With support from the Chemistry Research Instrumentation and Facilities - Multiuser Instrumentation (CRIF-MU) Program, the Department of Chemistry at the University of California Riverside will purchase a gas chromatography quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometer. This equipment will enhance research in a number of areas including 1) characterization of highly reactive molecules: carbenes, diradicals); 2) development of new carbon nanotube-based field ionization emitters; 3) design of new heterogeneous catalysts; 4) metabonomic studies of arabidopsis thaliana; 5) synthesis of molecular pistons; and 6) gas phase ion chemistry and novel molecular systems.
Mass spectrometry (MS) is a technique used to probe intimate structural details and to obtain the molecular compositions of a vast array of organic, bioorganic, and organometallic molecules. It is one of the fastest growing and most widely used analytical instrumentation techniques. Because of this, it is important for undergraduate and graduate students to be exposed to the technique. This instrument will be accessed by a large number of underrepresented minority students in accordance with the demographics of the University of California Riverside and minority student participation via cyber-links from Alcorn State University and California State University Bakersfield. Undergraduate students from Point Loma Nazarene University, a primarily undergraduate institution, will also use the instrument remotely via cyber-enablement.
