Engineering analytical facility

Engineering Analytical Facility (EAF) offers you access to extensive state-of-the-art analytical facilities and technical expertise that enable the in-depth study and analysis of materials, structures, and systems across various engineering disciplines. EAF resources are housed in purpose-built laboratories in Engineering J03 building designed to support rigorous experimentation and innovative research. advance discovery and engineering excellence.

EAF supports researchers through comprehensive instrumentation training, method development and technical consultation that advances discovery and engineering excellence. The facility also delivers teaching demonstrations across a wide range of Engineering Units of Study and actively contributes to outreach programs, fostering experiential learning and collaboration.

Beyond the University, EAF offers analytical services for contracted projects from external clients including other institutions, government bodies, and industry - to deliver customised analytical solutions that drive innovation and real-world impact.

Our facilities

Nicolet iS50 Advanced FTIR Spectroscopy
Featuring purpose-built accessories and integrated software for applications in polymers and rubbers, forensics and pharmaceuticals. The built-in ATR accessory and DLaTGS detector offer spectra range 5000 to 100 cm^-1 with resolution 0.09cm¹.
Agilent Cary 60 UV-Vis Spectroscopy
A double-beam instrument with a powerful xenon lamp to provide wavelength scan from 190 to 1100 nm, with spectral bandwidth UV-Vis 1.5 nm. It can be fitted with long pathlength cuvettes and solid sample transmission or reflectance accessories and is ideal for remote UV-Vis absorbance analysis when fitted with fiber optic probes.
Agilent Cary 5000 UV-Vis-NIR Spectrophotometer
A high-performance UV-Vis and NIR spectrophotometer with superb photometric performance in the 175–3300 nm range, with spectral bandwidth UV-Vis 0.01-5 nm and NIR 0.04-20 nm. The instrument provides flexible and robust measurement of the optical properties of materials to support research in thin films, optics, glass, semiconductors, advanced materials and nanomaterials analysis.
Horiba Fluoro-Max 4 Spectrofluorometer
A powerful instrument for measuring fluorescence of solids, liquids, powders and thin films with broad applications in materials science and nanotechnology research. Optical range: excitation monochrometer 220 – 600 nm blazed at 330 nm; emission monochromator 290 – 850 nm blazed at 500 nm, with adjustable bandpass 0 - 30 nm.

Malvern Nano-ZS / Nano Ultra Red Nano Zetasizer
A high-performance instrument designed for the measurement of particle size (0.3 nm – 10 μm), zeta potential, and molecular weight & size in a wide range of sample types, from nanoparticles to colloids. It offers industry-leading precision and versatility, making it ideal for advanced research and development applications in materials science, pharmaceuticals, and nanotechnology.
Malvern 3000 Mastersizer
An advanced laser diffraction particle size analyser, offering high-precision measurements for particles ranging from submicron to millimeter sizes (0.01-3500 μm). Its robust design and user-friendly software make it ideal for both industrial applications and high-level academic research, supporting fields like pharmaceuticals, materials science, and environmental analysis.
Quantochrome iQ-XR-XR Gas Sorption Analyser
A versatile, high-precision instrument designed for advanced gas sorption analysis, including BET surface area and pore size distribution. Nitrogen porosimetry / surface characterisation for measurement of macro, meso and micropores ranging from 0.35 to 500 nm (3.5 to 5000 Å) and BET surface area with P/P₀ resolution of 10^-8. Two samples can be tested simultaneously.
Theta Flex Auto 2 Drop Shape Analyser / Tensiometer
An optical tensiometer records drop images and analyses the drop shape to determine contact angle and surface tension. Surface free energy can be measured by performing contact angle test with several known liquids. It utilises a high quality monochromatic cold LED light source to minimise undesirable sample evaporation and the image quality is guaranteed by a high-resolution digital camera, quality optics and the accuracy of the drop fitting method
Phenom XL G2 Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM - EDX)
A benchtop SEM specifically designed for automated analysis for large or multiple samples in the same load cycle. The Phenom XL G2 Desktop SEM features full-screen images and an average time-to image of 60 seconds. It is equipped with a long lifetime CeB₆electron source, BSD and SED detector, EDX elemental analysis, 5 kV, 10 kV and 15 kV voltages and 200,000x magnification.
Bruker INNOVA Atomic Force Microscope (AFM)
A high-resolution scanning probe microscope provides nanoscale imaging and a wide range of functionality for the applications in materials science, nanolithography, life sciences, polymer chemistry, solar and semiconductor devices measurement. It is available for routine analysis of samples and can probe the topography of a surface using standard tapping and contact modes. Innova delivers atomic resolution with great ease and scans up to 90 microns in closed-loop without the need to change scanner hardware.

TA Q5000 Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA)
Thermogravimetric Analyzer measures the amount and rate of weight change as a function of increasing temperature, or isothermally as a function of time, in a controlled atmosphere. It is used to analyse materials that experience weight changes, allowing the detection of phase transitions such as decomposition, oxidation, or dehydration. TGA Q5000 is capable of collecting sample mass change from ambient to 1,200 °C with 10^-7g resolution and 0.1 to 100 °C/min heating rate.
TA Discovery 250 Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC)
The TA Discovery 250 differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) measures the temperature and heat flow of solid or liquid materials over time and temperature changes. It provides both quantitative and qualitative insights into endothermic and exothermic reactions, including phase transitions such as melting, crystallization, oxidation, and other thermodynamic and kinetic processes. It is equipped with a 54 positions autosampler allowing for up to 54 samples analysis sequentially at operating temperature from -80 to 550°C.
TA Discovery SDT 650 Simultaneous Thermogravimetry (TGA) and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC)
The SDT 650 is equipped with TA horizontal dual-beam thermobalance that provides direct sample, reference and differential temperature measurements for simultaneous DSC (differential scanning calorimetry) and TGA (thermogravimetric analysis) data collection, without requiring baseline subtractions and other post-test manipulation. It provides operation temperature range from ambient to 1500 °C and heating rate from 0.1 to 100 °C/min and calorimetric accuracy/precision: ±2%. The modulated TGA (MTGA) and modulated DSC (MDSC) is available. Hi-Res TGA - Decomposition rate control for separation of broad and overlapping weight losses.
TA Discovery SA Dynamic Vapor Sorption (DVS) Analyser
The DVS measures sample mass change in relation to the pressure, humidity, or composition to determine the sorption capacity of the material and characterizes the sorption kinetics. It is specifically useful in the research field of Food / Polymer / Pharmaceuticals / Construction Materials / Adsorbents and Catalysts. The DVS provides 0.01 μg weighing resolution, 1000 mg dynamic weighing range, operation temperature 5 – 85 °C and 0% to 98% relative humidity.

Anton Parr Physica MCR 300 / 301 / 302 Rheometer
A highly versatile instrument designed to study the viscoelastic behaviour of different materials such as emulsions, suspensions, polymer solutions, polymer melts, coatings, inks, food materials, etc. Equipped with active thermal management of motor and bearing for long-term measurements even at high torques, MCR series offer rheological measurement with torque range from 0.5 nNm to 230 mNm. The unique sample-adaptive controllers for measurement in rotation (TruRate™) and oscillation (TruStrain™) work for 99 % of all samples and measurements “out of the box” with the perfect combination of speed and accuracy.
Anton Parr ViscoQC300-L Viscometer
An easy-to-use viscometer to provide multi-point viscosity measurement ranging from 1 mPa.s to 6,000,000 mPa.s on 7 inches color touchscreen. The viscosity of a liquid can affect its performance, therefore, measuring viscosity applies to a wide range of materials including oil, plastics, paints, coatings, adhesives, wax, food and drink, cosmetics, etc.

Shimadzu TOC-L Total organic carbon analyser (TOC)
The TOC-L analyzer adopts the Shimadzu 680°C combustion catalytic oxidation method to provide an ultra wide range of 4 μg/L to 30,000 mg/L detection. The combustion catalytic oxidation method makes it possible to efficiently oxidize not only easily-decomposed, low-molecular-weight organic compounds, but also hard-to-decompose insoluble and macromolecular organic compounds. Equipped with both liquid and solid autosampler, the TOC-L is capable of TC, IC, TOC (= TC-IC), and NPOC measurement; options enable POC (volatile organic carbon), TOC via POC + NPOC, and even TN (total nitrogen) measurements.
Perkin Elmer Avio 500 Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES)
ICP-OES is an analytical technique used to determine how much of certain elements are in a sample. The Avio 500 is a bench top ICP-OES with dual solid-state detectors that can perform trace elemental analysis that cover a spectral range from 163 - 782 nm with ppm detect limit. The resolution of the system is specified to be 0.006 nm at 200 nm. It is equipped with an autosamplers with four racks (up to 240 samples)
Perkin Elmer Nexion 1000 Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer (ICP-MS)
The NexION® 1000 ICP-MS, the ideal high-throughput system for running routine, multielemental, trace-level analyses. It features Perkin Elmer exclusive Universal Cell Technology™, which enables single-gas switching between Collision and Reaction modes for efficient interference removal. It is an instrument used to measure trace concentrations of metals and some non-metals and provides isotopic analysis and a wide dynamic range with very low limits of detection. This instrument is set-up to handle liquid samples; therefore most samples will require pre-treatment/acid digestion and/or dilution prior to analysis.

TA DMA 850 Dynamic Mechanical Analyser
A thermal/mechanical analytical instrument used to measure a material’s response (deformation) to a sinusoidal load under a given temperature and/or time. Common physical properties characterized are glass transition, elasticity and viscosity of solid samples. The load force ranges from 0.01mN to 18 N with a force resolution 0.001mN.
SALT ST-1001 Universal Testing Machines (UTM)
The ST-1001 is an electric type table-top UTM equipped with a LCD indicator. The design makes it ideal for tensile and compressive testing of rubber, plastic, wire, cords, textiles, etc. The max load force is up to 20 kN.

Shimadzu Prominence Ultra Fast Liquid Chromatography (UFLC)
The Prominence UFLC System offers high-efficiency analytical separations, featuring a binary pump setup for both isocratic and gradient elution, and is equipped with a photo diode array detector (PDA) and a refractive index detector (RID). This performance is achieved whilst maintaining high-quality analytical results. Key to the system is the SIL-20A autosampler, capable of a 10-second injection cycle. The system supports a wide range of separations under both normal and reverse phase conditions, utilizing various column chemistries for comprehensive identification and quantitative analysis.
Shimadzu TQ8050NX Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer (GC-MS)
The tripe quadrupole GCMS-TQ8050NX features an advanced high-sensitivity detector and three noise-reduction mechanisms, enabling unparalleled quantitative analysis of ultra-trace concentrations. It has more important applications in a variety of industries such as food safety, cannabis testing, forensics and more, in particular, to accurately identifying contaminants in food, environmental, chemical, pharmaceutical and other complex trace samples.
Metrohm Compact Ion Chromatography 930 Flex (IC Anion)
IC Anion 930 Felx is using ion selective separation followed by a conductivity measurement to separate ions and measure their concentrations by time of elution with detect limit ranging from 10 µg/L to 100 mg/L. A sample volume of 0.5 – 1.5 ml is required. This system is available for anions determination including F^-, Cl^-, Br^-, NO₂^-, NO₃^-, PO₄^3- and SO₄^2-.

Rigaku Miniflex600C X-ray Diffraction (XRD)
MiniFlex benchtop X-ray diffractometer is a multipurpose powder diffraction analytical instrument that can determine crystalline phase identification (phase ID) and quantification, percent (%) crystallinity, crystallite size and strain, lattice parameter refinement, Rietveld refinement, and molecular structure. It is widely used in research, especially in material science and chemistry, as well as in industry for research and quality control.
Rigaku Supermini200 X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) Spectroscopy
This system is a benchtop XRF analyser that offers high sensitivity and accuracy. The SuperMini200 is capable of analysing elements ranging from oxygen to uranium, and features wavelength dispersive optics, a high-resolution detector and easy-to-use software.

BD FACSymphony A1 Flow Cytometer
The BD FACSymphony™ A1 is a solid, entry-level flow cytometry analyser that facilitates the precise isolation of individual cells from complex samples. This system is equipped with 4 lasers (Violet, Blue, Yellow-green, Red) and a small particle analyser that enables a whole range of capabilities from 16 colour immunophenotyping to small particle analysis. It also uses the BD FACSDiva™ Software for a streamlined workflow from system setup to data acquisition and analysis.

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