In the current trend toward microscale organic laboratories, the recent acquisition of two infrared spectrophotometers by the Chemistry Department at Hendrix College provides students with routine use of this instrumentation as an integral characterization tool for most of the microscale experiments. Additional instructional use is provided in Instrumental Analysis and senior Independent Study. The Department is continuing to develop new environmentally-safer experiments for the microscale laboratory, as well as to develop novel methods for the implementation of established experiments. This acquisition is assisting in the achievement of two general departmental objectives: (1) the introduction of modern instrumentation as a routine tool in introductory chemistry laboratories, and (2) the development of pedagogical models which may be useful to other institutions.
