This project provides a gas chromatograph mass spectrometer system consisting of a Hewlett Packard model 6890 gas chromatograph and a Hewlett Packard model 5973 mass selective detector. This instrument system is used to remedy the most significant deficiency in our instrument holdings by allowing students to gain first-hand experience with mass spectrometry and with gas chromatography mass spectrometry. Students also learn the principles of computer-interfaced instrumentation and of spectral database searching. The gas chromatograph mass spectrometer system is used throughout the chemistry curriculum, including courses for chemistry majors, other science majors, and non-science-majors. On average, 330 students per year enroll in these courses. The instrument system is used in each course in such a way that there is a progression, both in laboratory skills and in conceptual understanding of gas chromatography and mass spectrometry, from the introductory courses through the advanced courses. The gas chromatograph mass spectrometer system also enhances many student-faculty research projects, including ongoing studies of photochemical reactions in micelles, new legends for the synthesis of bridged or caged metal complexes, products of metal complex-catalyzed reactions on stabilized clay colloids, molecules designed to study the principles of intramolecular catalysis, aminogallane precursors for new semiconductor materials, and unusual pyridine rinds and brominated allylic and nonallylic alcohols.
