Laboratory | corniagroup

Our equipment

MBraun UNILab dry-box, equipped with oxygen and water analyzers; DVP rotary vacuum pump (Pmin = 0.1 mmHg); Vacuubrand MZC diaphragm pump with electronic vacuum controller CVC2'' (Pmin = 6 mmHg); 2 rotary evaporators; Julabo F601 recirculating cooler; 2 Edwards rotary pumps; cold-finger Julabo cryostat for low-temperature reactions (down to -80 °C); Büchi flash chromatography apparatus; 2 laboratory ovens; 2 stereomicroscopes; 3 analytical balances; melting point apparatus; ultrasonic bath; Claind hydrogen gas generator; magnetic hot plate stirrers with/without automatic temperature control; glassware for fine organic and inorganic synthesis; air conditioning; 2 APE Research Scanning Probe Microscopes (AFM, STM and MFM); additional instrumentation available at Centro Interdipartimentale Grandi Strumenti (CIGS).

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Our activities

Organic synthesis: design, preparation and purification organic molecules with coordinating ability toward first-series transition metal ions; handling of air-sensitive chemicals and dry-box operations.
Inorganic synthesis: design, preparation and purification of Single-Molecule Magnets and coordination compounds; advanced crystallization techniques; growth of X-ray quality crystals.
Instrumental methods: NMR, UV-Vis and IR spectroscopy; ESI and MALDI-ToF mass spectrometries; elemental analysis.
Single-crystal X-ray diffraction: sample selection and mounting; handling of air-sensitive crystals (sealed capillaries, "flash mounting"); unit-cell determination and data collection at room temperature or low temperature (100 K).
Surface science: preparation of self-assembled monolayers of organic or metal-organic molecules on metal surfaces; Scanning Probe Microscopy (Atomic Force Microscopy, Scanning Tunneling Microscopy, Magnetic Force Microscopy and related spectroscopies).
Computational methods and magnetic modelling: structure solution and refinement from single-crystal X-ray diffraction data; analysis and simulation of DCand AC magnetic data; spin-Hamiltonian calculations and full-matrix diagonalization methods; development of dedicated software.

MBraun UNILab

dry-box

Our MBraun UNILab dry-box (Room 151) equipped with O2 and H2O analyzers is an ideal environment for handling air-sensitive samples and provides a source of clean nitrogen gas for hood operations under inert atmosphere (O2, H2O < 1 ppm).

Equipment for solvent evaporation

In our complete equipment for solvent evaporation (Room 151), a Vacuubrand MZC diaphragm pump drives two rotary evaporators, which are connected to a circulation cryostat: the best way to save cooling water and recover low boiling point solvents! The vacuum level is regulated by an electronic controller.

Single crystal X-ray diffraction

Bruker-Nonius X8APEX Single-Crystal Diffractometer (installed at CIGS) is equipped with an area detector for fast data collection and a cryogenic apparatus for low-temperature work down to 100 K.

Surface Science Lab

Our surface science laboratory (Room 150) is equipped with two APE Research Scanning Probe Microscopes operating in AFM, STM and MFM mode: an easy route to surface imaging with molecular resolution!

Our main collaborations

Magnetic characterization methods: SQUID magnetometry, AC-susceptometry and Vibrating-Sample Magnetometry (Laboratory of Molecular Magnetism, University of Florence); MicroSQUID measurements (Institut Néel, Grenoble, France).
EPR spectroscopy: X-Band, Q-band, W-band and High-Frequency EPR spectroscopies (Laboratory of Molecular Magnetism, University of Florence, and Laboratoire National des Champs Magnétiques Intenses - Grenoble, Grenoble, France).
Molecular electronics: fabrication of nanoelectrodes for electron transport measurements through individual molecules (Kavli Institute of Nanoscience Delft, Delft, The Netherlands).