TMI supports interdisciplinary research at UT Austin, with over 100 faculty focusing on clean energy, nanotechnology, and advanced materials using our state-of-the-art facilities.
The MiniFlex 600 is a fast, powerful, compact benchtop x-ray diffraction system. Its capabilities include identification of crystalline phases, crystallinity, crystallite size, crystal structure determination. Sample holders for air/moisture sensitive sample are available.
Fees and Policies
UT Users: $5/hour
Higher Education/State Agencies: $17/hour
Corporate/External Users: $17/hour
To become a new user of this facility, please read the Instrument Reservation Information page. If you are already a user you can make a reservation in FBS.
Texas Materials Seminar Series
The Texas Materials Seminar Series features MSE 397 Seminars, TMI Distinguished Lectureships, and TMI Special Seminars, where leading faculty and professionals from around the world share cutting-edge innovations and advancements in materials engineering with our students.
Tushare Telmasre, a graduate student in the Materials Science & Engineering Program, has recently published an article in ECS Advances that explores the connection between battery usage, recharging, and the surface of the zinc anode. A student in Dr. Venkat Subramanian's lab, Telmasre, along with postdoctoral researcher Dr. Lubhani Mishra, and other UT researchers from the CMES Lab, the paper finds that how a battery is used and then recharged directly impacts the surface of the anode and dendrite growth.
Weixin Guan and Yaxuan Zhao, graduate researchers with the Texas Materials Institute and the Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering at UT’s Cockrell School of Engineering, were recognized for their innovative and cost-effective device, AirGel, which extracts drinking water from humidity in the air. Their invention also won the competition’s People’s Choice Award and received a USPTO Patent Acceleration Certificate from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Dr. Deji Akinwande, a professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering department and an affiliate of TMI, was awarded a contract of up to $2.5 million from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), a governmental agency aimed at funding research that supports biomedical and health breakthroughs. This award will help advance Dr. Akinwande's development of a wearable blood pressure monitoring system, a key vital sign for assessing cardiovascular health.
Dr. Devleena Samanta, a faculty affiliate of Texas Materials Institute, and a small team from her lab, have recently published a new article introducing the use of single-moledule DNA tweezers (SMDTs) to control enzymes and turn them on and off. Dr. Shivudu Godhulayyagari, a postdoctoral fellow, and Sara Nixon, a graduate student in chemistry, developed this new way to control enzymes without needing to change the enzyme itself.
Dr. Sean Roberts, a faculty affiliate of the Texas Materials Institute, and his group have had their work on lead halide perovskite quantum dots recently published in ACS Energy Letters. The team studied how different variants of naphthalene energy acceptors stick to these dots, which impact their ability to facilitate photon upconversion, a process wherein low-energy visible photons are used to drive emission of high-energy UV light. The production of UV light via this process has several potential uses, such as initiating chemical reactions and facilitating high-resolution 3D printing.
