Soft Matter and Complex Fluids Lab
We have a fairly self-sufficient bunch of essential facilities for students to work in their proposed research areas, while simultaneously relying on common facilities in the MME department as well as other central facilities on IIT Madras campus.
Here is an enumeration of major facilities in our lab. Please contact us if you wish to use any of them.
Room no.214
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New Academic Complex
(2nd floor)
Phone: 044-2257 8969
Contact Angle Measurement system
Apex Acam-D3 goniometer that measures static and dynamic contact angles using the sessile drop technique. Both time dependent change and stage-tilting angle dependent change in the contact angle is possible.
PC-controlled Single-vessel Dip Coating System with Substrate Heating
Apex Instruments, Xdip -SV1 DHC. Capable of Dipping and Lifting speeds 0.5-450 mm/min.Programmable Temperature Range upto 160 °C. Enclosed in transparent acrylic environmental chamber with inert gas purging port
Programmable Spin Coater with Temperature Controller
Apex Spin NXG-P1 ACH
Speed Range: 100-10,000 R.P.M
Programmable Temperature Range:
Ambient to 70°C
Optical microscope with digital imaging camera
Zeiss AXIO Scope A1 Upright microscope with HAL 100 brightfield, darkfield, and transmitted light, with polarizer. The digital camera can record live at 15 fps with 2560 x 1920 bin resolution
Solar simulator
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Sciencetech SLB-300-A Compact Xe arc lamp source - based solar simulator capable of projecting an illumination beam of size 38x38mm at 1 sun intensity with AAA class.
Viscometer
Brookfield DV3TLV Viscometer + Thermosel Heating Coil, capable of measuring viscosities in the range of 1.2 cP to 6M cP, over temperatures between room temperature to 300 °C.
Vacuum Oven
Nanotec NT/VO/90L vacuum oven of inner dimensions 450x450x450 mm capable of heating upto temperature of 300 °C with a maximum vacuum level of 0.1 mbar
Controlled temperature sample stage
Ipgi - CC temperature controlled sample stage of area 3.5" x 3.5", made of copper plate, mounted with heaters that can heat upto 70 °C, along with inbuilt PID controller of 0.1 °C accuracy, and a cell chuck capable of vacuum hold-down
Fumehood
Custom built fume hood from MODERN LAB of dimensions 1500 x 750 x 2400 mm with gas valve, sink, and water tap.
Glove box
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Stainless steel plated glove box of dimensions 900 x 900 x 750 mm with 8" thick neoprene gloves, pressure controller + sensors, 2-stage foot switch for purge and evacuation, and electrical points
Rack Server
DELL 530 rack mountable server with Intel Xeon E5-2630 v3 Eight Core processor and 32 GB RAM. Housed in P.G. Senapathy Center for Computing Resources, accessed remotely
J-Octa
Node-lock license of J-Octa: Academic Research Edition: An integrated material modelling and simulation software for Soft Matter Research
4-probe sheet resistance measurement unit
Signatone Pro-4 Four point collinear Resistivity measurement setup with Keithley 2450 Source Meter Unit. Two probe heads (SP440045TB and SP440085TB) are available, which can exert 45 g and 85 g pressure respectively with each probe tip. The tips are made of Tungsten carbide, with 0.04 inch spacing between tips and 0.01 inch tip radius. The source meter can produce I-V signals in the range 20 mV-200 V and 20 nA - 1 A.
Temperature controller circulating water bath
ANM Make WB 2200 V, 9 liter vertical, circulating water bath, which can maintain constant temperatures in the range of -30 °C to +100 °C.
