Facilities

Kwang Kim's Laboratory at UNLV

The Active Materials and Smart Living (AMSL) Laboratory at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), has the capability of fabricating the proposed materials and test their performance. In particular, the Kim’s condensation testing facility is very unique and well versed in the research community (www.youtube.com/user/kwangkimlab). The AMSL is located in the Science Engineering Building (SEB) on the 2nd floor, Room #2112) at UNLV with allocated space of about 1,300SF plus additional common space.

SEB Building at UNLV where Kwang Kim’s Lab is located. The SEB is a state-of-the-art facility designed for interdisciplinary research and education.	Active Materials and Smart Living Laboratory (Kim’s Laboratory)

 

Major equipment that the AMSL has:

Mini-SEM	Digital optical microscope	Diamond DMA	TGA machine	Diff. scanning calorimeter	FT-IR spectrometer	UV-Vis spectrophoto-meter

Instron mech-anical tester	Contact angle meter	CNC machine	Injection molders	Protomat PCB machine	Vibration test system (TIRA)	Milli-Q water purification

High voltage amplifier	DC power supplies	Potentiostat/ booster	CCD Laser Sensor	Data analysis	Potentiostat /galvanostats	Electrospinning system

Vibra-cell processor	Spin coater	Grinder	Flow thru chiller	HR laser displacement sensor	High temperature furnace	Tube furnace

 

Processing capabilities are:

• Various dry and wet chemicals;
• Chemical hood, laminar hood;
• Process equipment: mixers, temperature baths/reactors, ovens, micropipettes;
• Vacuum capabilities: various vacuum pumps, vacuum chambers/gauges;
• Flow control: MKS mass flow meters with computer controls;
• Thermal control: immersion heaters, a 5 kW cooler/heater;
• Gas fittings/vacuum fittings: large arrays of Swage Lock™ fittings/Cajon™ fittings;
• Mixers and water conditioners;
• De-ionized water

 

Mechanoelectrical/electromechanical testing equipment for characterizing various smart actuator and sensor materials, incl. ionic polymer-metal composites (IPMCs):

• The mechanoelectrical testing setup includes two electrodynamic shaker assemblies with amplifiers and vibration controllers (by TIRA and Vibration Research Corp.). The mechanoelectrical output is amplified through custom-designed signal amplifier and recorded with National Instruments/LabView DAQ system. The setup is capable of measuring the material’s sensory properties in a broad frequency range at constant or variable (sweeping) frequency settings.
• The electromechanical testing setup includes laser displacement sensor (Micro-Epsilon) and load cell (Transducer Techniques) for measuring the displacement and force output of the active material. The data acquisition is provided through National Instruments DAQ boards and LabView system. This equipment enables characterizing material’s electromechanical performance under DC or AC driving inputs at various frequencies and waveforms.

 

Mechanoelectrical characterization setup	Electromechanical characterization setup

 

Electrical and data analysis equipment include:

• HP 35660A dual channel dynamic signal analyzer and spectrum analyzer;
• Agilent current power supplies;
• Data acquisition includes LabView 6 with NI: PCI-MIO-16E-4 & SXCI modules (2 sets) and IOtech: PDaq 56 (DASYLab);
• Laser displacement measurement (Micro-Epsilon);
• Power amplifiers (AE-Techron, LVC608 dual 290W/24V), lock-in-amplifier;
• Function generator, pulse generator;
• 3D surface profile-analyzer (x 1000, KEYENCE Inc.);
• Dynamic shaker (TIRA vibration system, 100N capacity);
• Oscilloscope (Tech-TDS210 with an extended module, WaveStar™ software, 2 sets);
• PH/conductivity meter (Cole Parmer), multimeters;
• PCs (Sony, Compaq, Gateway, HP) with Sony/JVC digital video editing capability;
• 4 points probe;
• Gauss-meter; and
• UV sources

 

Major facilities that the PI has access, are:

• Access to TEM, FSEM, AFM, and XRD
• Access to UNLV clean rooms (class 10, 100, and 1000)

 

Machine Shop/Technian Support: Full-service machine and welding shop staffed by a full-time machinist, used for fabrication of research equipment and student projects. Also, a laboratory technian is available for electronic instrumentation.