These instruments are overseen by our Engineer.

  1. Three Thermo Finnigan Ion Trap mass spectrometers1 each equipped with an Electrospray Ionization (ESI)2 source.
    1. LCQ Advantage is used in direct infusion mode. Samples that are relatively pure and therefore do not need chromatographic separation are injected directly into the ESI source.
    2. LCQ DECA and an LCQ DECA XP Max each having two possible modes of operation:
      1. Direct infusion. Samples that are relatively pure and therefore don’t need chromatographic separation can be injected directly into the ESI source.
      2. HPLC/MS3. Components in a complicated mixture must first be separated before being injected into the ESI source. The Surveyor HPLC system can easily be connected to the ESI source thus allowing each component in the mixture to be mass analyzed as it elutes from the HPLC column.
  2. RATOS MS25 double focusing electrostatic/magnetic sector mass spectrometer. Used for exact mass analysis on pure samples. Available in electron impact, FAB or CI modes.
  3. Bruker Sentinel FT Raman.
  4. Two Beckman HPLC’s each with a scanning UV/vis photodetector.
  5. Two Varian Eclipse Fluorimeters:
    1. Peltier thermostated cuvette holders.
    2. Used with the Stopped-Flow Kinetics apparatus to measure rapid rates of reaction.
  6. Four Varian Cary 50 UV/vis spectrophotometers:
    1. Two of these instruments are equipped with Peltier thermostated cuvette holders.
    2. Used with the Stopped-Flow Kinetics apparatus to measure rapid rates of reaction.
  7. Two “Hi Tech” Stopped Flow Kinetics devices. These are used along with the Varian fluorimeters or UV/vis spectrometers for measuring the rate of fast reactions in solution.
  8. Two Varian FS220 Atomic Absorption spectrometers for dissolved metal analysis. There are four modes of operation:
    1. Air Acetylene Flame.
    2. Vapor generation apparatus for Hg & metal hydride analysis at ppb levels.
    3. Graphite furnace with auto sampler for analysis at ppb levels.
    4. An AutoSampler which can be used with either instrument in flame or vapor generation mode.
  9. Four Cypress Systems anodic stripping stations for analysis of dissolved metals at ppb levels.
  10. Two Midac FTIR spectrometers, mid IR only.
  11. A Hewlett Packard GC/MS.
  12. Three Thermo Electron TRACE Gas Chromatographs. Each equipped with a Split/Splitless injector, a TCD detector and an FID detector.

All of these instruments are available for undergraduate use in our Analytical and Physical Chemistry courses. Most are also available to the campus community. Some are available for use by off campus institutions.

 

1Ion Trap Mass Spectrometers. In addition to measuring the mass spectrum of a compound an Ion Trap Mass spectrometer can be used to do tandem mass measurements. In tandem mass spectrometry the ion of interest is first isolated from other ions that differ in mass in the first step (MS1). This ion is then fragmented by collisions with an inert gas. The mass spectrum of the resulting product ion fragments plus un-fragmented precursor ion is measured in the second step (MS2). This MS2 technique is used extensively in analytical mass spectrometry for the identification of unknown chemicals.

2Electrospray ionization. With the use of an Electrospray interface it is possible to couple the output from an HPLC chromatographic separation directly to the Ion Trap mass spectrometer.

3HPLC-MS is among the most commonly used analytical techniques in biological, chemical, and pharmaceutical characterization of non-volatile biomolecules and chemical compounds (Ex. drugs, cosmetics, etc.).