Keck Lab

The Keck Lab is a multi-room teaching and research facility that contains analytical equipment that has been primarily acquired through NSF funding. There is a central teaching and sample preparation area surrounded by 6 rooms dedicated to a particular technology or preparation technique. The major equipment includes a PANalytical X’Pert Pro MPD X-ray Diffractometer (acquired 2005), and a JEOL 6610LV Scanning Electron Microscope with Oxford Instruments EDS and WDS microanalytical capabilities as well as backscatter and cathodoluminescence detectors (acquired 2010).

A Bruker “Dimension Edge” Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) was purchased through a grant from the Sherman Fairchild Foundation and was installed in 2014.  A Bruker M4 Tornado Micro-XRF was also purchased with funds from this grant and added to the lab in 2017.

Other spaces in the lab house sample preparation equipment (analytical and pan balances, Claisse Fluxy fusion instrument, pellet press, high temperature ovens, a Frantz magnetic separator, a Retsch MM200 Mixer-mill, and a Beckman Coulter Allegra X-22 Centrifuge), a gamma-ray spectrometer, and a Denton Desk III carbon evaporation/metal sputter coater. All major analytical instruments are run by modern PCs with the latest analytical software. NSF funded equipment is routinely maintained under Service Agreements funded by the College.