science and physical chemistry, and major challenges in energy and sustainable manufacturing. Yet, the progress of these programs depends on the availability of a TGA for compositional analysis, volatile content determination, and decomposition kinetics analyses. Accessing this information is needed to establish structure-property relationships and to rationally guide the design of the next generation of materials. Our team's research focusses on organic small molecules, polymers, metal/covalent-organic frameworks, composites and 1D or 2D nanomaterials processed by a variety of techniques, such as electrospinning and additive manufacturing. The materials under investigation present technological relevance for a variety of applications, including catalysis, energy conversion/storage, optoelectronic devices, and sustainable manufacturing. The TGA will also contribute to enrich our teaching activities and broaden the scope of our industrial collaborations. Our team stands as a striking force with a proven capability of contributing to the training of the next generation of materials scientists skilled in thermal analysis, and to the advancement of knowledge relevant to multiple components of the Canadian advanced materials value chain.