Soil Physics Services and Facilities
Services
We perform several standard soil analyses and more specialized colloidal analyses for university-internal as well as external customers on a charge basis. These services include:
- pH, EC
- Particle Size Analysis (sieving and light scattering)
- Organic matter content
- CEC
- Amorphous Fe, Al extracts
- XRD
- Electrophoretic mobility
- BET surface area and microporosity
- Liquid surface tension
- Liquid-solid contact angle
- Critical micelle concentrations
- Soil surface thermodynamics
Contact Markus Flury for more details and prices.
Physical Laboratory
- Water potential measurements in soil, plant, and food (pressure plate apparatus, psychrometers, dew point meter, tensiometers)
- Water content measurements (TDR 100, Tektonix Cable tester, various sensors)
- Saturated and unsaturated hydraulic conductivity measurements (tension infiltrometer, constant and falling head method)
- Field equipment and data loggers (Campbell Scientific CR7, 10X, 21X, 23)
- Constant temperature room
- Growth chamber
- Electronic and conventional workshops
- Sensors to measure meteorological parameters (rainfall, soil and air temperature, humidity, radiation, wind)
- Miscellaneous equipment (oven, vacuum oven, vacuum pump, photo equipment, constant temperature bath)
Chemical Laboratory
- Equipment for batch studies to measure sorption of chemicals to soil material (constant temperature shakers, centrifuge)
- Equipment for saturated and unsaturated column studies (columns, fraction collectors, peristaltic pumps, vacuum chamber)
- UV/VIS detector for column studies
- UV/VIS photo-diode array spectrophotometer
- Particle size measurement with static and dynamic light scattering (Malvern MasterSizer, Malvern ZetaSizer 3000HSA}
- Electrophoretic mobility and particle size with dynamic light scattering (Malvern ZetaSizer 3000HSA)
- Surface area and microporosity measurements with gas adsorption (Micromeritics ASAP 2010, equipped with N2 and micropore option)
- Surface tension, interfacial tension, surface energy, contact angle, and sedimentation kinetics measurements (Kruess Tensiometer K100)
- Various electrodes (pH, bromide, ammonium, copper) with flow-cells for online data acquisition
- Standard laboratory equipment (balances, pH meter, centrifuge, fume hoods)
Computing
- Unix network running NeXTStep/OpenStep, Linux, and Mac OS X
- PCs running Windows for Workgroups, NT, 2000, XP
- Software for unsaturated water flow and solute transport
- Software for parameter estimation
Consulting and Teaching
Markus Flury 
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