How To Guides

These guides describe use of the equipment in a Polymer Analysis Laboratory.

 

Index

• Analytical Ultracentrifugation
• Chromatography
• General
• Materials Properties
• Microscopy
• Scattering
• Solutions - dn/dc
• Thermal Analysis
• Viscosity

 

General

• Excel Trick:  Solver Template (does a linear fit the nonlinear way)  Solver Demo (fits sum of sine & cosine)
• Laboratory Notebooks (Powerpoint Presentation)(how to keep a decent lab notebook--more than you think)
• Survival Skills (how to graph, program, keep records, identify resistors, and other useful stuff)
• Writing (advice from the macromolecular faculty)
• Data Handling (Powerpoint Presentation)   

Index

 

Analytical Ultracentrifugation

• Overview Document
• Practice data: Velocity and Equilibrium
• Step-by-step Instructions for:
  
  • Velocity Run
  • Equilibrium Run
• Video for cell assembly

​Index

 

Chromatography

• Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC)
• Gel Permeation Chromatography with Light Scattering (GPC/LS)
  • Adobe Acrobat .pdf version
  • Practice Data
  • Astra/Dawn Manuals, etc (Password Protected)*

Index

 

Material Properties

Whatman filter information

​Index

 

Microscopy

Links to Microscopy Resources (Protocols, Tutorials, Vendors, Books, etc)*

​Index

 

Scattering

• Multiple-angle, multiple-correlator DLS (MADLS)
• Guinier Plot (Radius of Gyration from Light Scattering)
• DLS Minicourse 
  • Final exam       
  • Accompanying Data File
• Dynamic Light Scattering (Legacy Document)
  • Practice data for Laplace Inversion: Milk or Dow Polystyrene 1683
• DLS Library*
• DLS Alignment
• Bock/Siano Microemulsion recipe
• Light Scattering Intensity Measurements
• Zimm Plots
  • Program Guide Setup
  • Guide Manual; the Zimm Plot info is in an Appendix 
  • Related J. Chem.Ed. article (Russo, Fong, Temyanko & Ricks, J.Chem.Ed. 1999, 76(11), 1534.
• Learn about Laplace Inversion for Size Distribution (external; backup is saved on web; contact PR or RC if link is broken)
• NEW Measuring the Size of Nanoparticles in Aqueous Media Using Batch-Mode Dynamic Light Scattering
• Malvern ZetaSizer Nano ZS
  • Instructions*
  • Manuals and Tutorials (Password Protected)**

​Index

 

Solutions - dn/dc

• Making Solutions
• Densitometry using the Paar DMA 58 
• Differential Refractive Index (dn/dc)   
  • Excel Spreadsheet Template
  • Brice-Phoenix Manual (PDF)
  • Brice-Phoenix appendix (PDF)
• Abbe Zeiss refractometer
• dn/dc tables (Password Protected)**
• Solvent Properties*

​Index

 

Thermal Analysis

 TA Manuals, etc (Password Protected)​**

​Index

 

Viscosity

• Intrinsic Viscosity
• Using the Wells-Brookfield Viscometer (also requires instrument manual = LVTDCP.pdf)*

​Index