Instrumental Analysis
CHM3780
Lectures (MS Word Documents)
Instrumental Analysis Laboratories
Instrumental Analysis is taught at EIU as a junior level course to be taken concurrently with physical chemistry-thermodynamics (CHM3920). This course meets for two-50 minute lectures per week and one three-hour laboratory each week. This course is generally offered in the Fall semester.
The concepts of signal, noise and signal-to-noise ratio in data acquisition are relevant to all instrumental analyses. The basic concepts of absorption and emission spectroscopy (more spectrophotometry) and relevant instrumental design considerations for these different types of instruments are discussed. Separations science, particularly chromatographic methods, are also treated in some detail. Information content and applicability of various instrumental methods to different types of analytical problems are discussed.
The laboratory has undergone
some revisions in the past few years and that trend continues. What does
not change is the emphasis on writing quality laboratory reports. One can
legitimately consider this course as writing intensive. Since in many
instances this is the first chemistry course in which writing takes on such
importance, many students find this a difficult and frustrating
experience. Students get hands on experience using a variety of
instruments including UV-Vis, FT-IR, atomic absorption and atomic emission,
molecular fluorescence, HPLC, and GC.