Facilities for the Research Center
The Photopolymerizations Center is jointly housed at the University of Colorado and the University of Iowa. At the University of Iowa activities span numerous departments including Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Chemistry, and Operative Dentistry while at the University of Colorado activities are focused in the Department of Chemical Engineering and the School of Dentistry. Thus, this Center unites a productive team from numerous academic departments with expertise and facilities that span a variety of scientific and educational arenas.
The extensive research facilities available to the Center faculty provide the equipment and instrumentation necessary to thoroughly characterize photopolymerization systems on the molecular, microscopic, and macroscopic levels. Center researchers use these facilities to understand the fundamental photophysical and photochemical processes involved in the photoinitiation reaction, to characterize the high speed propagation and termination kinetics that lead to the polymer structure, and to evaluate the material properties through the course of the photopolymerization reaction. Within the Center, both radical and cationic photopolymerizations are studied with state-of-the-art experimental techniques to elucidate the complex chemical and physical mechanisms that control the initiation, propagation and termination of the active centers. The broad array of facilities available to the Center provides the necessary tools to allow a fundamental understanding of these complex, yet ubiquitous, polymerizations.
The University of Iowa
The Iowa Advanced Technology Laboratories (IATL) is a modern, environmentally-controlled building on the campus of the University of Iowa, devoted primarily to research in the areas of optical science and technology. The building is situated on the Iowa River across the street from the Chemistry Building and adjacent to the University's conference facilities. The IATL was designed to provide space for multidisciplinary research activities, and houses the laboratories of faculty from the departments of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, as well as Physics and Astronomy. Two state-of-the-art research laboratories in this facility will be dedicated to the IUCRC on Fundamentals and Applications of Photopolymerization. These laboratories were designed and equipped with the Center in mind in late 1999. Office spaces dedicated to the Center director, a secretary and graduate students are located adjacent to the laboratories.
University of Colorado
The facilities available to the IUCRC scientists at CU are comprised of the labs of the senior investigators, Anseth and Bowman, as well as the shared use facilities within the Chemical Engineering Department. Equipment available in these laboratories includes a differential scanning calorimeter with a photoaccessory for monitoring photopolymerizations and other light activated processes, a dynamic mechanical analyzer capable of operating in a variety of modes including static and dynamic modes, an impedance analyzer for dielectric analysis with a frequency range of 10 microHz to 300 Mhz, a fast FTIR spectrometer with the ability to monitor photopolymerizations performed at temperatures ranging from -60ºC to 90ºC, a diode array UV-visible spectrophotometer, a material testing system, a 200 MHz solid state NMR spectrometer, a gel permeation chromatograph and a high speed, high resolution 3D prototyping apparatus. Departmental and University facilities include Raman spectrometers, electron spin resonance spectrometers, dynamic light scattering, and a host of instruments to provide microscopic characterization including SEM, TEM, AFM and ESCA.