Chemical Instrumentation

This lab is used for CH 221 Instrumental Analysis and serves as a central resource for all other chemistry lab courses.

The lab is designed to provide students with hands-on experience in three major areas of analytical chemistry: spectroscopy, chromatography (separations) and electrochemistry.

Students analyze organic and organometallic compounds with a Mattson Fourier Transform infrared spectrophotometer, while forensic, environmental, and pharmaceutical samples are analyzed with our Perkin-Elmer Atomic Absorption and UV-Visible spectrophotometers. Environmental and hydrocarbon mixtures are separated and identified using a Perkin-Elmer GC/MS system. A Shimadzu HPLC with UV and fluorescence detectors is used for analysis of pharmaceutical preparations and food products. Cyclic, linear sweep, differential and normal pulse voltammetry studies are performed using the Chin Instruments electrochemical analyzer.