Facilities

The Olin Center for Physics and Chemistry features more than 20,000 square feet of classroom, laboratory, and study space. It includes a lecture demonstration arena; well-equipped general, organic, analytical, biochemistry, physical chemistry, and inorganic laboratory facilities; a chemistry data analysis room that includes computer facilities for poster preparation; an organic instrumentation room; special laboratories for student and faculty research; three seminar-classrooms; a conference room; and a student lounge. The department received funding from the Fairchild Foundation and the National Science Foundation (NSF) for a high-field FT-NMR that is used by all organic chemistry students.

Instrumentation

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectrometer

The 300 MHz Bruker NMR spectrometer is used extensively in organic chemistry and physical chemistry laboratory courses. In addition, it supports the research of several faculty members.

 

 

High Pressure Liquid Chromatograph

Interfaced to a diode array UV-Vis detector, a fluorescence detector, and a fraction collector, our Shimadzu Prominance HPLC is useful for analyzing complex mixtures and purifying samples. 

 

 

Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrophotometers

Nicolet 360 and 380 FTIR spectrometers, which measure bond vibrations, are used for identifying compounds made in organic chemistry and advanced labs. 

Diode Array UV/Vis Spectrophotometers

Students throughout the chemistry curriculum use the department’s four Hewlett-Packard ultraviolet-visible diode array spectrometers to measure molecular chromophores. In addition, six OceanOptics spectrometers are used in first-year lab courses.

Nanodrop Spectrophotometer

A Thermo-Scientific Nanodrop 2000c is used in biochemistry lab courses for measuring protein and DNA concentrations as well as for measuring the optical density of cell cultures.

 

 

 

Scanning Electron Microscope

The FEI Phenom scanning electron microscope (SEM) is used to image samples at a resolution in excess of what can be achieved with optical microscopes.

 

 

Polarimeter

An Atago AP300 Digital Polarimeter is useful for measuring how chiral compounds rotate the angle of polarized light.

 

Atomic Absorption Spectrometer

The department’s Perkin-Elmer atomic absorption spectrometer is used in several project-based labs in General chemistry to analyze metal content in aqueous solutions.

Gas Chromatograph - Mass Spectrometer

The Varian Saturn 2100T mass spectrometer is interfaced to a Varian 3900 gas chromatograph, and is used to analyze masses and fragmentation patterns of molecules in complex mixtures.

Raman Spectrometer

The SPEX 500 raman spectrometer uses a CCD detector cooled with liquid nitrogen. It provides qualitative and quantitative information about the vibrational modes of molecules.

 

Zetasizer

Our Malvern Zetasizer ZS90 uses dynamic light scattering to measure nanoparticle size and zeta potential (the amount of electrostatic charge/repulsion between particles in solution). 

                   

 

Molecular Modeling Laboratory

Twelve quad-core 27” iMacs are used in general, organic, and physical chemistry courses to run Spartan and Odyssey software for modeling molecules and systems of molecules.

 

 

Gas Chromatographs

Three Gow-Mac gas chromatographs are used for analyzing fats in foods for the Nutrition labs.

 

 

 

Data Collection Stations

Twenty-four Macbook Pro laptops equipped with Vernier LabPro data-collection interfaces are used in the General chemistry lab for automated collection of routine data.