Discover our extensive
and research facilities
Get in touch with our team and see how we can collaborate. We always welcome visitors to show our labs and research facilities. The research lab has the following infrastructure:
- Experimental reactors for photo(thermal) catalysis
- Highly tuneable and high-energy (ultra)fast pulsed lasers
- Gas phase MS and GC-MS for reaction product analysis
- COMSOL and Lumerical FDTD simulations
- Nanofabrication facilities
Photoreactors
We have two gas-phase micropocket reactors for heterogeneous catalysis. These are outfitted with mass-flow controllers, thermostats, and light in- and outcoupling. For chemical identification we use operando mass spectroscopy (MS) or gas chromatography with various detectors (FID, TCD, MS). We also have the opportunity for operando Raman or UV-VIS spectroscopy. The unique aspect of these reactors is the high sensitivity, which allows us to measure signals from two-dimensional (flat) catalyst assemblies, where catalyst quantities of less than 1 μg can be probed.
Tunable ultrafast lasers
To power our chemistry and to detect photophysical dynamics, we use several (ultra)fast laser systems. These systems are highly unique because they are very tunable in pulse energy (up to 2 mJ), pulse length (between 200 fs and 350 ns), and in repetition rate (single shot up to MHz). One of the lasers also drives a transient absorption (TA) spectroscopy setup, which we set up together with the group of Charusheela Ramanan, who is an expert in TA spectroscopy. This allows us to investigate the physical mechanisms in our nanophotonic systems.
Simulations
We use Lumerical FDTD and COMSOL Multiphysics for optical simulations of our nanophotonic and plasmonic systems. We optimize the geometry of individual nanoparticles and their geometrical arrangement into assemblies and arrays by using Bayesian Optmization (BO) algorithms. The simulation of heat transfer, fluid flow, and flow in porous media we perform in COMSOL as well. Finally, we also use COMSOL for microkinetic simulations of chemical reactions. Learn more about the scientific questions we address with these simulations on our projects page. We’re always open to collaborate in case you have a need for simulations.
Nanofabrication and characterization facilities
Our labs in the PhotoConversion Materials section have in-house equipment for sputter coating, thermal evaporation, and reactive ion etching, which allows us to perform nanofabrication based on colloidal lithography methods. We can characterize our materials and systems using AFM, XRD, FTIR and Raman spectroscopy, integrating sphere UV-Vis spectroscopy, and dark-field scattering microscopy (with the group of Andrea Baldi). Additional fabrication and characterization techniques, such as SEM, TEM, e-beam lithography, and much more, is available in the nearby NanoLabNL facilities of AMOLF.