Quartz Crystal Nanobalance (QCN)

The Quartz crystal nanobalance (QCN) is a very sensitive instrument. It's used to measure the mass changes on an electrode surface.

A QCN can detect mass changes in the range of ng/cm2. It is is sensitive enough to detect atomic monolayers forming at the surface.

QCN can be applied to study various interfacial processes occurring at or near the electrode surface. For example, surface adsorption or desorption.

Our QCN

nanoLAB has refurbished and recommissioned a QCN thanks to a grant from the University Strategic Research fund.

The equipment is available to researchers at the university to use for their research.

It can be used for electrochemical experiments and non-electrochemical adsorption experiments.

The QCN is very easy to set up. The bespoke software offers straightforward data acquisition and processing.

We have a manual that shows how to set up the cell and balance, and how to acquire and process the data. Download the EQCN Manual (PDF: 1.4 MB).

We recommend consulting the QCN manual and considering your experimental setup before booking some time on the QCN.

We can also chat through your experiment and options beforehand.

The QCN is located within the School of Chemical Engineering and Advanced Materials in Merz Court.

To book some time on the QCN, email us: nanolab@ncl.ac.uk