Soft Matter Facility
Established in 2018, the Soft Matter Facility (SoMF) at Texas A&M University was originally supported by the RDF grant “Establishing a Multidisciplinary Soft Matter Facility”, and has transitioned into a sustainable core facility since September 2021. Soft materials is a significant area of growth on campus. The facility hosts specialized state-of-the-art instrumentation for molecular, thermomechanical and nanostructural analysis as well as processing of soft materials. The SoMF represents multiple colleges and centers across the university actively involved in soft materials-related research, including the Colleges of Engineering, Science, Pharmacy, Medicine, Dentistry, and Agriculture & Life Sciences at Texas A&M University. The facility already improves collaboration between faculty, industry, and will further increase collaborative efforts between Texas A&M faculty in College Station and biomedical and clinical researchers in Houston, building bridges between the EnMed program and colleges at Texas A&M.
Equipment:
Nanoscale Structures
- Small-angle X-ray Scattering
Molecular Characteristics
- Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC)
Thin Films & Interfaces
- Size and Zeta Potential Measurements
- Langmuir-Blodgett & Langmuir-Schaefer
Processing & Mechanics
- Microcompounder
- Injection Molder
- Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA)
- Rheology
- Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC)
- Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) with Mass Spectrometry
- Hysitron Biosoft In-Situ Indenter
- Instron Tensile Tester