MSE Labs, Facilities, Equipment & Safety

MSE Equipment Training, Access, and Cost

Facility and Safety Information

Lab Safety

MSE Characterization Labs Equipment SOP’s

MSE Research and Teaching Labs

The Department of Materials Science and Engineering laboratories are located in Hoover Hall and Gilman Hall. Labs in Gilman are used strictly for research, whereas labs in Hoover are used for both research and teaching. These laboratories contain test equipment and facilities to investigate thermal, mechanical, and chemical properties of various materials, as well as teach the physical concepts and illustrate the important processing operations involving materials.

Some equipment is available to use on a Fee For Service basis and requires in-person training. To sign up for training, please visit our Equipment Training & Cost website. If you have any questions, please contact mselabs@iastate.edu for questions.

 

Materials Synthesis and ProcessingMaterials Synthesis and Processing
3347 Hoover

Equipment:
Malvern Omnisec Gel Permeation/Size Exclusion Chromatography System 
Malvern Zetasizer Nano ZS Dynamic Light Scattering System
Carver Pellet Press
Low-temperature box furnaces
Low-speed diamond saws

 

MetallographyMetallography
3355 Hoover

Equipment:
Optical microscopes with cameras
Stereomicroscopes with cameras
Vickers and Knoop Microhardness tester
Rockwell Hardness tester

 

 

Polishing LabPolishing Lab
3355A Hoover

Equipment:
Sectioning saw
Mounting press
Grinding/Polishing wheels
Auto-Polishers

 

 

Heat Treatment Laboratory

Heat Treatment Laboratory
3362 Hoover

Equipment:
High- and low-temp box furnaces & high-temp tube furnaces
High temp = 1100-1700 oC
Low temp = Up to 1100 oC
Squaroid duo-vac oven & lab oven
3-D Printer

 

Thermal Analysis/Mechanical TestingThermal Analysis/Mechanical Testing
3364 Hoover

Equipment:
Perkin-Elmer DSC 4000
TA Instruments TGA5500, TMA 450, and RSA-G2 (DMA)
Netzsch STA 449 F3 Jupiter
Instron 3367, 3369, and 5549Universal Testers with:

                  • 10N, 50N, 1 kN, 30 kN, and 50 kN static load cells
                  • Threaded grips, wedge-action grips, 3-pt bend fixture, and compression anvils
                  • Bluehill 3 software
                    Charpy impact testers (high energy for metals and low energy for polymers)

 

Electron Microscopy/X-Ray DiffractionElectron Microscopy/X-Ray Diffraction
3365 Hoover

Equipment:
FEI Inspect F50 Field Effect Gun SEM
Rigaku Smartlab XRD
Sputter coating with options for gold, silver, Pt/Pd, and carbon coatings
Four Point Probe thin-film resistivity test station
Cary 630 FTIR Spectrophotometer
Cary UV-Vis-NIR Spectrophotometer
Cary Fluorescence Spectrophotometer

 

Thermal AnalysisThermal Analysis
3113 Gilman

Equipment (TA Instruments):
DSC Q2000 with autosampler and liquid nitrogen cooling system
DSC Q20
TGAQ50
AR2000 Rheometer with liquid nitrogen cooling system

 

 

 

 

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