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Course Instructor: Professor Robert M. Corn Department of Chemistry 2139 Natural Sciences 2 Office hours: Thu 200p - 300p and by appt. Email: rcorn@uci.edu Lectures: Mon and Wed at 12:00p - 12:50p in MSTB 118 Discussion: Fri at 12:00p - 12:50p in MSTB 118 |
Chemical analysis has become a part of everyday life in America. Rarely a day passes without an environmental, biochemical or toxicological problem that is defined in terms of chemical composition and measurement. Arsenic contamination of groundwaters in Bangladesh, carbon dioxide measurements in the atmosphere, the detection of minute concentrations of cancer biomarkers, trace analysis for the identification of weapons materials in airports, the radiochemical analysis of nuclear cleanup sites -- all of these politically potent subjects require the use of chemical analysis to help define the issues. In this course we will learn how to apply the concepts of chemical reactivity, equilibrium and speciation from Freshman Chemistry in a quantitative fashion to the field of chemical analysis. We will also be introduced to the measurement techniques of optical spectroscopy (absorption and fluorescence), and electrochemistry (potentiometry and coulometry). Through a series of laboratory projects, we will learn how to design and implement a well-defined chemical analysis that conveys the results with full scientific validity and import.
Textbook:
Fundamentals of Analytical Chemistry, 9th ed.
D. A. Skoog, D. M. West and F. J. Holler and S. R. Crouch.
Hardcover: 1072 pages
Publisher: Brooks Cole; 9 edition (January 1, 2013)
ISBN-10: 0495558281
ISBN-13: 978-0495558286
There is a 7th and an 8th edition of this book as well. You are welcome to use an earlier edition and save a lot of money! Earlier editions have the same content, but sometimes the subject order is switched a little bit. A PDF copy of the table of contents of the eighth edition can be found here.
Course Structure:
This course is a little different from other lower division Chemistry labs in that we use a combination of lectures and labs to help you learn how to design, execute and analyze quantitative, meaningful chemical analyses. There are three parts to this course:
i) Two weekly lectures on Monday at Wednesday at 12:00p-12:50 pm
ii) One 4 hour laboratory per week and
iii) A weekly Friday discussion section that will include five quizzes.
Please see the full syllabus on the M3LC Canvas page for more details on the course policies, safety rules, lab reports and grading.