Bio-Material and Technology Lab Services
1.Contract research(6 months ~ 2 years)
The contract research provides customer with a confidential, high efficient, cost-effective research service, which normally last 6 months or longer. For research requiring less than 6 months, or preliminary research, please refer to our short-term research.
The service focus on transforming agriculture materials and by-products into value-added products, and the characterization of those products, including but not limit to adhesives, resins, composites, film, foams, fibers, ethanol, functional polymers, chemicals, thermoplastics, etc.
2. Short-term research (1 ~ 6 months)
Technically, the short-term research differs from the contract research only in duration. It normally covers a period of less than 6 month. However, it is renewable, i.e. it can be extended for another time period or converted to the contract service. So, it is more flexible.
It includes preliminary testing and feasibility studies on converting agriculture materials and by-products into value added products mentioned above, but is not limited.
The short-term research also includes use of our facilities. This service includes equipment usage, related lab space, minor lab tools, and technical operational assistance.
3. Technical consult
Provides information, knowledge and technical solutions, and helps to solve problems related to agricultural materials utilization and processing, charged at hourly basis or at negotiated rate per case.
4. Characterization and Testing (not limited to what listed below)
We provide detailed testing service with our state-of-the-art facilities. The service covers various materials, from solid to liquid or solution, from petroleum materials to biobased materials, from structural materials to biodegradable materials, from food/feed products to industrial products, and from plastics and film to adhesive and composite. The tests include general property measurements, purity analysis, additives analysis, chemical reactions, pyrogenation, compatibility, and fermentation properties.
1. Consumer products performance ASTM standard testing
· Adhesives
· Thermoplastics & Thermosets
· Extrusion and injection molding
· Flowability
· Films
· Foams
· Composites
2. Thermal behavior
· Melting points/profiles
· Glass transition (softening point)
· Sub-Tg transitions
· Crystallization temperature, rates, times, crystallinity
· Enthalpy
· Heat capacity
· Gelation
· Protein denaturation
· Starch gelatinization and retrogradation
· Amylose-lipid complexation
· Thermal history/processing conditions
· Polymorphic transitions
· Heat dissipation properties
· Thermal reaction and thermal cross-linking, Degree of cure
· Thermal stability
· Thermal decomposition
· Loss on drying
· Shrinking behavior and dimension stability
· Thermal plasticity and thermal setting
· Physical Aging· Flowability, Melting index
3. Mechanical properties of materials
· Young’s modulus, Tensile strength, Yield strength, Break strength, Elongation
· Compression strength, Modulus of Elasticity, Modulus of Rupture
· Flexile modulus, Flexile strength· Internal bonding strength
· Adhesion strength, shear strength, peel strength
· Stiffness and resilience· Impact resistance, Toughness
4. Viscoelastic properties
· Storage modulus, Loss modulus, and Complex modulus
· Storage compliance, Loss compliance, and Complex compliance
· Damping, Tan Delta, Phase angle
· Acoustical and vibrational damping
· Oscillation, Multiwave oscillation, Rapid frequency sweeps
· Cure analysis and Gel point (ASTM D4473)
· Stress relaxation· Stress growth
5. Rheological properties
· Viscosity
· Reduced viscosity and intrinsic viscosity
· Flow behavior, Newtonian, Shear thinning, Shear thickening, Bingham plastic
· Creep test, Creep-Recovery test
· Compliance
· Zero shear viscosity, and Molecular weight
· Elasticity and Molecular weight distribution
· Stress relaxation, Relaxation time
· Stress growth
· Multiple frequency oscillation
· Time dependent rheological properties, Thixotropic analysis
· Temperature dependent rheological properties
6. Surface properties of liquid
· Contact angle
· Surface tension
· Wettability
7. Water relations in biopolymers and bio-materials
· Water activity
· Water diffusion and evaporation behavior
· Non-freezing water (bond water)
· Moisture content
· Vapor pressure
· Conductivity and pH of solution
· Functional properties in relation to water content
8. Protein Characterization
· Molecular weight of protein and subunit
· Isoelectric point
· Protein purification
· Protein comparison
· Protein separation
9. Miscibility of polymer-polymer
· Miscibility
· Intermolecular interaction
· Compatibilization
· General thermal and mechanical properties of polymer blend
10. Crop variety screening (for ethanol, organic acids, adhesives, thermoplastics, and oil production)
11. Fermentation
· Macro scale at 5 - 10 liter
· Micro scale at a few grams
· Chemical composition analysis
· Purification
· Separation
12. Particle size and distribution
13. Accessible Instruments
· Scanning electron microscopy
· Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy
· Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy
· Circular Dichroism spectroscopy
· X-ray Diffraction
