Modern instruments are powerful tools of analysis and their use is emphasized in the beginning organic chemistry laboratory, where the students learn of gas and high performance liquid chromatographs (GC, HPLC), and infrared, nuclear magnetic resonance, ultraviolet, and mass spectrometers. These instruments, especially the IR and GC, are used extensively not only for simple analysis of products from reactions and distillations but for the separation of complex mixtures to test mechanistic hypotheses (carbocation rearrangements). Undergraduate research is receiving increased emphasis at the institution. In a small college all instruments serve not only the beginning and upper class labs but the research students as well, so these instruments must produce quality data under demanding conditions and must be flexible enough to meet unanticipated new demands. Through this project, the institution upgraded its organic chemistry instrumentation. They acquired an easy-to-teach Fourier-transform IR and a capillary column GC. The new instruments provided significantly better data, allowed several new experiments to be performed, and enabled the faculty to teach new technologies. The institution contributed to this project in an amount equal to the NSF funds.
