The Chemistry Department at the State University of New York at Albany (SUNY-Albany) will acquire a ambient high resolution time-of-flight mass spectrometer with this award from the Major Research Instrumentation program. Mass spectrometry is a basic tool used by chemists and biological scientists to identify and characterize materials and chemical species. The instrument provides an accurate measurement of the mass and fragmentation patterns as the ions are analyzed in the mass spectrometer. An ambient ionization mass spectrometer forms the ions outside the mass spectrometer under ambient conditions and usually requires little sample pretreatment. This important analytical tool will advance the research of students at all levels. It will also be used to train undergraduate students in laboratory course work. The instrument will be used in the institution's B.S./M.S. Forensic Chemistry program, and an applied MS program in Organic Chemistry which is heavily patronized by students working at area biotech companies. The instrument will be available to serve educational institutions in the New York State Capital District including six undergraduate colleges. It will also be a resource for the research-oriented Albany Medical College and Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences.
This acquisition will be used in a diverse body of research, especially in areas such as (a) investigations of metal complexation of bowl-shaped heterocorannulenes; (b) synthesis and structural investigations of volatile heterometallic molecular precursors to energy-related materials; (c) tracking of plant-derived volatile organosulfur compounds (VOSCs), and their environmental fate; (d) investigations of fluorinated compounds; (e) developing applications of hybrid nanomaterials for diagnosis and treatment of major diseases; (f) studies of modified RNA systems of both biological and evolutionary significance.
