Center for Particulate and Surfactant Systems (CPaSS)

University of Florida (Lead institution) Columbia University (Partner Institution)

A National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center since 2008

Advancing research in particulate and surfactant systems for enhanced performance with minimal environmental footprint.

Center Mission and Rationale

Particulate and surfactant systems are vital to virtually every major industry including pharmaceuticals, detergents, cosmetics, liquid crystals, micro-electronics, advanced materials, energy, minerals, biotechnology, photography, and paints and coatings. Most applications involve the use of dry or wet particulate systems and natural or synthetic surfactants whose effectiveness depends on the synergistic or competitive interactions with each other. Better understanding of the interplay between particles and surfactants will lead to products and processes such as better detergents, faster acting drugs, multimodal contrast agents for early disease detection, and advanced separation technologies.

The mission of CPaSS is to advance, develop and promote fundamental understanding of particulate and surfactant systems leading to their enhanced performance and minimal environmental footprint. This mission will be accomplished by achieving the following goals:

1. advancing the fundamental understanding of the particulate – surfactant interactions;
2. establishing a venue for industrial/academic interactions for conducting industrially relevant research;
3. exploring high-risk, high-impact research that could lead to technological innovations; and,
4. promoting education and training of students in this important field.

Research Program

CPaSS faculty, staff and students are currently conducting, or plan to undertake, research projects in the following areas that have been identified by the Center researchers and industry partners.

• Cosmetics and Health Care Products
• Targeted Drug Delivery Systems
• Cohesive Powder Flow
• Dispersion of Soft and Hard Solids
• Advanced Particulate/Mineral Separations
• Filtration and Dewatering of Fines
• Waste Minimization, Reuse, and Remediation
• Toxicity of Nanostructures/Nanoparticles

Special Center Activities

In addition to research activities, CPaSS researchers are actively engaged in (i) knowledge and information transfer, and (ii) preparation and dissemination of Web based education and teaching modules.

Facilities & Laboratories

CPaSS is jointly housed at the University of Florida and Columbia University. The research facilities provide the equipment and instrumentation necessary to synthesize, characterize and evaluate the particulate and surfactant systems on the molecular, microscopic, and macroscopic levels.

Particulate Systems-related Equipment & Facilities: Most of the particulate systems-related research activities are conducted at the University of Florida. Techniques are available for physical, mechanical and chemical analysis of particle systems including size, shape, surface area and porosity, surface chemistry, rheology, tribology, interfacial phenomena, powder mechanics, powder flow and segregation. Processing facilities are provided in a 5000 sq ft high-bay pilot plant and includes crystallization, classification, size reduction, spray drying, coating, filtration and a wide variety of other techniques. Particle synthesis techniques include a 20 L stirred reactor, spray dryer, fluid bed dryer, wet and dry coating techniques, laser deposition and mechanofusion. Some of the specific equipments include microplate reader, class 1000 tissue culture room, centrifuge, scintillation counter, gas chromatograph, CO2 incubator, inverted fluorescence microscopes, tissue culture hood, centralized dishwasher, autoclave, Image Pro v4.5 Optical Analysis Software, Paar Physica UDS 200 Rheometer, Optical Microscopes, Coulter LS 13320 Particle Size Analyzer, Colloidal Dynamics Acoustosizer, Brookhaven ZetaPlus, JEOL JSM6330F SEM. (See http://iucrc.perc.ufl.edu/facilities.asp for a full listing of capabilities)

CPaSS researchers have access to equipment and facilities located at other Centers such as the Major Analytical Instrumentation Center (MAIC), the Interdisciplinary Center for Biotechnology Research (ICBR), and the Center for Environmental & Human Toxicology at the University of Florida. MAIC specializes in materials characterization with a variety of state-of-the-art methods such as high resolution scanning and transmission electron microscopy, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and other techniques. (See http://maic.mse.ufl.edu for a full list of capabilities)

Surfactant Systems-related Equipment & Facilities: Most of the surfactant systems research is carried out at Columbia University, which has both the required technical expertise and facilities in the areas of surfactants and polymers: their synthesis, characterization and application. These laboratories are well equipped with atomic force microscope (AFM), quartz crystal microgravimetry (QCM), surface plasmon resonance spectroscope (SPR), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectrophotometer, fluorescence spectrophotometer, microcalorimeter, surface area analyzer, scanning electron microscope energy dispersive x-ray fluorescence (SEM EDX), inductively coupled plasma (ICP) spectrophotometer, UV/visible spectrometer, instrumented flotation machines, particle size analyzer, Du Nuoy, Wilhelmy and spinning drop tensiometers, High performance liquid chromatograph (HPLC/GPC), electron spin resonance spectrometer (ESR), Brookfield Viscometer, Brookhaven photon correlation spectroscopy (PSC), analytical balances, analytical ultra centrifuge, dynamic laser scattering equipment, and zeta meters. The polymer science laboratories used by the Center include modern facilities for polymer synthesis, a Cesium 137 gamma irradiator, light scattering, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), FTIR and UV spectrophotometry. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), ESR and mass spectrometry are situated in the Department of Chemistry. The laboratories are equipped with a wide range of optical microscopy apparatus (transmission and reflection, polarized and interference) together with computer-assisted particle size analysis facilities.

Center Locations and Contacts

Center for Particulate & Surfactant Systems (CPaSS)
http://iucrc.perc.ufl.edu/

Center Evaluators:
Denis Gray & Vida Scarpello