CHEM 524 - 2011 - Spectroscopic
Methods in Analytical Chemistry
Meetings: Regular lectures: 4286 SES,
Occasional Extra sessions: on Wed. (2 sections, 9-10 and 11-12?)
Lecturer: Tim
Keiderling - office: 5407B
Questions/Problems - any day after class or by appointment
- best means of contact: e-mail: tak@uic.edu, alternate, phone: x6-3156
For Keiderling
group research interests see: www.chem.uic.edu/takgroup
Course Web Site: http://www.chem.uic.edu/tak/chem52411/
COURSE LEVEL: This course is a graduate
level Analytical Chemistry course on concepts and techniques related to optical
spectroscopy (UV-vis-IR) as used in chemistry and with a primary orientation
toward analysis. The lectures and the learning expected of you will go into
significantly more depth than the level and detail taught in an undergraduate
instrumental analysis sequence (e.g. Chem 421 at UIC) and will assume that you
are already familiar with the content of such a survey course. There will be
some overlap with the undergraduate curriculum (we will do some review);
however, some new aspects will not be fully covered in the lecture, but will require your learning them by reading on your own. It is expected that you will be come an
independent learner and scientist in our program.
This
is NOT a theory of spectroscopy course; that is
available in Chem. 543, offered most Spring terms in the Physical Chemistry
sequence (and each Fall for undergraduates as Chem 444). However, it does
assume that the student has an introductory exposure to such a theoretical
background at the senior undergraduate level, e.g. such as Chem 346-444 at
REQUIREMENTS: There
will be aperiodic assigned homework and readings to illustrate the lectures and
enhance discussion. Active participation in class AND completion of
homework is expected for those taking the course for credit who
wish to get a "good" grade. Thus BOTH will be graded in terms of
completion, but not for "correctness". There is no assigned
grader in Chem 524. Auditors are welcome and invited
to participate.
EXAMS: There will be a Final
exam which will reflect the entire course. It is worth 40-50% of the
points determining the grade. There will also be an Hour exam (which is worth
about half the final exam and is used to gauge progress), probably in mid to
late February.
PRESENTATION: Each student (or preferably a team of two students) will present a "sales pitch"
to try to convince the class (who will represent your “boss”) to purchase a
currently available commercial instrument to solve a research/analytical
problem. The teams will detail its components and argue why those components
are the best possible (including cost-benefit trade-off) choices for some
particular experiments. Presentations are NOT pedagogical, they do not lecture,
but rather try to convince ou to buy a specific instrument for a specific
purpose. It will include results of "comparison shopping" to show why
competing instruments are not as good choices for the particular application. A
critical part of the evaluation is based on how well you justify the instrument
for the research/measurement problem you propose. This is the kind of
presentation you will be required to make to your supervisors to gain funds for
new instrumentation in the "real world". A
professional presentation and write-up is expected, and will count about as
much as the hour exam.
In addition I have put a link to the lecture notes from the Fall 2005 and Spring 2009 offering of Chem
524 on a Web Site: http://www.chem.uic.edu/tak/chem52411/.
CLASS MEETINGS. There are currently 2 Timetable meetings per week
scheduled for 1.5 hour each. We will occasionally need to go beyond the regular
lecture sessions so that we can go into some topics at greater depth (as the
class chooses), or answer extra questions, or work problems. We will also have some optical equipment
demonstrations (of which part can be in class, since we are in 4286) and will
need to make up for some missed classes when the lecturer is forced to be away.
To do this we will schedule an extra session (at 9 or
Additional demonstrations of
relevant equipment or computational
techniques can be arranged on request if anyone is interested.
TOPICS: (It may prove useful to alter
the order and timing of each topic as the class evolves during the semester.
Following student suggestions in the past, I will leave some of the details for
you to glean from the text and handouts and try to focus on generalities and
applications in lecture.)
Spectroscopic methods
(including presentations):
- -