CBEC Facilities

Lab scene by Brad Feinknopf 2015

State of the Art Facilities

Koffolt Laboratories, which opened in Winter 2015 thanks to alumnus William G. Lowrie and hundreds of loyal alumni, offers 237,000 square feet of spacious, state-of-the art laboratories. In addition, Koffolt Laboratories, which is part of the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Chemistry Building (CBEC), was built with the sustainable design practices of Labs 21 and is LEED Silver certified.

The facility fuels Ohio's economy through partnerships with industry, boosts Ohio State's profile as a leader in 21st-century research, and attracts top-notch faculty and students, who enjoy the modern equipment, quiet work environment and loads of natural light. It is located in the Academic Core North - the heart of the science and engineering neighborhood.

Laboratories and Research Equipment

Several million dollars in funding from federal, state, and industrial sources, such as the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense, the Ohio Board of Regents, and several major chemical companies equip our laboratories with state-of-the-art research equipment in various frontier areas.

Unique Equipment

In addition to a new building, the following items make us unique:

  • NMR - North America's first 1.2GHz Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectrometer - one of only six in the world.
  • TEM (transmission electron microscope) – Instrument to characterize atomic structure. Used in the Brunelli, Palmer, Reategui and Winter Groups. One of the world experts in EELS (electron energy loss spectroscopy) works at Ohio State in MSE.
  • Lab-Scale XAFS/XANES - This is a new instrument that has the capabilities of multi-million dollar synchrotron facilities in National Labs. It will be used extensively to characterize materials in the Brunelli and Ozkan labs, as well as by faculty in the Chemistry department.
  • Near Ambient Pressure XPS - X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy is a way to characterize the chemical composition, oxidation state, and bonding of materials. Normally, an XPS operates at high-vacuum since you are probing a surface with an electron beam. NAP-XPS is a way to make these same measurements at near ambient pressure, which is important for testing materials under realistic conditions. There is often a gap between where material properties can be measured and where the materials are actually used. One can get much closer to the conditions actually used by the materials using NAP-XPS.
  • Supercomputer
  • A truly outstanding Machine Shop!
  • To read more about facilities for specific research areas, visit the page on Facilities for Specific Research Areas.

 

Form = Function

Facilities in Koffolt Laboratories, enable a strong focus on interdisciplinary research and the creation of a community of scientists, engineers, postdoctoral fellows, students, and technical staff working collaboratively in the areas of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (CBE) and Chemistry.

team work

The building design facilitates communication between various groups of researchers, faculty and students, with shared laboratory neighborhoods, a common event space in the lobby, and multiple meeting rooms. The building features flexible laboratory space, a number of special student lounge areas, and a wide array of equipment. 

 

Hands-on Learning


Undergrads enjoy hands-on learning in the huge James F. and Patricia Dietz Unit Operations Laboratory, as well as configurable classrooms, day lockers, group workstations and a student lounge on the 6th floor with a great view of downtown.

Further information can be found on our CBE Research Highlights page.

 


 
 

 

 

Unit Operations Laboratory

Students in hard hats working with equipment in Unit Ops