Vapor Sorption and Thermogravimetric Analyzers for Functional Polymers

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This proposal seeks funding for a Vapor Sorption Analyzer (VSA) and a Thermogravimetric Analyzer (TGA), that will be used to investigate functional, natural, and commodity polymers. We will use this equipment to guide the development of novel materials for applications in numerous fields: renewable energy, sustainable materials, organic electronics, bioengineering. These instruments will be housed at the University of Ottawa (uOttawa) Centre for Catalysis Research and Innovation (CCRI), where they will be widely used by researchers at Canada's largest multidisciplinary catalysis research facility. Across uOttawa, many research programs are developing materials to support sustainability. In particular, Prof. Meek's research program explores novel polymer electrolyte membranes for renewable energy, Prof. Lessard develops high performance, green electronic materials, and Prof. Dubé synthesizes polymer adhesives through sustainable polymer reaction engineering. The requested instruments enable the development of ex situ, high-throughput methodologies to fully evaluate all pertinent material properties to meet the performance metrics for high quality academic publications and knowledge transfer to industry. This equipment will be used by the 48 researchers within the CCRI for research programs that explore the development of novel materials: solid-state electrolytes for electrochemical energy (Prof. Meek), wearable electronics (Prof. Lessard), sustainable bio-based polymers (Prof. Dubé), gas separation membranes (Prof. Tezel), biomaterials (Prof. St-Pierre). Acquisition of these instruments has broad and significant societal impacts as the range of focus on materials research across uOttawa is extensive (e.g., nanomaterials, construction, high-tech, biomedical).