Research Labs & Centers

Professor and student looking into a microscope

Center for Programmable Energy Catalysis (CPEC)

The DOE Center for Programmable Energy Catalysis (CPEC) integrates energy issues that focus on the science and technology of transforming renewable energy and carbon into the fuels and chemicals of tomorrow. Through innovative research and diverse partnerships, the CPEC team aims to invent catalytic processes that are programmed to change on the timescale of an individual catalytic reaction, leading to dramatic enhancements in rate, selectivity, and conversion. By laying a foundation for a sustainable energy ecosystem, CPEC will increase energy efficiency and promote future economic development while reducing environmental impacts associated with chemical energy conversion.

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Coating Process Laboratory (CPFP)

The Coating Process Laboratory is equipped with instruments and high speed cameras for measuring and visualizing phenomena associated with coating processes. Research in CPFP is designed to educate students, involve industrial partners, and lead to fundamental discoveries important to the coating industry. It is available to all University researchers.

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College of Science and Engineering Characterization Facility (CharFac)

The College of Science and Engineering Characterization Facility (CharFac) is a multi-user, shared instrumentation facility for materials research, spanning from nanotechnology to biology and medicine. The analytical capabilities of the facility include microscopy via electron beams, force probes and visible light, including cryogenic methods; elemental and chemical imaging including depth profiling; elemental and chemical spectroscopy; atomic and molecular structure analysis via X-ray, ion or electron scattering; nanomechanical and nanotribological probes; and other tools for surface and thin-film metrology. The facility features a new FEI Titan aberration-corrected TEM. This addition takes the University of Minnesota into a new realm of high-resolution characterization, both in imaging and compositional analysis.

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Polymer Characterization Facility

The Polymer Characterization Facility offers training and instruments for advanced rheological and thermal measurements of polymers. It is available to all University researchers. The Rheology Lab is a major part of the Polymer Characterization Facility. The application of rheometry provides a sensitive probe of structure in complex materials such as polymers. Facility equipment includes rotational rheometers, extensional rheometers, capillary rheometer, mixers, differential scanning calorimetry, and gel permeation chromatography (polymer molecular weight)

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Minnesota Supercomputing Institute (MSI)

The Minnesota Supercomputing Institute addresses the high-performance computing needs of research groups at the University of Minnesota. MSI facilities allow researchers to produce scientific breakthroughs, to attract funding, and generally benefit the community through their advancement. MSI provides access to supercomputers that enable not only traditional fields based on advanced computation and scientific visualization, but also, with our skilled professional staff, advanced imaging, microarray analysis, next-generation sequencing data analysis, data mining, application and workflow development, and the design of cutting-edge medical devices.

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Valspar Materials Science and Engineering Lab

The Valspar Materials Science and Engineering Lab, funded by Minneapolis-based Valspar Corporation, provides high-tech equipment for undergraduate education in materials science. This 3,000-square-foot teaching lab includes research-grade and teaching equipment, including an x-ray diffractometer, a vacuum deposition chamber, numerous electrical characterization equipment, materials processing equipment, and other instruments designed to facilitate student education in materials characterization.

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Center for Sustainable Polymers (CSP)

The Center for Sustainable Polymers (CSP) integrates sustainability issues that focus on the science and technology of polymeric materials into research, education, and public outreach initiatives. To foster innovation the CSP partners with numerous companies that develop, implement, and advance technologies in the sustainable polymer industry.

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Industrial Partnership for Research in Interfacial and Materials Engineering (IPRIME)

IPrime is a university/industry partnership at the University of Minnesota based on two-way knowledge transfer. The partnership is a consortium of over 40 companies supporting fundamental, collaborative research on materials with university members. We have 44 faculty, and their graduate students, involved from 9 academic departments conducting research in 7 program areas. The breadth of these programs is quite large, spanning polymers, coatings, surfactants, electronic materials, nanomaterials and biomaterials.

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Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC)

The University of Minnesota Materials Research Science and Engineering Center enables important areas of future technology, ranging from biomedicine, separations, and plastic electronics to security, renewable energy, and information technology. The UMN MRSEC manages an extensive program in education and career development. Center research activities are integrated with educational programs, providing interdisciplinary training of students and post-doctoral associates.

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Minnesota Nanofabrication Center (MNC)

The Minnesota Nano Center (MNC) is a state-of-the-art facility for interdisciplinary research in nanoscience and applied nanotechnology. The Center offers a comprehensive set of tools to help researchers develop new micro- and nanoscale devices, such as integrated circuits, advanced sensors, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), and microfluidic systems. The MNC is also equipped to support nanotechnology research that spans many science and engineering fields, allowing advances in areas as diverse as cell biology, high performance materials, and biomedical device engineering.

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