Facilities

Our laboratory is part of multiple collaborative research centers with access to key manufacturing, characterisation and testing equipment. Through the Materials Characterisation and Fabrication Platform (MCPF) we have access to a suite of imaging and characterisation techniques. The Melbourne Center for Nanofabrication (MCN), which houses class 10,000 and class 100 cleanrooms, extends our capabilities in lithography, thin film deposition, characterisation, packaging, etching and biocapabilities. The School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering fosters a highly collaborative environment, with further access to instrumentation and techniques in materials development, separations technologies; surface chemistry and rheology, as well as Bioengineering.

Within our laboratory, we house many key pieces of instrumentation for materials science, electrochemistry, polymer chemistry, water and gas filtration, nanotechnology and biology.

Equipment list

  • Simultaneous thermal analyser for thermogravimetry (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) with multiple gaseous environments (PerkinElmer STA 8000)
  • Gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer (GC/MS) fitted with an automated thermal desorber (ATD) (PerkinElmer TurboMatrix 350 ATD, Clarus SQ 8S GC/MS)
  • Elemental analyser for quantification of Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Sulfur and Oxygen composition (PerkinElmer 2400 Series II)
  • Ultraviolet-visible-near infrared (UV/vis/NIR) spectrophotometer with film characterisation capability and integrating sphere (PerkinElmer Lambda 950)
  • Programmable materials inkjet printer ( Dimatix DMP-2811)
  • Materials 3D printer housed in a PC2 cabinet suitable for cell printing, with temperature controlled stage and cartridge holder precision temperature control (EnvisionTec Bioplotter 3D)
  • Potentiostat and galvanostat with electrochemical impedance spectroscopy capability (EIS) housed in a temperature controlled incubator (BioLogic VMP300)
  • High performance 48-well thermal cycler for conducting polymerase chain reaction (Bio-Rad MJ Mini Thermal Cycler)
  • PCR work station with UV irradiation cleansing procedure capability for environmentally sensitive biological reactions (EuroClone Aura)
  • K control coater for the deposition surface coatings, and fabrication of thin films, with precise control over thickness and temperature (RK K101)
  • Multiple benchtop centrifuges with wide range of accessories (Hettich ROTOFIX 32A)
  • UV lamp to sterilise apparatus and samples, and to perform polymerisation.
  • Probe sonicator with powerful ultrasonic processor that can be used for nanoparticle dispersion, creating emulsions, cell lysis, and homogenisation (QSONICA Q500)
  • Multiple bath sonicators for dissolving, mixing, dispersing, and emulsifying samples quickly and efficiently (ELMA Elmasonic S30H)
  • pH/ORP meter top monitor both pH and oxidation-reduction potential (ORP) simultaneously (HANNA instruments HI 2213)
  • Portable florescence analysis cabinet for convenient viewing, analyzing, and photographing of fluorescent samples (Spectroline CM-10A)
  • Freeze dryers for rapid lyophilisation of samples containing aqueous and organic solutions (LABCONCO FreeZone1 and LABCONCO FreeZone4.5)
  • Vacuum oven with precise temperature control for prevention of surface reactions, decontaminating samples, and speeding up out gassing process (Ai AccuTemp 26)
  • Rotary evaporator with jack and water bath for solvent removal from samples (Buchi RII)
  • Dead end and cross flow membrane filtration systems for microfiltration, ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis
Inside the Ellis Group lab