The Spectroscopy RTP is pleased to take delivery of a surface profiling microscope, a Filmetrics ProFilm 3D. The ProFilm 3D uses white light interferometry to measure surface profiles and roughness on samples upto 100 mm x 100 mm. Surface roughness of down to 0.01 micron are measurable by use of phase-shifting interferometry. Due to the current restrictions in access, the Spectroscopy RTP will, initially, be running the surface profiler on behalf of researchers via sample submission service. Acquired Data can be viewed and analysed on most desktops via ProfilmOnline a free web based app. If you have any questions or wish to discuss any future experiment, please contact spectroscopy@warwick.ac.uk.

The Polymer RTP has recently had two state of the art thermal analysis instruments installed from TA Instruments, Discovery DSC2500 and Discovery SDT650.

The new DSC will allow us to measure thermal transitions of materials such as glass transitions, enthalpies and crystallinity. This has applications to a large area of science such as polymers, biomaterials and composites.

The new SDT is a TGA instrument with simultaneous DSC capabilities. This allows us to measure the thermal transitions of materials up to high temperatures (1500’C) where we can assess for instance mass losses leading to an understanding of thermal stability and degradation pathways. The simultaneous DSC functionality allows us to investigate thermal transitions at a much higher temperature than stand-alone DSC. The application area is very broad, ranging from polymers to metal-organic-frameworks. If you have any questions or wish to discuss any future experiment, please contact d.lester@warwick.ac.uk.

A new state-of-the-art timsTOF Pro mass spectrometer is available through the Proteomics RTP.

Mass spectrometry (MS)-based proteomics has become a powerful technology for the identification and quantification of thousands of proteins.

The timsTOF Pro makes use of Trapped Ion Mobility Spectrometry (TIMS) to provide extremely high speed and sensitivity to reach new depths in shotgun proteomics and phosphoproteomics, using low sample amounts.

Trapped Ion Mobility Spectrometry (TIMS) is a gas phase separation technique, which resolves sample complexity with an added dimension of separation (in addition to HPLC and mass spectrometry), increasing peak capacity and confidence in compound characterization. The TIMS device also serves to accumulate and concentrate ions of a given mass and mobility, enabling a unique increase in sensitivity and speed along with the additional dimension of separation.

For proteomics applications the timsTOF Pro will give users greater speed, throughput, depth and robustness – resulting in improved scientific outcomes. If you have any questions or wish to discuss any future experiment, please contact proteomics@warwick.ac.uk.