This MRI (Major Research Instrumentation) proposal is for Lamar University to acquire a SEM/EDX (Scanning Electron Microscopy - Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy) system for education and research projects carried out at the University, especially in the Colleges of Engineering and Arts & Sciences. Lamar University is a non-Ph.D. granting institution and is rapidly developing expertise in environmental as well as energy/material related research. The goal of this development is to establish its research infrastructure and capabilities, both of which are critically needed for effectively carrying out advanced research projects in target research areas, particularly air quality research. Lamar University is surrounded by various chemical industries having huge potential to emit air pollutants. An urgent need for the University is to develop capabilities to measure air pollutants. The acquired SEM/EDX will be mainly used for particulate matter (PM) characterization of samples collected in this area, which provide necessary data for source apportionment analysis of PM for this area employing the EPA developed CMAQ (Community Multi-scale Air Quality), CMB (Chemical Material Balance), PMF (Positive Matrix Factorization) and UNMIX (named for its function, which is to unmix the concentrations of chemical species) models.
