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BuildMoNa Core Facilities

BuildMoNa Core Facilities

The advanced state-of-the-art equipment available at BuildMoNa is grouped into five Core Facilities available to all doctoral researchers. The Core Facilities have also helped to intensify relations with industrial partners and external research institutions by providing a unique materials characterisation facility:

Micro- and Nanostructures

We fabricate complex nanostructures and nano-heterostructures using various topdown, bottom-up (self-assembled) and combined approaches employing deposition and epitaxial methods (molecular beam epitaxy, pulsed laser deposition, carbothermal growth, ion-beam assisted growth, glancing angle deposition) in conjunction with various fabrication techniques.

Nanoanalysis

We use structural and analytical analysis methods with integral and highly spatially resolved information which is of crucial importance for understanding materials. The network of nanoanalytical methods in BuildMoNa includes LenA (centre of analytical electron microscopy with TITAN-G2), LIPSION (ion accelerator for nuclear analysis) and a large number of modern analysis methods.

Catalyst Testing

We test solid, molecular, and biocatalysts under a wide range of conditions including atmospheric and elevated pressures as well as temperatures up to 1000 °C. Methods include SSITKA (steady-state isotopic transient kinetic analysis), TAP (temporal analysis of products), high-pressure autoclaves (with online UV/Vis spectroscopy), gradient-free loop reactor, and high-throughput screening for discovery of complex catalysts for refinery reactions and for exhaust gas cleaning catalysts.

Biophotonics

We focus on the optical characterisation, and manipulation of soft biological materials ranging from single molecules to living cells. Current equipment includes focal or widefield fluorescence microscopy with high spatial (STED (stimulated emission depletion) super-resolution microscopy), spectral, and temporal resolution (picosecond timeresolved fluorescence lifetime microscopy) at single-molecule sensitivity as well as optical force spectroscopy techniques by optical tweezer and optical stretcher workstations.

Magnetic Resonance

We investigate liquids (high resolution) and solids (high field, variable temperature, MAS, DOR, PFG, etc.) using state-of-the-art NMR techniques with Avance 750 (wide bore), 700 and 600 (narrow bore), 500 and 400 (wide bore), 400 (narrow bore), and other home-built systems, variable-field NMR (16 Tesla static and 62 Tesla pulsed), high-pressure (10 GPa) NMR, and EPR (ENDOR) at X and W band.

last update: 22 March 2019, A. Hildebrand