Fieser Lab Equipment

Double Glovebox (Janus)
Contains coordinating solvents.
Single Glovebox (Sunny)
Contains only non-polar solvents
Single Glovebox (Polly)
Contains chlorinated solvents, coordinating solvents and polar polymer monomers.
JCMeyer Solvent System
9 solvents (THF, diethyl ether, acetonitrile, dichloromethane, toluene, benzene, methylcyclohexane, hexanes and pentane) plumbed into our gloveboxes!
Glass-Drying Ovens (Mordor and Fiendfyre)
Agilent Cary 630 FTIR and Mettler Toledo XPR6UD5 Microbalance
Used in glovebox for easy IR characterization or measuring of EA or TGA samples. We have a second Cary 630 FTIR outside the glovebox for use with polymer samples.
Schlenk Lines
Four custom-made Schlenk lines, courtesy of Jorg Meyer

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High Vacuum Line with Diffusion Pump
Custom-made courtesy of Jorg Meyer. We will use this for low pressure gas reactions, to dry ligands and solvents, and to dry our rare earth chloride salts.
Lindberg Blue Tube Furnace (Dante)
We use this to dry our lanthanide trichloride salts.
Rotavaps (Bonnie and Clyde)
Mettler Toledo TGA/DSC3+
Agilent Cary 60 UV-Vis
Chemglass High Throughput Setup
Agilent 1260 Infinity II with autosampler and UV detector; Wyatt Optilab T-rEX RI and DAWN Heleos-II MALS detectors
Vacuum Oven
Allows us to dry polymer samples and items going into the glovebox
Parr Reactors
For safe high pressure reactions. Along with an extra sliding blast shield designed into the fume hood.
Catalysis Hood
Allows us to share the hot plate at different temperatures, allowing for more catalysis reactions at a time!
Shimadzu EDX-7000
Energy dispersive x-ray fluorescence spectrometer to measure elemental composition of samples in air, under vacuum or in helium atmospheres.

Polymer Characterization Lab

In collaboration with Prof. Barry Thompson and Travis Williams, we acquired funding from NIST, USC and the Anton B. Burg Foundation to acquire 8 new instruments in a polymer characterization lab. These instruments will be used for teaching and research and will transform our capabilities here at USC for polymer science!
TA Instruments Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC) (Liquid N2 cooled)
Allows us to measure thermal properties of polymers.
TA Instruments Thermal Gravimetric Analysis (TGA)
​Allows us to characterize the decomposition temperature of polymers
TA Instruments Thermal Mechanical Analysis (TMA)
Allows us to measure expansion and other polymer properties at elevated temperatures.
TA Instruments Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA)
​Allows us to measure physical properties of polymers.
TA Instruments Rheometer
Allows us to understand the viscosity of polymers.
Shimadzu Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC)- Chloroform
​Allows us to characterize polymer molecular weights and dispersities in a chloroform mobile phase.
Shimadzu Pyrolysis GCMS
​Allows us to characterize what plastics are in microplastic samples!

Departmental Equipment

We are very fortunate to have wonderful facilities at USC that allow us to conduct our research as easily as possible! See images of some key instruments we use in the Fieser Lab.
Agilent 1260 Infinity II High Temp GPC System
Allows us to measure polymers that have low solubility.
Agilent High Temp Sample Prep System
Allows us to dissolve and filter high temp samples for high temp GPC.
Elemental Analysis (CHNS)
Allows us to measure C, H and N % in our polymer and catalyst samples.
Low Temp DSC
Allows us to get down to -80 degrees Celsius to measure thermal properties of our polymers.
Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization- Time of Flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometer
Allows us to understand the end-groups of our polymers.
X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS)
​Allows us to identify chlorine content in our reactions with polyvinyl chloride (PVC)
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Spectroscopy
Our research would not be possible without accessible NMR instruments. We currently have a 2x400, 500 and a 600 MHz instrument.

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