Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

The ability to quantify the spectral emittance, absorptance, and reflectance of surfaces is crucial to numerous ongoing and planned research projects at the University of Waterloo. For example, these properties are needed to predict the performance of nanotextured surfaces for solar energy harvesting and new energy-efficient building components that will reduce Canadas greenhouse gas emissions. They must also be known for non-contact thermometry, which Canadas steel makers need to produce high performance steels for the Canadian automotive industry; and to provide feedback data used to control the next generation of additive manufacturing techniques. Radiative properties are also important in the natural world; research connecting the temperature and spectral absorptance of foliage to plant health forms the basis for sustainable farming via drone-based infrared thermography. The reflectometer presently used by Waterloo researchers to measure radiative properties is obsolete. It is frequently out-of-service, and, when it does work, it often provides nonphysical measurements. Based on the instruments lifespan, the increasing frequency of failure, and the unavailability of replacement parts, the system will be irreparable within the next year. This will leave Waterloo researchers without the ability to characterize the radiative properties needed to carry out their research, jeopardizing the success of their research programs. The proposed replacement infrastructure is a Bruker VERTEX 70 Fourier-Transform Infrared (FTIR) system, with an integrating sphere for making spectral reflectance measurements between 2 and 25 micrometers. The instrument is equipped with both a room-temperature DLaTGS detector as well as a mercury cadmium telluride (MCT) cryogenically-cooled sensor, having a far greater sensitivity compared to the existing equipment. The instrument also allows direct spectral emittance measurements via the external measurement port, which enables characterization of high temperature surfaces, liquid surfaces,spectral absorptance of gases, spectral emittance from welding plasmas, and and other scenarios that preclude direct contact between the instrument and sample surface. This important new capacity dramatically expands the horizons of future research activities. Acquiring this instrument is essential to the success of ongoing and planned research projects led by the applicants. It is already the basis for a new collaboration between two of the applicants, and will foster many more cross-disciplinary partnerships between university researchers and Canadian industry. It will also be used to train approximately 60 undergraduate and 15 graduate levels per year, through collaborative, interdisciplinary research carried out by students, and as a component of a hands-on teaching laboratory in undergraduate and graduate coursework.