Equipment in the lab
The Softmat laboratory uses a wide variety of techniques to carry out all its activities. We regularly invest in new equipment specific to our fields of research and which are often unique on the Toulouse campus.
Some significant examples of this equipment are detailed below.
Access to technical platforms in Toulouse, such as ICT, FERMaT and Genotoul, completes our equipment. This ensure our staff to benefit a large range of cutting-edge techniques.
Analysis techniques
Softmat has a vast platform of analysis techniques for characterising synthesised molecules and polymers, as well as the complex mixtures investigated by our teams.
Size exclusion chromatography (SEC)
Capillary electrophoresis - Mass spectrometry
Characterisation of colloidal solutions
The laboratory posseses the most extensive collection of light scattering instruments in Toulouse. These equipment are used to characterise colloidal solutions and other soft matter systems.
Multi-angle dynamic light scattering (DLS)
Nanoparticles tracker analysis
Plate reader DLS/SLS
Mechanical / thermal properties
Our lab uses a variety of techniques for assessing the mechanical and thermal properties of soft matter at different scales.
Mechanical stress
Rheometer
Differential scanning calorimeters (DSC)
Turbiscan
Spectrometry & fluorescence
Softmat has a large number of UV-visible spectrophotometers, complemented by a fluorometer and a circular dichroism spectrometer.
These techniques enable our scientists to carry out a wide range of research projects, especially in photochemistry.
Fluorimeter
Circular dichroism spectrometer
Cell culture
Within Softmat, two fully equipped laboratories are dedicated to cell culture, enabling us to better understand the influence on biology of the systems developed by our teams.
Videomicroscope
Imaging
The laboratory is equipped with a variety of microscopes for studying surfaces or objects at different scales, including biological objects deposited onto surfaces.
Atomique force microscope (AFM)
Inverted fluorescence microscope
Other equipment
