The technique of Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) affords chemists a powerful tool for the separation and identification of the individual components of multi-coumpound mixtures. The introduction of undergraduates to this important methodology will be carried out by the development of a set of new experiments for Organic and Analytical laboratory courses. Included in the experiments are studies of Friedel-Crafts alkylation, orientation in dehydrohalogenation, measurement of a primary isotope effect and analysis of essential oils. This Instrumentation and Laboratory Improvement (ILI) award from the Chemical Instrumentation Program will help the Department of Chemistry at Miami University to acquire GC-MS instrumentation that will be used to enhance undergraduate laboratory instruction.
