Vapor Sorption and Thermogravimetric Analyzers for Functional Polymers

这项提案寻求为蒸汽吸附分析仪(VSA)和热重分析仪(TGA)提供资金，这两台分析仪将用于研究功能、天然和商品聚合物。我们将使用这种设备来指导新材料的开发，这些材料应用于许多领域：可再生能源、可持续材料、有机电子、生物工程。这些仪器将存放在渥太华大学催化研究与创新中心(CCRI)，加拿大最大的多学科催化研究机构的研究人员将在那里广泛使用这些仪器。在整个渥太华，许多研究项目都在开发支持可持续性的材料。特别是，Meek教授的研究项目探索用于可再生能源的新型聚合物电解质膜，Lessard教授开发高性能、绿色电子材料，Dubé教授通过可持续的聚合物反应工程合成聚合物粘合剂。所要求的仪器有助于开发异地、高通量的方法，以充分评估所有相关材料的性质，以满足高质量学术出版物和向业界转让知识的性能指标。该设备将被CCRI的48名研究人员用于探索新材料开发的研究项目：用于电化学能源的固态电解质(Meek教授)、可穿戴电子学(Lessard教授)、可持续生物聚合物(Dubé教授)、气体分离膜(Tezel教授)、生物材料(St-Pierre教授)。收购这些仪器具有广泛和重大的社会影响，因为渥太华的材料研究范围很广(例如纳米材料、建筑、高科技、生物医学)。

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).