Technical and scientific expertise
Chemical characterisation of (bio)material surfaces
Main equipment
- X-ray photoelectron spectroscope (XPS)
- Secondary ion mass spectrometer (ToF-SIMS)
Applications
- XPS: surface characterisation of all types of materials, quite exclusively solids (powders or bulk samples) such as biomaterials, catalysts, ceramics, fibres, glass, metals, minerals, polymers
- Identify stains and discolorations
- Characterise cleaning processes
- Analyse composition of powders and debris
- Determination of contaminant sources
- Examine polymer functionality before and after treatment to identify and quantify surface changes
- Obtaining depth profiles of thin film stacks (conductive and non-conductive) for matrix constituents and contaminants (down to the lowest level)
- Assessing differences in oxide thickness between samples
- Measuring the lubricant thickness on the hard disks
- ToF-SIMS: study of organic or inorganic materials such as polymers, biomaterials, semiconductors, metals, catalysts.
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Services available to
- UCLouvain students and researchers
- Non-UCLouvain parties