All our students begin to gain hands-on experience with our instrumentation in their second year in the program. You will generate, analyze and interpret your own scientific data. This experience is highly sought after by companies who are looking to hire someone straight out of college, and is a great benefit to talk about on your job or graduate school applications. Below are some highlights of our current instrumentation.
Explore our Labs
Chromatography
Chromatography is a separation technique widely used especially by analytical/forensic and organic chemists for both synthesis and analysis tasks. Mixtures flow through what is referred to a column. The retention time, which is the time it takes for each component in the mixture to pass the column, differs in many cases sufficiently to result in complete component separation. The retention time is highly reproducible allowing for qualitative component identification. If components do have the same retention time, they may still be identified through detection by mass spectrometry. Quantitative analysis of each species is routinely achieved with chromatography instruments as well. In our separations lab we have three gas chromatography units (GC), two with a flame ionization detector and one with a mass spectrometer detector, and one liquid chromatography (LC) unit.
Spectroscopy
Spectroscopy is perhaps the most powerful analysis technique for chemists. Spectroscopy is based on the quantum mechanical principle that the energy of an atom or molecule is quantized in specific energy levels. Matter will interaction with external electromagnetical waves (“light”) only if the energy of the wave (photon) matches the energy required for an energy transition. There exist so many different spectroscopy instruments because of the multitude of different types of energy transitions. Instruments in our spectroscopy lab include UV-vis spectrophotometer and fluorometer (both detecting electronic transitions), infra-red spectrometer (vibrational transitions), and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer (nuclear spin transitions). Although not technically a spectrometer, we also list here our instrument detecting circular dichroism (CD), which is used for studying conformational changes of biopolymers.
Metal Analysis
Much of the commercial analysis instrumentation is focused on detecting organic compounds. However, other elements in the periodic table including metals may need to be quantitatively analyzed as well. Two methods available in our department that may be used for this purpose are atomic absorption spectrophotometry and electrochemical analysis.
Synthesis & Sample Preparation
Chemical synthesis as well as sample preparation may require the avoidance of moisture and/or oxygen in the air. Our department has two inert atmosphere glove boxes available for this purpose. We also have available a special microwave for chemical synthesis for enhanced and optimized heating of reaction mixtures, which at times can considerably speed up chemical synthesis.
3D Printing
3D printing has made it possible to create parts of complicated shapes. We have 3D printing capabilities in our makerspace lab.