Integrated Instrumentation System for the Characterization of Polymer Solution and Gel-Light-Emitting Devices

摘要

This DURIP grant has contributed strongly in expanding my research activity at UCLA. Being a young professor with limited funding for equipment, this DURIP grant helped me to equip my laboratory and allow me to expand my research activity into different areas, such as the study of nano-scale polymer morphology by using the atomic force microscope. Compared to the originally proposed equipment list, there have been some modifications in the purchased equipment. Our original budget includes a Hewlett-Packard GPC, a Fluorolog 3 spectrometer, an AC impedance meter, a Bio-Analytical Electrochemical Station. However, we later realized that Prof. Fred Wudl, my collaborator on the polymer SLED project, has the HP GPC, AC Impedance meter, and Bio-Analytical Electrochemical Station in his laboratory. He welcomes my group to use those equipments. I consider the best way of using the DURIP funds is to purchase important equipment, and not to duplicate the existing equipment. With the permission from AFOSR (Please see attached document), we used the DURIP funds that we budgeted for the Bio-Analytical station, AC Impedance meter, and GPC to acquire an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM from Digital Instrument Nano-3A) and a Nikon SMZ 1500 Stereo Microscope. The total amount of the purchased equipment is $194,086. Among them, $112,063 is from AFOSR's DURIP, and the rest of $82,023 is matching funds from UCLA and SONY Corporation.