New and adapted separation experiments are being developed to build awareness among our students of the capabilities and limitations of high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and capillary electrophoresis (CE). The project involves incorporating separation science experiments and concepts across several chemistry laboratories so that, with repeated exposure, students have a clearer understanding of the experimental parameters that affect separation. Students will work together in an adaptation of the group format described by John Walters in a series of articles (Walters, J. P.; Analyt. Chem. 1991, 63, 971A; Analyt. Chem. 1991, 63, 1077A; Analyt. Chem. 1991, 63, 1179A). Ultimately students learn to adjust these parameters to improve separation. They also learn the full range of applicability of these instrumental techniques by analyzing a broad range of samples with different goals in mind, including chiral analysis, methods development and simulation, and protein and peptide characterization. Chemistry majors will discover that separation science has obvious applicability across all of the molecular sciences, and they will become more adaptable in their ability to solve chemical problems with a more complete and unified approach than before.
