The recent acquisition of a diode array ultraviolet-visible (UV/VIS) spectrophotometer, interfaced with a computer, is allowing undergraduate students in the Chemistry Department at Earlham College to develop a familiarity and competence with modern computer-controlled instrumentation. The system has the capability to collect data rapidly under a variety of circumstances and to manipulate and graph the data in various ways. Spectral analyses of metal complexes, chemical kinetics in biochemical systems, detector use in chromatographic separations, and use in independent study are among the applications of the system which students will explore.
