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The Tarabara group has about 750 sq. ft. of laboratory space. There are two stationary fume hoods and one controlled humidity/temperature glove box. In addition to stationary workbenches with smaller (snorkel-type) fume hoods, the laboratory has four mobile reconfigurable experimental stations/benches. The group has following major particle and surface characterization instruments:

1. Brookhaven ZetaPALS apparatus for the determination of particle size distribution (for particles in the size range of 2 nm to 3 m m) and zeta-potential of particles ( for particles in size range of 2 nm to 30 m m)
2. Malvern Mastersizer 2000 for particle size analysis of polydisperse suspensions. This instrument also provides a limited capability for the measurement of fractal dimensions of particle aggregates.
3. Brookhaven EKA electro-kinetic analyzer for the determination of zeta-potentials of macroscopic surfaces (e. g. clean and fouled membranes). The analyzer is equipped with rectangular cell and a clamp cell.

Equipment for membrane characterization and membrane separation research includes:

1. Three stand-alone filtration rigs – one for UF/MF tests, one (rated for higher pressures) for NF/RO tests, and one for hybrid ozonation-ultrafiltration experiments with tubular ceramic membranes.
2. Two SEPA CF II high pressure cross-flow membrane filtration cells and one Sterlitech CF042 cross-flow membrane filtration cell. The CF042 cell has been modified by the manufacturer on PI's request to eliminate a design flaw present in the original model.
3. Sterlitech HP4750 high pressure normal flow stirred membrane filtration cell.
4. Several conductivity meters with flow-through cells for measuring (retentate and permeate) conductivity in overlapping ranges from 0.01 µs/cm to 200 ms/cm.
5. A variety of bench scale micro- and ultrafiltration modules ( Amicon 8010, 8200, 8400 normal flow stirred cells ).

A micrometric film applicator (model 3570, ELCOMETER Inc., Rochester hills, MI) equipped with a casting solution reservoir is available for membrane preparation by the phase inversion method. The laboratory also has a large selection of support instruments and equipment including several pumps of different capacity (including variable flowrate centrifugal pumps), recirculation chillers, Shimadzu MultiSpec 1501 photodiode array spectrophotometer, sonicator. Automated data acquisition systems based on custom-written LabView codes for real-time recording of pressure, flow, temperature, turbidity values, etc. are available.

Environmental Engineering research laboratories. The Environmental Engineering research laboratories have the analytical capabilities to perform most environmental analyses. Capabilities include gas chromatography, mass spectrometry, high-pressure liquid chromatography, atomic absorption spectroscopy, inductively coupled argon plasma emission spectroscopy, ion chromatography, most other forms of light spectroscopy (UV, visible, FTIR, fluorescence), and numerous specialty analyzers such as total organic carbon. Standard laboratory equipment including balances, centrifuges, vacuum and compressed air pumps, extraction equipment, refrigerators and freezers and a variety of meters are readily available.

Relevant facilities and equipment available at MSU. Based on the usage agreement between the PI and the NSF Center for Sensor Materials at MSU, the following microscopy and analytical instrumentation: (1) Hitachi S-4700II FE SEM and JEOL 840A SEM equipped with Energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer, (2) Dimension 3100 scanning probe microscope, and (3) TEM (JEOL 220 FS). An RMC 7 cryoultramicrotome is available at MSU Composite Materials and Structures Center Laboratory and will be used for the microstructural analysis of clean and fouled membranes. Other specialty laboratories available on campus include several state of the art mass spectrometers (including PerSeptive Biosystems Voyager STR and Elite MALDI-TOF mass spectrometers), an X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy instrument. Machine shop and a glass shop are available.

Computing facilities

• High Performance Computing Center
• Compute servers, MSU Division of Engineering Computing Services
• Sun Ultra workstation is available in the group for debugging and other smaller tasks

Data aquisition and office computers. The Tarabara group utilizes a local area network in a Windows environment for data transfer and analysis. There are currently 9 laboratory PCs and 10 office PCs on the network.