With this award from the Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) program, the Department of Chemistry at Washington and Lee University will acquire a Liquid Chromatograph Electrospray Ionization Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer (ESI/MS) for teaching and research at Washington and Lee University (W&L) and Virginia Military Institute (VMI). The ESI/MS will facilitate and impact research in the following areas: 1) Synthesis of Catalysts for Asymmetric Synthesis; 2) Synthesis and Characterization of Polyamide Macrocycles and their Complexes; 3) Separation and Quantitation of Plant Antioxidants; 4) Isolation and Quantitation of Flavonoids and Flavonoid Glycosides in Alliaria Petiolata; 5) Arthropod Exocrine Chemistry; 6) Mechanism and Regulation of Protein Phosphatases; 7) Characterization of Vinamidinium Salts; and 8) Mesogens and Metallomesogens from Flavonoids.
Mass spectrometry (MS) is employed to identify the chemical composition of a sample and determine its purity by measuring the mass of the molecular constituents in the sample after they are ionized and detected by the mass spectrometer. Liquid chromatography is a separation technique that precedes the mass spectrometry analysis. It separates a mixture into its several constituent chemicals which are then vaporized, analyzed and identified by the mass spectrometer. Electrospray is a technique used to vaporize and produce the ions from the sample to be studied in the mass spectrometer. Mass spectrometry is widely used as an analytical tool by chemists and biochemists. Undergraduate students will be trained in the use of this important tool preparing them for graduate school, jobs in industry and the military, and for careers in science teaching. Besides the use by students in research at both institutions, the ESI/MS will be incorporated into three courses in the W&L chemistry major's curriculum and one biology course. It will be used in the Women in Technology and Science Program, in which female W&L science students mentor middle school girls.
