Purchase of a Raman and Photoluminescence Imaging System for Characterization of Advanced Electrochemical and Electronic Materials

Funds were used to purchase a Renishaw inVia Reflex Spectrometer System for Raman and Photoluminescence spectral analysis of thin film coatings, bulk materials, powders and nanoparticles. The instrument is extensively used to characterize advanced electrochemical and electronic materials. The instrument is equipped with a confocal microscope, two lasers for excitation at different wavelengths, a movable stage and optics for spatial imaging, a temperature-controlled sample compartment, and photoluminescence imaging. The instrument is used by undergraduate and graduate students as well as faculty from across the MSU campus who are engaged in the characterization and study of new and emerging materials. This Renishaw system is a powerful material characterization tool that provides exquisite morphological, elemental and electronic property dopant distribution information spatially across a material surface and bulk. The instrument supports advanced interdisciplinary research chemistry, materials science, electronics and physics in the department and across campus, and is aiding in our understanding of new materials and molecular interfaces, interfacial electron-transfer processes, electrocatalysis, electronic properties of materials, and the physical and chemical properties of inorganic quantum dots. Several ongoing research projects are greatly benefiting from the new instrument. Some of the project accomplishments during the past year are highlighted below.