SUNY Oswego home page

Materials and Environmental Research Center

Established in 2025, the Materials and Environmental Research Center (MERC) is a College of Liberal Arts, Sciences, and Engineering shared research and teaching facility that consists of several laboratories and offices on the third and fourth floor of the Shineman Center.

Other related programs include Biological Sciences, Physics and Astronomy, and Atmospheric and Geological Sciences.

Members

  • Matthew Baker (Director)
  • Eric Hellquist
  • Mahdi Hesari
  • Mohammad Islam
  • Arsalan Mirjafari
  • Vadoud Niri
  • Casey Raymond
  • Nicholas Sard
  • J.R. Slosson
  • Paul Tomascak

Expertise

Organic Materials

Polymer synthesis, degradable polymers, polymers from biomass, ionic liquid synthesis, redox active structures

Nano Materials

Synthesis of nanomaterials, synthesis of semiconductor crystals, analysis using confocal fluorescence microscopy (CFM)

Inorganic Materials

Synthesis of inorganic materials, metal oxide semiconductors, metal nanoclusters, rechargeable lithium and sodium ion batteries

Environmental Chemistry

Aqueous environmental chemistry, environmentally-friendly plastics

Electrogenerated Chemiluminescence (ECL)

Pulse and co-reactant ECL, organic and inorganic molecules, spooling spectroscopy, in-situ spectroelectrochemistry, time dependence and stationary photoluminescence spectroscopy

Materials Characterization

X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, tunneling electron microscopy, crystallographic analysis, size exclusion chromatography, thermogravimetric analysis, differential scanning calorimetry, Raman spectroscopy, density functional theory of materials modeling

Major Equipment

  • Agilent LC 1260 Infinity II System for Size Exclusion Chromatography
  • TA TGA 550 for Thermal Analysis
  • TA DSC 250 for Thermal Analysis
  • Bruker D2 Powder Diffractometer
  • ThermoFisher Ion Chromatograph
  • Dionex ICS-2100 Ion Chromatography System
  • Electrical Furnace
  • JEOL 6610 Scanning Electron Microscope with an EDAX (Gatan) APEX EDS Detector
  • Beckman Coulter Allegra V-15R Plate Centrifuge
  • Applied Biosystems SimpliAmp Thermocyclers (6)
  • Applied Biosystems ProFlex Dual Block Thermocycler
  • Agilent TapeStation 4150 Bioanalyzer
  • Sage Science Pippin Prep

Other Equipment

Adequate desk space, bench space, and sinks are present. This space includes multiple fume hoods equipped with vacuum, air, water, and methane lines. The research lab is also equipped with -80°C freezers.

OFFICE

Chemistry Department

296 Shineman

CONTACT

Phone: 315.312.3048

Email: [email protected]