Pittsburg State University
Department of Chemistry
INSTRUMENTATION
The Chemistry Department strives to keep itself well-equipped with modern instruments and computers. The philosophy of the department is that all instruments are available for hands-on use by chemistry students in their courses and research.
The Department has two modern NMR spectrometers operating at 60 and 300 MHz for protons. For more information, click here: NMR INSTRUMENTATION
A Shimadzu GC/MS [GC17A Gas Chromatograph with a QP5000 Mass Spectrometer detector is a workhorse for the organic chemistry laboratories. The GC separates mixtures of compounds and then a mass spectrum can be obtained for each compound. To the left of the GC/MS is a Tekmar LSC 2000 for concentrating water contaminants before analyzing them with the GC/MS.
An ISO FluoroMax-Fluorometer is an important instrument for the Biochemistry research lab
A GBC 908 Atomic Absorption Spectrometer is a key instrument in the Analytical Lab. Low concentrations of metals are detected with this instrument.
The Department has two Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectrometers. The Thermo Nicolet IR-300 gets heavy use in the Organic Chemistry Labs for the identification of organic compounds. An ATR attchment makes it easy to take IR spectra of solids.
The second FT-IR spectrometer is a Mattson Research Series FTIR. This instrument has a sensitive MCT detector that makes it useful for studies of compounds adsorbed on surfaces.
The Chemistry Department has an Atago AP-100 Polarimeter. This instrument is used in organic chemistry to determine optical rotation of mirror image isomers.
The Chemistry Department has its own computer lab in Room 121 Heckert-Wells. The computer lab is adjacent to the main chemistry lab for General Chemistry and Organic Chemistry. When a chemistry lab calls for computer analysis of data, the computer lab is reserved for use by that lab class.
The Department uses the Vernier Software "Calculator Based Laboratory" (CBL) System to bring instrumentation to the General Chemistry laboratories. Sensors are available for the measurement of temperature, pressure, pH, conductivity, and visible absorbance. The data is collected on a TI-83 graphing calculator in the chemistry lab and then downloaded into a computer in the adjacent computer lab.
Other instruments not pictured include:
PE 8410 Gas Chromatograph
MTI M200 Gas Chromatograph (for Gas Analysis)
Fisher Abbe Refractometer
Johnson-Matthey Magnetic Susceptibility Balance
PE GeneAmp PCR System 2000 (for amplification of nucleic acids)
MKS Quadrupole Gas Analyzer
Shimadzu AEG-120 and Denver APX-200 Electronic Analytical Balances
The Kansas Polymer Research Center (KPRC) of the Business and Technology Institute (BTI) is located in the Tyler Research Center. The labs are very well equipped for polymer research. Dr. Petrovic (Professor of chemistry), Dr. Javni (Adjunct Professor of Chemistry), and Dr. Guo (Adjunct Professor of Chemistry), are located at the KPRC and often make their instrumentation available for chemistry student use.
Departments at Pittsburg State University have an history of cooperating in the use of instrumentation. Chemistry students generally find the Physics Department and Biology Department willing to share their instrumentation.