Equipment

The laboratory of Prof. Tom Leyssens was established in 2009 and is located within the Institute of Condensed Matter and Nanosciences (IMCN) at UCLouvain. Since its creation, the laboratory has developed a strong expertise in synthetic and solid-state chemistry, supported by a continuously expanding set of modern instrumentation. The laboratory space has been progressively upgraded to meet the needs of advanced synthesis, crystallization studies, and solid-form characterization.

The Leyssens laboratory is equipped with three MM400 ball mills and an IST ball mill, enabling extensive mechanochemical synthesis and screening. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction is accessible through a Bruker SCXRD instrument under the supervision and guidance of Dr. Koen Robeyns, providing high-quality structural characterization. The group also operates Crystal16 and Crystalline systems, as well as a Polar Bear setup, allowing precise and systematic investigation of crystallization behavior, solubility, and polymorphism.

For scale-up and process development, the laboratory hosts a Radley’s Reactor Ready crystallization scale-up system (fully operational), a lyophilization reactor, and a climate chamber that enables controlled-temperature and humidity studies. Photochemical transformations can be carried out using the laboratory’s UV-Vis reaction lamp.

The laboratory also possesses a Malvern Morphologi 4 particle size distributor for detailed particle imaging and size analysis, as well as DSC2500 (TA) and DVS Q5000 instruments, which support thermal and moisture-sorption profiling of solid materials. These capabilities are complemented by ready access to departmental and institute-level facilities, including NMR spectroscopy, HPLC, TGA, IR, Raman, and hot-stage microscopy (HSM).

Through these combined resources, the Leyssens laboratory maintains a strong platform for comprehensive solid-form analysis, mechanochemistry, crystallization science, and molecular structure determination.