9351485 Barkan Acquisition of a FTIR spectrophotometer will allow the introduction and development of hands-on instrumental structural analysis in the organic laboratory. The FTIR and associated software will also provide the students with computer assisted data collection, manipulation, and spectral data base searching. Organic Chemistry students will use the instrument to identify unknowns, follow reaction progress, identify products, and help establish purity of synthesized compounds. General Chemistry students will use the instrument to identify functional groups in an introduction to Organic Chemistry. The project will overcome a major deficiency in the current laboratory curriculum by introducing the students to FTIR techniques that are widely used in Chemistry.
