Mission Statement:

The Environmental Chemistry Laboratory at the Advanced Technology and Manufacturing Center (ATMC) is established to provide the needed resources to link the University's mission with Industry's technology needs.

Through the Industry Outreach Program, the industry partners will have research done to develop new technologies for their market or to solve their technical problem, to build prototypes for field demonstration or commercial exhibition, and to evaluate and validate their new products and processes.

For the University, the Environmental Engineering Program in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Environmental Chemistry Option of Chemistry Majors are strengthened by the research activities in this Laboratory.

The ATMC manages the STrategic Envirotechnology Partnership (STEP) program to fund faculty research in the Commonwealth's priorities. Through the Environmental Chemistry Laboratory, the ATMC strives to provide research opportunity, equipment and technical support to faculty affiliates who have research interest in environmental areas, and offer internships and research assistantships to students who are interested in the interface of chemistry, engineering and environmental sciences.

Examples of Industry-University partnership projects include antifouling coatings for biofouling control, UV range photosensors for on-line monitoring and feedback control, fiber-enhanced biofilters for aquaculture applications, electrochemical technology for textile effluent decolorization, low-temperature copper catalysts for NOx control, and UV irradiation for indoor air disinfection and biodefense.

Equipment:

Research and teaching facilities of the Environmental Chemistry Laboratory are equipped with modern instrumentation. Recent acquisitions include a Perkin Elmer AAnalyst 300 Atomic Absorption (AA) Spectrometer with graphic furnace, a Perkin Elmer LAMBDA EZ 201 UV/VIS Spectroscopy , a Buck Scientific BLC-20 High Performance Liquid Chromatograph (HPLC) with UV detector, a Buck Scientific Model 910 Gas Chromatograph (GC) with FID, TCD and ECD, a Buck Scientific Model 500 Infrared (IR) Spectrometer, a Precision Scientific Coliform Incubator, a Precision Scientific Shaking Bath Model 25, a NAPCO Model 8000-DSE Autoclave, a New Brunswick Scientific INNOVA 2100 Platform Shaker, and a Brinkmann 719 S Titrino Autotitrator.

Through the ATMC, faculty affiliates have access to all analytical instrument in the Laboratory and can check out portable equipment for field studies. The Laboratory also has full time technical staff and well-trained chemistry interns to demonstrate the equipment and perform analytical works for faculty affiliates and industry partners.