CHEMISTRY 3780

                                                    INSTRUMENTAL ANALYSIS

                                                                       Fall 2007

 

Instructor:                     Jonathan P. Blitz

Lecture:                        1:00 - 1:50 MW

Laboratory:                  T 8-11 (Blitz) or R 8-11 (Lawrence)

Office:                          S-3450 (Phone 581-6369), jpblitz@eiu.edu

Office Hours:                M 9-10 & 2-3, W 9-10 & 2-3

Texts:                           Principles of Instrumental Analysis, 6th Edition (2007), Skoog/Holler/Crouch                                        

                                    Quantitative Chemical Analysis, 7th Edition (2007), Harris

                                    Writing:  The ACS Style Guide, 2nd Edition, J.S. Dodd, Editor

Lab Manual:                 Website: http://www.ux1.eiu.edu/~cfjpb/teaching/ia/iahome.htm

 

If you have a documented disability, please see me and every effort will be made to assist you in your efforts.

 

COURSE OVERVIEW

The course consists of a lecture and a laboratory component.  The lecture is worth 50% of your total grade, the lab is also worth 50% of your total grade. 

 

Chemistry 3780 has three main objectives, to:  (1) familiarize you with various chemical instruments and how they are used; (2) help you understand the advantages and limitations of various instrumental approaches to analytical problems; and (3) give you practice in the laboratory and in writing formal laboratory reports. We will cover instrumental fundamentals, spectroscopic, and chromatographic techniques.  There is insufficient time to cover electroanalytical chemistry.

 

This course is a “writing intensive” course. Writing quality laboratory reports is a crucial component of this course.  There is a significant increase in expectation level in the quality of work and thought which is required to do well in both lecture and laboratory as compared to quantitative analysis.

COURSE GRADE

The following grades are guaranteed if your overall course score is greater than or equal to the following:

 

                        OVERALL COURSE SCORE                       OVERALL COURSE GRADE           

                                    90%                                                     A        

                                    80%                                                     B

                                    70%                                                     C

                                    60%                                                     D

 

NOTES ABOUT THE LECTURE

Homework will be assigned but not graded.  While there will be some numerical problems, they are generally not particularly challenging and of the “plug and chug” variety.  Most questions, even numerical problems, are meant to illustrate important concepts.  Many questions will involve short answers which are designed to probe your understanding of the material, as well as your ability to synthesize that material into meaningful knowledge. (Contrast with quantitative analysis.) Hence good writing again comes in handy even during exam time.  You will need to generate a deep understanding of the material in order to perform well.  This is not easy, and cannot be done a few days prior to an exam.  In short this is a deceptively difficult course.

 

The final exam will be on Tuesday, December 11, at 12:30 PM.

 

NOTES ABOUT THE LABORATORY

 

Logistics.       

You have signed up for laboratory on either Tuesday mornings or Thursday mornings.  You will be assigned a laboratory to perform in a given week at your time.  Adequate preparation, particularly in the latter part of the semester, is absolutely vital.  The first week of lab you will break up into groups of two or three depending on the number of people in lab.  Staggered starting times will be assigned so your instructor can provide you uninterrupted attention to get you going.  The choice of lab partner is very important; it will influence how positive the laboratory experience is and how much you learn.  The choosing of lab partners should be done with care, your instructor can assign groups if that is preferred.  Groups of 3 will be allowed to the extent they are mathematically necessary, but such groups will be minimized. Once these groups are set in the first week, a lab schedule will be prepared for you so you know what to expect for the remainder of the semester.

 

 

Reports.         

Each group member must submit a separate report.  You will share data, make copies of spectra, etc.  You may also discuss the lab with each other to try to figure out what is going on. Collaborations in the laboratory write-ups is not allowed.  Lab write-ups which are strikingly similar among group and/or class members will be treated as plagiarism.  Taking or paraphrasing large excerpts of your report from other sources is also plagiarism.  Paraphrasing or simply using extended passages from the text, with references, may not be plagiarism in the strictest of terms, but it is also not acceptable. The report should be in your own writing. Plagiarism is a most serious academic integrity issue, which will result in a failing grade not for the assignment, but for the class. Disputes will be resolved through the Office of Academic Integrity.  The issue of plagiarism in a variety of forms has come up in this class more than once; no tolerance remains.

 

All laboratory reports should be turned in to your instructor in hardcopy. In addition, an electronic version of your report will be uploaded to www.turnitin.com. This software will check your report against an extended database of reports and other reference materials, reporting back with statistics related to the possibility of plagiarized material. You must each enroll at this web site to upload your documents.  The information you will need is the Class ID: 1997241 and Class enrollment password: Instrumental

 

For some instrumental lab is the first junior or senior level laboratory course encountered. The report requirements will be a shock to people in this situation.  In previous courses the mechanics of performing the laboratory were stressed. The quality of your analytical results remains important, constituting a portion of the laboratory grade, but not to the same extent as quantitative analysis, which was meant to teach laboratory technique.  It is important now that you not only exhibit proper laboratory technique, but also be able to understand the concepts of the experiment, and write a detailed report describing your work.  In other words comprehension and writing skills will be stressed, but proper laboratory technique must not be ignored.  This will not be an easy adjustment for most; nor will this be pleasant for anyone (instructor included), but  it is too important to ignore.  The only way to attain the important goal of competently conveying ideas on paper is to hold you to a reasonable standard.

 

Reports must be typed.  Quality is better than quantity.  Don't fill up space with unnecessary blather, your grade will suffer.  Since your report should include an account of what happened in lab (i.e. an experimental section), you will thank yourself for keeping a good lab notebook. 

 

Refer to the ACS Style Guide and my web site for help in writing your reports.  You will find Chapter 1 in the ACS Style Guide to be most useful. 


Approximate Laboratory Schedule

 

Week of

Laboratory

August 20

Introduction/Group Assignments/Check-in

August 27

Calibrations I: Standard Calibration & Beer’s Law

September 3

Calibrations II: Standard Additions

September 10

Calibrations III: Internal Standards

September 17*

Instrument Components*

September 24*

Signal-to-Noise and Trading Rules*

October 1*

Chromatography Basics*

October 8

Projects Discussion

October 15

Laboratory Preparations I

October 22

Laboratory Preparations II

October 29

Laboratory Preparations III

November 5

Pre-lab Presentations

November 12

Round Robin I

November 19

Round Robin II

December 3

Check-out

 

* Different groups will perform these three labs on different dates on a staggered schedule to be determined.

 

On or by October 8 you will be given a reference from either the Journal of Chemical Education or the Chemical Educator which describes, in general terms, a laboratory for Instrumental Analysis. Each group will work out the details of these labs, and complete a write-up to be simultaneously handed in to me and your fellow students on November 5. On this date each group will present a pre-lab lecture of the experiment which you completed. The final two weeks of the semester groups will perform labs that the other groups have prepared based on the journal article assigned. These labs will be written up and handed in the same way as the earlier labs.