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Laboratories
Key Equipment
Main Lab
Soddy Lab
Evo/Synbio Lab
Instrument Lab
Robot Lab
The Robot Cave
Laboratories
Cronin Group laboratories are extremely well equipped with dedicated synthetic areas, a dual source x-ray diffractometer, IR / UV facilitates, electrospray mass spectrometer, HPLC, SQUID, Powder X-ray, TGA, DSC, multinuclear NMR, CHN and FAAS analysis, optical microscope with micromanipulators, particle sizer, flow systems and equipment, electrochemical and electrocrystallisation kit as well as several Schlenk lines.

Main Lab

The main Cronin Group lab is a state of the art research space containing 10 fume hoods, with working space for up to 25 researchers. The lab underwent a £2.5m refurbishment in 2009.

Soddy Lab

The Soddy lab was refurbished in 2012 to a modern specification. Research within the Soddy lab includes synthetic biology, analytical chemistry, milli/microfluidics and flow system chemistry.

Evo/Synbio Lab

The Evo/Synbio lab is the main laboratory for research relating to synthetic biology and peptide synthesis

Instrument Lab

The instrument lab contains analytical electrochemistry, gas chromatography, and assorted flow chemistry facilities.

Robot Lab

In 2015 a laboratory space was renovated to house various robotic experiments.

The Robot Cave

The robot cave is a design, production and testing facility for assorted millifluidic and liquid handling robots
3D Printers
Advanced Test Rig
ICP
Mass Spectrometry
Miller Urey
NMR
Optical Microscopy
X-Ray Crystallography
Equipment
Cronin Group equipment includes MS, ICP, NMR, X-Ray Crystallography and Optical Microscopy

3D Printers

The group operates a number of 3D printers including printers from Stratasys, Ultimaker, Formlabs and others, as well as a number of custom built 3D printers.

Advanced Test Rig

For our proton-exchange membrane electrolysers, we now have an advanced test rig capable of controlling a wide range of variables with high accuracy and precision through automation, allowing us to examine our electrolysis systems in greater detail and on a larger scale than previously possible. The inbuilt gas sensors mean we can monitor product gas purity in-situ, and with our hydrogen generation devices we can self-pressurise up to 30 bar, allowing the product H2 to be bottled for further analyses. The rig provides a solid platform for the further development of our advanced electrochemical systems and devices.

ICP

The group has an Agilent 5100 SVDV ICP-OES instrument, which allows the simultaneous determination of elemental concentrations.

Mass Spectrometry

The Cronin group has two mass spectrometers, a Bruker Maxis Impact and a Waters Synapt G2 HDMS. The Bruker Maxis Impact has electrospray, cryospray and captivespray capabilities allowing for analysis of a range of species from large molecules to unstable complexes. The Waters Synapt G2 HDMS has electrospray and nanospray sources, and also features an additional ion mobility platform for the separation and identification of ionised molecules in the gas phase based on their mobility.

Miller Urey

The group has a custom made Miller Urey set up, which allows us to study modified versions of the seminal origin-of-life experiment.

NMR

In 2016 the group installed a Bruker Ascent Aeon 600MHz NMR spectrometer.

Optical Microscopy

Cronin group optical microscopy facilities comprise an inverted microscope with micro manipulators and laser tweezers.

X-Ray Crystallography

X-ray Crystallography facilities include two single crystal x-ray diffractometers, one dual source and one single source.