The Particle Engineering Research Center (PERC) at the University of Florida was established by NSF in 1994 to create an industry friendly forum for research and development related to all aspects of particulate systems. The Center has a dedicated 25,000-ft2 facility with over $5 million in state of the art equipment for the synthesis and characterization of particulate systems. The Center offers consulting services for physical, mechanical and chemical analysis of particulate systems including:
• Size
• Shape
• Surface area and porosity
• Surface chemistry
• Chemical composition
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• Rheology
• Interfacial phenomena
• Powder mechanics
• Powder flow
• Segregation |
Processing facilities are provided in a 5000 ft2 high-bay pilot plant and include:
• Crystallization
• Classification
• Size reduction |
• Spray drying
• Coating
• Filtration |
A full listing of analytical services available can be found under Facilities at the PERC website www.erc.ufl.edu.
The PERC works in close cooperation with several other University of Florida laboratories including the Center for Human and Environmental Toxicology, Interdisciplinary Core Biotechnology Research, and the Major Analytical Instrumentation Center (MAIC). The MAIC specializes in materials characterization with a variety of state of the art methods such as:
• Scanning electron microscopy
• Transmission electron microscopy
• High resolution X-ray diffraction
• X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy
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• Scanning probe microscopy
• Auger spectroscopy
• Focused ion beam techniques
• Surface metrology
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See maic@mse.ufl.edu for a full listing of capabilities.
The PERC plays an instrumental role in the University of Florida’s nanotoxicology program by serving as the focal point for nanoparticle characterization. Faculty, staff and graduate students aid other researchers in creating, dispersing, administering and characterizing nanomaterials for toxicological testing. Particle systems can be engineered to evaluate the effects of bulk chemistry, surface characteristics and morphology on the toxicity of nanomaterials.
