Please note: The original material contained in these files are copyright of Simon J. Garrett and Michigan State University.

• Introduction to instrumental analysis. Types of analysis and figures of merit.

• Introduction to spectroscopy. Wave and particle description of light. Energy levels (electronic, vibrational, rotational), transitions, basic emission and absorption, fluorescence and phosphorescence.

• Basic spectroscopic instruments. Radiation sources, detectors, wavelength separation devices (monochromator), and defining the quality of a monochromator.

• UV-Vis spectrophotometry. Beers' Law and limitations (chemical and physical), single and double beam instruments, origin of electronic spectra, typical organic absorbances and typical inorganic absorbances (ligand field splitting).

• Luminescence spectrophotometry. Quantum numbers, multiplicity and term symbols. Nature of transitions producing fluorescence and phosphorescence, factors affecting fluorescence, instrumentation for quantitative luminescence measurements. Chemiluminescence.

• IR Spectrophotometry. Description of normal modes, classical vibrational frequencies and quantum mechanics, harmonic and anharmonic oscillators, instrumentation, S/N ratios, Fourier transform instruments and applications of IR.

• Introduction to Atomic Spectroscopy. Term symbols (again), contributions to natural line-width, the Boltzmann distribution.

• Atomic Emission Spectroscopy. Instrumentation for AES. Flame, arc, spark and plasma (ICP and DC) emission sources, single and multichannel monochromators (including slew-scan), applications and detection limits.

• Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy. Instrumentation for AAS. Flame and electrothermal atomization (graphite furnace). Hollow cathode lamps and spectrometers. Performance comparison for AAS and AES.

• Introduction to Electrochemistry. Redox reactions, anodes and cathodes, electrode potentials, standard electrode potentials, cell potentials, Nernst equation, the electrochemical interface, currents in cells.

• Potentiometry. Reference electrodes (SCE, Ag/AgCl) and indicator electrodes (1st and 2nd kind), membrane electrodes (pH, pIon), gas sensing electrodes and molecule sensing electrodes.

• Voltammetry. Three electrode systems, current in electrochemical cells, stirred vs unstirred solutions, hydrodynamic voltammetry and polarography (sampled and differential pulse).

• Flow Injection Analysis. Introduction to automated and automatic analysis. Air-segmented continuous flow. Flow profiles in tubes and dispersion processes.

• Introduction to Separation. Chromatographic separations using mobile and stationary phases. Definition of partition ratio, migration rate, capacity factor, selectivity factor, retention times, plate height and number of plates and relationship to peak width. Definition of resolution and column efficiency. Van Deemter plots and equation and the general elution problem.

• Gas Chromatography. Retention volumes, pressure drop and specific retention volumes, instrumentation (injection, columns, stationary phases, detectors). Temperature programming.

• High Performance Liquid Chromatography. Instrumentation for HPLC, partition chromatography, normal and reversed-phase HPLC, isocratic and solvent programmed (gradient elution), size exclusion (gel) chromatography.

• Electrophoresis. Slab and capillary electrophoresis, definition and factors affecting electrophoretic mobility, isoelectric focussing and gel electrophoresis. Instrumentation.

• Mass Spectrometry. The mass spectrum, hard and soft ion sources (electron impact, chemical, electrospray, fast atom bombardment, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization), fragmentation and ion-molecule reactions, isotopic ratios, mass analyzers and resolution (magnetic sector, double-focusing, quadrupole, time-of-flight), sample introduction (batch, direct probe) and strategy for identifying compounds.

This page created January 14, 1998 by Simon J. Garrett.