This project will increase the scientific literacy of students by allowing them to experience the excitement and power of technological advances in chemical instrumentation and improve chemistry education on all levels by providing instruction and increasingly consistent use of the type of chemical instrumentation used routinely in the chemical profession. A Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectrometer System will be purchased. At each course level students will be introduced to infrared (IR) spectroscopy theory at a slightly deeper level and will get experience in using the instrument. The non-majors in the introductory course will be taught the very fundamental concepts of IR spectroscopy and will do grouping studies of IR spectra they produce from thin film polymers they bring. Students in the preparatory chemistry course, general chemistry, and organic chemistry will progress through increasingly higher levels of instrumental operation, techniques of sample preparation, including attenuated internal reflectance and diffuse reflectance, spectral interpretation, structural identification, data base searches, data acquisition and manipulation, and spectral storage. They will do both qualitative and quantitative analysis.
