The lab houses three high-pressure devices:
- A non-end-loaded piston cylinder apparatus (Quickpress) in which samples can be subjected to pressures between 0.4 and 2.5 GPa and temperatures up to 1800 K
- An end-loaded piston cylinder apparatus (also known as Freddy, manufactured at the University of Bristol), in which samples can be subjected to pressures between 1 and 3 GPa and temperatures up to 1900 K
- An 800 ton multi-anvil press (also known as Nina, manufactured at the University of Bristol), in which currently samples can be subjected to pressures up to 10 GPa and temperatures exceeding 2000 K.
During experiments, cubic millimeter-sized synthetic or natural samples are equilibrated at high-pressure, high-temperature conditions mimicking the conditions in the interior of the Moon, Earth, or other rocky (exo)planets.
We also have a CO-CO2 gas mixing furnace (Gero) for experiments at 1 atm pressure and temperatures up to 1800 K at controlled oxygen fugacities. Full sample preparation facilities (grinding and polishing equipment, automated epoxy mounting, carbon coater) are available in-house, as is a desktop SEM facility (JEOL Neoscope).
The laboratory is part of Europlanet AISBL (https://www.europlanet.org/)
Experiments are used to determine mineral stability fields, melting behavior, and large-scale differentiation processes in planets. In recent years experiments done in the lab were used to study the formation of Moon rocks, the interior structure of rocky exoplanets rich in carbon and sulphur, and metal core formation in the Moon, Mars, Mercury, and asteroidal parent bodies.
For more information, please contact prof.dr. Wim van Westrenen (w.van.westrenen@vu.nl)