Thermogravimetric Analysis Instrument

该应用程序需要一台热重分析(TGA)仪器，该仪器能够分析空气敏感的样品，并可以对释放出的气体进行大量分析，从而能够识别分解产物。所要求的仪器是TA Instruments Discovery TGA 550，配有台式Discovery四极质谱计，将被麦克马斯特大学的至少10个研究小组使用，这是开展研究的关键。这将是麦克马斯特独一无二的仪器，没有其他仪器可以执行这种类型的分析。该仪器将支持的研究涉及许多领域，从聚合物化学到纳米材料、无机络合物、储能设备和生物材料。它将由包括科学和工程在内的多个学院的研究人员使用。特别是，该仪器将对一些涉及碳纳米管纯化的项目至关重要，在这些项目中，共轭聚合物被用于选择性地分离半导体和金属结构。这项研究工作将建立在阿德罗诺夫小组最近的进展基础上，他们表明，聚合物电子以一种可预测的方式影响对特定碳纳米管的选择性。在这项工作中，聚合物：纳米管重量比的测定是这项工作的必要组成部分，并且必须在所有出版物中报告，这使得该仪器至关重要。同样，需要TGA分析来确定燃料电池膜中的水分含量，这决定了它们的质子传输能力。这种分析有助于膜的开发，从而产生更高效率的燃料电池，并将减少我们对化石燃料的依赖。此外，热重分析将被用来确定聚合物接枝的纤维素纳米晶中的成分，以及基于水凝胶的药物传递剂中的成分。最后，该仪器将用于分析对空气敏感的有机金属络合物的分解温度，如果没有所需的设备，这是非常困难的。目前，麦克马斯特没有能够测量空气敏感样品、进行质量分析和处理毫克级样品的TGA仪器，这使得它成为多个研究小组必不可少的设备。

This application requests a thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) instrument that is capable of analyzing air sensitive samples, and can perform mass analysis on evolved gases to allow identification of decomposition products. The requested instrument, a TA Instruments Discovery TGA 550 with a benchtop Discovery Quadrupole mass spectrometer, will be used by at least 10 research groups at McMaster university, and is critically needed for the research being carried out. It will be a unique instrument at McMaster with no other instrument being available that can perform this type of analysis. The research that will be supported by this instrument extends across numerous fields, ranging from polymer chemistry to nano-materials, inorganic complexes, energy storage devices, and biomaterials. It will be used by researchers from multiple faculties, including Science and Engineering. In particular, this instrument will be critically important to a number of projects involving carbon nanotube purification, where conjugated polymers are used to selectively isolate semiconducting and metallic structures. This research effort will build on recent advances in the Adronov group, who showed that polymer electronics affects the selectivity toward specific carbon nanotubes in a predictable manner. In this work, determination of the polymer:nanotube weight ratio is a required component of this work, and must be reported in all publications, making this instrument critically important. Similarly, TGA analysis is required to determine water content within fuel cell membranes, which dictates their proton transport capacity. This analysis aids the development of membranes that will result in higher efficiency fuel cells, and will decrease our dependence on fossil fuels. In addition, TGA will be used to determine the composition within polymer-grafted cellulose nanocrystals, as well as the components within hydrogel-based drug delivery agents. Finally, this instrument will be used to analyze decomposition temperatures of organometallic complexes that are air-sensitive, which is extremely difficult without the requested equipment. Currently, no TGA instrument with the capability to measure air-sensitive samples, carry out mass analysis, and handle milligram-scale samples is available at McMaster, making it an absolutely indispensible piece of equipment for multiple research groups.