Laboratories and Equipment

Laboratories

You can find our laboratories in B6, right next to the "Glashaus"

Chemical synthesis

We have three fully equipped laboratories for chemical synthesis, including the synthesis of reactive monomers, polymers via radical or ionic polymerisations and other polymeric materials.

Biological in vitro characterisation of polymers - S1 laboratory

The establishment of an S1 cell culture laboratory is currently in progress and will be updated here.

In our building, we have an S1-lab with a sterile safety cabinet, incubator. We conduct cytotoxicity assays (e.g., MTT assay) in this facility.

Contact person: Dr Theresa Lutz

Instrumentation

If you require access to our instrumentation or assistance with measurements, please contact the people listed below.

Flash column chromatography

In our labs, we have access to an automated column chromatography setup for the purification of small molecules and polymers.

Available stationary phases: Silica, C-18 reverse phase silica, Sephadex LH-20

Available detectors: RI and UV

Contact person: Prof Dr Meike Leiske

Biotage microwave synthesiser

For fast and efficient synthesis and polymerisation kinetics, we have a Biotage microwave synthesiser equipped with an 8-fold autosampler. The instrument works for reactions in solution and a wide range of temperatures and solvents. Heating above the boiling point of the reaction mixture is enabled to speed up polymerisations (see here).

Reaction volume: 200 µL to 20 mL

Solvents: Variable

Reaction temperature: up to 200 °C

Contact person: Jiaxin Hu

Digital pH meter(s)

For the characterisation of polyelectrolytes, the precise analysis of their pH-response is indispensable. Therefore, we have two pH-meters for evaluation of aqueous samples.

Contact person: Martina Fried

Aqueous size-exclusion chromatography

We have a setup for size-exclusion chromatography of water-soluble ionic and nonionic polymers. The system is equipped with two different sets of columns, enabling the analysis of cationic, anionic and zwitterionic polymers in solution.

Available columns: Suprema (anionic & neutral polymers) and Novema (cationic & neutral polymers)

Available eluents: [ACN/H₂O] 20:80, 0.1 M NaCl, 0.3V% TFA (Novema); 0.07 M Na₂HPO₄ (Suprema); [ACN/H2O] 35:65, 50 mM LiBr, 0.1 M NaHCO₃ (Suprema)

Available calibrations: PMA Na salt (Suprema); PEG (Suprema); P2VP (Novema)

Available detectors: RI and UV (for all columns and eluent systems)

Contact person: Jonas De Breuck

Gas chromatography

In our labs, we employ gas chromatography to follow polyerisation kinetics.