°ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±Ô¤²â

The Biotron Experimental Climate Change Research Centre at °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±Ô¤²â is a unique, purpose built facility housing specialized environmental chambers, laboratories and equipment dedicated to research in the fields of environmental sciences, biotechnologies, materials and biomaterials, and engineering.  The Biotron houses a Microscopy and Data Analysis Suite featuring confocal, digital light and fluorescence, transmission and scanning electron microscopy technology.  There is also a fully equipped Analytical Laboratory Suite with a range of instruments such as inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry and ion chromatography for the measurement of elements and compounds in water, soil, rock, and biological materials.

Website: Contact: biotron@uwo.ca 

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is the primary analytical technique used to elucidate the structure of inorganic and organic molecules. Liquid-state and solid-state NMR spectra are acquired using one of the four NMR spectrometers housed in the J.B. Stothers NMR facility. For non-°ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±Ô¤²â researchers, NMR spectra can be acquired and analyzed by NMR facility staff.

Website: Contact: chemnmr@uwo.ca

The X-ray Facility is in the  at . The Facility provides both powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) services and crystal and molecular structure determinations of small molecules by single crystal X-ray crystallography. The Facility serves the analytical research needs of the UWO community, other academic institutions, and commercial clients. 

Website: Contact: pboyle@uwo.ca

The EPMA laboratory is home to a state of the art JEOL JXA-8530F Hyperprobe. This field emission electron probe microanalyzer is capable of non-destructive quantitative analysis of micron-scale volumes for elements from B-U, with detection limits typically in the 100s of ppm range. The instrument is equipped with 5 wavelength dispersive X-ray spectrometers (WDS), including an H-type spectrometer and an L-type spectrometer for trace element analysis, as well as specialized analyzing crystals for light-element analysis (B-F). Additional detectors include secondary electron (SE) imaging, backscattered electron (BSE) imaging, panchromatic cathodoluminescence (CL) imaging, as well as a silicon drift energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDS). Another specialty of this instrument is the mapping of elements within a material using both WDS and EDS, which can be done in conjunction with SE, BSE, and CL imaging, to reveal inhomogeneities. A wide range of inorganic solids can be accommodated up to a maximum size of 10cm x 6cm x 2cm. This research facility services academic users from °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±Ô¤²â and other institutions, as well as commercial users.

Website:  
Contact:
General Inquiries - epma@uwo.ca
Directors - Dr. Gordon Osinski (gosinski@uwo.ca), Dr. Robert Linnen (rlinnen@uwo.ca)

The Glass shop uses a variety of types of glass, ranging from soda-lime and lead to borosilicate and quartz glass, configured as tubing, rods and plates. A wide variety of pre-formed components such as ground glass joints, stopcocks, windows and glass -to -metal seals are integrated into pieces of apparatus as required. The glassblowing lathe permits the manipulation of borosilicate tube up to 150mm diameter, and quartz tube up to 60 mm. The shop is also equipped to do the flat grinding. The shop staff normally does design work in conjunction with individual researchers and does installation work on request. While principally intended to meet the needs of the Chemistry Department, the shop has done work for over twenty departments on campus on a regular basis. It has also worked for a wide variety of local industries.

Website: /chem/resources/facilities/glass_blowing_shop.htm
Contact: yrambour@uwo.ca 

The Fraunhofer Project Centre for Composites Research is a joint venture between °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±Ô¤²â and the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology (ICT) in Pfinztal, Germany. This centre develops, tests, validates and characterizes new lightweight materials and advanced manufacturing processes at industrial scale. By combining Fraunhofer's latest global technologies and °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±Ô¤²â's strengths in materials engineering, the FPC @ °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±Ô¤²â proactively addresses the needs of its industry partners. Technologies accessible through the FPC include: automated preforming; compression molding; long fiber reinforced thermoplastics and their injection molding; resin transfer molding; wet compression molding, thermoplastic tape laying; thermoset sheet molding.

Website:  
Contact: vugresi@uwo.ca 

This facility is home to the Tandetron Accelerator Facility, which is used by researchers from °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±Ô¤²â, other universities, and industry. It allows users to perform a wide range of materials research using ion beam analysis and ion implantation. Ion beam analysis can provide quantitative information on the elemental composition of samples, including elemental depth profiles. Ion implantation can be used to modify materials through the introduction of minor or major amounts of ions with controlled depth distribution. For example, impurities are introduced into semiconductors to create microelectronic devices used in computers and smartphones. Alternatively, Si quantum dots can be produced by implantation of a larger concentration of Si ions in dielectric materials (silica, alumina).

Website: Contact:
Ion Implantation and Ion Beam Implantation – Jack Hendricks – jhendrix@uwo.ca 
Ion Beam Analysis and Simulations – Prof. Lyudmila Goncharova – lgonchar@uwo.ca 
Positron Annihilation – Prof. Peter Simpson – psimpson@uwo.ca 

Founded in 1987, the Laboratory for Stable Isotope science provides comprehensive analytical capabilities for measurement of light stable isotope ratios (O, H, C, N, Si) in rocks, minerals, biominerals (bioapatite, shell carbonate, diatoms), organics (e.g., vegetation, SOM, hair, skin, collagen, keratin), water, CO2, O2 and CH4. Sampling approaches range from bulk to micromilling to laser ablation to compound-specific analysis of biomarkers. LSIS also specializes in clay mineral characterization. LSIS is equipped with 8 stable isotope ratio mass spectrometers (IRMS) and ~20 peripheral devices that operate alone, or in continuous-flow or dual-inlet mode with the IRMS. LSIS is also equipped with several stand-alone instruments for materials characterization, include rotating anode powder XRD, DTA-TGA, FTIR, gas chromatographs, C-N elemental analyzer, and pathology, petrographic and stereo microscopes.

Website:  
Contact: LSIS Director – Fred J Longstaffe flongsta@uwo.ca 

The London Regional Proteomics Centre comprises six core facilities including:

Functional Proteomics Facility – equipped for the fractionation of proteins using chromatographic or electrophoretic procedures (fpf@uwo.ca)

MALDI Mass Spectrometry Facility –suited for high sample-throughput analysis of proteins and other polymers by MALDI mass spectrometry, as well as imaging of various biomolecules in tissue samples (maldi@uwo.ca)

Biological Mass Spectrometry Laboratory – offers a range of mass spectrometers for mass determination and structural analysis (bmsl@uwo.ca) 

Biomolecular Interactions and Conformations Facility – houses an array of instrumentation including ultracentrifugation, circular dichroism spectropolarimetry, fluorometry, calorimetry, and other techniques to characterize molecular interactions and other biophysical properties of proteins and polymers (bicf@uwo.ca)

Biomolecular Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Facility – equipped with state-of-the-art NMR instrumentation for the characterization of proteins, nucleic acids, carbohydrates and small molecules (bionmr@uwo.ca)

Macromolecular Crystallography Facility – provides equipment, supplies, and expertise for determination of the three-dimensional structures of proteins through X-ray crystallography (mcf@uwo.ca)

Website:  

Expertise in nanoscale characterization in the Lagugné-Labarthet group has enabled the development of a one-of-a-kind ensemble of optical and scanning probe microscopy to characterize surfaces and bulk samples. Correlative microscopy protocols such as Raman and fluorescence confocal microscopes that are combined with atomic force microscopes provide simultaneous surface topography and molecular contrast with a spatial resolution better than 200 nm down to a few nanometers with single molecule sensitivity. Time resolved fluorescent measurements in conjunction with femtosecond lasers yield temporal resolution with 30 ps resolution. Our equipment composed of 8 microscopes (including 3 confocal and 2 Atomic force microscopes) and over 15 laser sources can be combined for a variety of specific measurements of surfaces and bulk characterization.

Website: Contact: flagugne@uwo.ca 

Since 2002, the Powder X-ray Diffraction and Micro X-ray Diffraction Facility has provided facilities for X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis of powders and individual crystals. The laboratory houses a Bruker D8 Discover micro X-ray diffractometer with Co radiation (λ kα1= 1.7889 Å), Gobel mirror parallel optics system with an exchangeable 100-500 micron beam diameter, theta-theta geometry (enabling sample to remain stationary), XYZ sample stage, microscope with CCD camera, and Våntec-500 General Area Detector (with GADDS), to obtain diffraction data from powders or discrete mineral grains. This enables in situ X-ray examination of minerals within a variety of mount formats, such as whole specimens, rock slabs, polished sections, microprobe mounts or SEM stubs. This technique is non-destructive and requires minimal sample preparation. The laboratory also houses a conventional Rigaku X-ray diffractometer (theta-2theta) for XRD analysis of powdered samples. The laboratory features software to perform phase identification using the International Centre for Diffraction Data (ICDD) database, and crystal structure refinement/modal mineral analysis of powder data using Rietveld refinement (TOPAS). Additional software enables textural examination of 2D diffraction data (MULTEX) and Cluster Variation Analysis (POLYSNAP). This research facility offers services to members of the Department of Earth Sciences, other members of °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±Ô¤²â, and other academic and commercial users.

Website: Contacts: 
Director: Roberta L. Flemming - rflemmin@uwo.ca
Technician: Alexandra Rupert - arupert4@uwo.ca or alexnrupert@gmail.com

The Song Research Lab specializes in materials study under extreme pressure (up to 100 GPa) and extreme temperature (several to a thousand Kelvins) conditions using optical spectroscopy and synchrotron radiation. We have a highly customized state-of-the-art Raman microspectroscopic system equipped with a wide range of excitation laser sources from near UV to near IR, allowing measurements with a broad spectral range, high spectral and spatial resolution and ultra-sensitive photon detection.  We also have a customized FTIR microspectroscopic system that includes a vacuum operated FTIR spectrometer from Bruker (model V80v) and several optical microscopes allowing mid to far IR measurements in both absorption and reflection mode with high spectral and spatial resolution.

Website: Contact: yang.song@uwo.ca

The size exclusion (gel permeation) chromatography facility houses instruments for the characterization of polymer molar mass in tetrahydrofuran, N,N-dimethylformamide, and aqueous systems. Some instruments are equipped with light scattering detectors for absolute molar mass determination.

Contact: egillie@uwo.ca 

Surface Science °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±Ô¤²â (SSW) is a consulting and research laboratory specializing in the analysis and characterization of surfaces and materials. Along with over 250 people-years of experience and unparalleled interpretive skills of our researchers, SSW is also one of Canada’s best-equipped laboratories for surface and materials analysis. Since its inception in 1981, SSW has successfully served a number of high profile clients across a range of industry sectors including energy, mineral resources, health services, automotive, aerospace, environmental, electronics and plastics. SSW is also actively involved in sponsored and fundamental academic research projects in a variety of disciplines.  They work with academic researchers and students from °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±Ô¤²â and from other educational institutions around the world providing training, advanced analysis and collaborative research input on a wide range of surface and material-related domains.

Website:
Contact: info@surfacesciencewestern.com 

University Machine Services provides assistance to the university and industry through the design and manufacture of specialized components and equipment. Services offered include general machining and manufacturing, CNC Machining, 3D Modeling and Computer Assistant Drafting, Fused Deposition Modelling, Prototype Development Manufacturing, Welding Fabrication, and Sheet Metal.

Website: Contact: ums@uwo.ca 

This facility houses instrumentation for the characterization of molecules by mass spectrometry. The instruments include a double focusing sector (DFS) mass spectrometer for high-resolution measurements using electron impact (EI) or chemical ionization (CI) with sample introduction by a variety of techniques. Instruments operating by electrospray ionization (ESI) are also available and are ideal for the analysis of organometallic samples and proteins. Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) is also available.

Website: /chem/resources/facilities/mass_spectrometry/index.htm#sector
Contact: scidwh@uwo.ca

Opened in 2004, the °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±Ô¤²â Nanofabrication Facility strives to provide training to students, engineers, and researchers from academic and industrial laboratories to conceive, fabricate and characterize nano and micro-scales devices. Specialized instruments to perform surface patterning using photolithography and electron beam lithography together with metal and dielectric thin film deposition are conveniently located in a class 1000 and 100 cleanrooms. Our two scanning electron microscopes that include focussed ion beam capability are open-user resources for training as well as service capabilities.

Website: Contact:
General enquiries - nanofab@uwo.ca 
Nanofab Scientific Director – flagugne@uwo.ca 
Imaging and Nanofabrication - tsimpson@uwo.ca
Cleanroom and instrument training - tim.goldhawk@uwo.ca

The °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±Ô¤²â Paleomagnetic & Petrophysical Laboratory in the Department of Earth Sciences enables users to perform petrophysical analyses in materials science on samples in a laboratory setting. Direct petrophysical measurements (magnetic susceptibility, remanent magnetism, grain density, bulk density, porosity, induced polarization/resistivity, acoustic P-wave) can be made on a rock or manufactured samples. WPPL is the research lab operated by Dr. Phil McCausland at °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±Ô¤²â, but operates for contractual services as well, providing sample preparation and a range of petrophysical property measurements on discrete rock samples, obtained from diamond drill core or other sources.

Website: Contact: pmccausl@uwo.ca

The Zircon and Accessory Phase Laboratory (ZAPLab) was designed primarily for measuring the chemical and orientation microstructure of U-bearing minerals using a suite of electron microscopy techniques, and has found a wide range of applications for natural and synthetic (bio)materials. The core instrument is a Schottky-source field emission electron microscope (Hitachi SU6600) that can operate in high vacuum or variable pressure mode, with a very bright and stable beam in scanning or point mode. In addition to high magnification (up to 300,000x) secondary electron and backscatter electron imaging, the microscope has five detectors systems. Quantitative and qualitative chemical analyses of major, minor and trace elements are made with X-ray spectroscopy using a large area EDS silicon drift detector or a single channel, multi-crystal wavelength (WDS) spectrometer. Trace element zoning in luminescent crystals can be mapped using a colour+UV cathodoluminescence (CL) detector. An electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) system allows measurement of orientation microstructures down to 50nm spatial resolution and ~0.2 degree angular precision. The EBSD system can be operated in mapping mode to determine texture in polycrystalline samples, or in single point mode for crystallography or phase identification. Kikuchi band image quality is sufficient for high angular resolution EBSD with post-processing. A major upgrade to the EBSD system that will allow transmission kikuchi diffraction (TKD)/ mapping of TEM foils and atom probe microtips is scheduled for Spring 2018. Electron microscopy is supported by a full suite of sample preparation and optical microscopy equipment, soon to include large area (flat) Ar ion-milling.

Electron microscopy is supported by a full sample preparation and optical microscopy laboratory.

Website: Contact: dmoser22@uwo.ca