NanoLab

The laboratory is composed by three main facilities:

• a cleanroom
• a MBraun glovebox
• a WKL34-40 climatic chamber
• and one instrument: Thermal Analyzer STA 449 F3 Jupiter from Netzsch.

Climatic Chamber

The WEISS LABORATORY CLIMATE TEST CHAMBER TYPE WKL 34/40 is a test facility with internal dimensions 350(W)x310(D)x300(H) (mm) and can be operated continuously between 5°C (-40°C discontinuously due to ice formation) and 180°C. The chamber has a temporal temperature deviation of ±0.3 K to ±1.0 K, while the spatial deviation is ±0.5 K to ±2.0 K, both depending on the working temperature. In the same time, the humidity inside the chamber can be regulated between 10 and 95% r.h. with a maximum variance, depending on the temperature of ±1 to ±3 % r.h. in time.

Cleanroom

A facility with a work surface of 2.5m² and a height of 2m designed to work either as an ISO Class 6 cleanroom (inside gauge pressure = +35Pa and airflow speed of 0.26m/s) or as an ISO Class 4 containment enclosure (inside gauge pressure = -27Pa and airflow speed of 0.22m/s). The interior ceiling is covered with 8 ULPA filters which constitute the fresh air supply, while the air extract is composed by 2 HEPA filters at the bottom of one of the side walls.

Glovebox

Box with internal dimensions 1950(W)x780(D)x900(H) (mm) and can be operated at over or under pressure: 15 to +15 mbarg. It guarantees a controlled argon atmosphere with oxygen, moisture and hydrogen concentrations as low as possible (< 10ppm). The glovebox has a laminated safety glass window with 4 glove ports and is equipped with an internal cooling unit of 0.95kW for tempering the box atmosphere. The box is specially designed to integrate a Netzsch F3 Jupiter TG/DSC‑apparatus and therefore a vibration isolated hard rock of 700x500mm is installed.

Thermal Analyzer

The Thermal Analyzer STA 449 F3 Jupiter from Netzsch measures simultaneously the mass change of a sample material and the corresponding heat release under an imposed temperature history. Also, the determination of the specific heat of different materials is possible with this machine.

The system has an integrated MFC mass gas controller for three noncorrosive and non- explosive gas/gas mixtures with software control and registration of the gas flow, suitable for measurements in dynamic and static inert gas atmosphere and the instrument is vacuum tight (10E 1 mbar). A Platinum furnace is installed (temperature range 25 ... 1500^°C) with PtRh meander heater and an integrated control thermocouple type S. The mass change of the sample, under controlled atmosphere and temperature programs, is detected by a top-loading microbalance with a resolution of 1µg.