The Chemistry Department places a strong emphasis on experimental work in its chemistry and biochemistry programmes, and to this end has expended considerable funds to provide outstanding laboratory facilities. Indeed, we feel that our undergraduate laboratories are as well equipped as any undergraduate laboratories in Canada.
Over the past several years improvements to our laboratory facilities have included:
- a Departmental Microcomputer Laboratory that includes facilities for computer-assisted information retrieval and online searching, and for molecular modeling;
- the Celanese Canada Inc. Laboratory, supported by a generous gift from Hoechst Canada, that houses our nmr facilities including a superconducting-magnet 200MHz nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer that allows students to carry out sophisticated nmr experiments involving both protons and carbon-13, and also to perform variable temperature, spin-decoupling, and 2-dimensional nmr experiments; and
- a Biochemistry Teaching & Research Laboratory.
Currently we are planning a major renovation of our two largest teaching labs to enable students to perfrom microscale synthesis in an all fume-hood, high ventillation facility, made possible as a major objective of the Learning for Life Capital Campaign.
In keeping with our goal of providing Students and Faculty with access to modern instrumentation for laboratory techniques, the Chemistry Department continues to provide new equipment and instrumentation and has modern facilities in the following specific areas:
Biochemistry:
- Electrophoresis.
- Cell culture.
- Chromatography.
- Refrigerating Circulation.
- Spectroscopy.
- Ultracentrifugation.
Chromatography:
- Analytical HPLC (computer controlled, uv/refractive index detection, and dual pumping solvent gradient control).
- Spinning thin layer chromatography.
- Column chromatography.
- Gas-Liquid Chromatography.
- Low pressure, high pressure, and preparative HPLC.
Microcomputers:
- Online searching.
- Instrument control.
- Molecular modeling.
Spectroscopy:
- Diode Array UV/VIS spectrophotometery.
- FTIR spectroscopy for solid, liquid, and gas phase samples (including Diffuse Reflectance, Specular Reflectance, and ATR as well as other FTIR techniques).
- Multinuclear NMR spectroscopy.
- Various other UV / VIS / IR / NMR spectrometers
Miscellaneous:
- Atomic absorption spectrometer.
- Coulometry.
- Karl Fischer water and automatic titrimetry
- Polarography.
Our undergraduate laboratories also have facilities for:
Fractional distillation, Kugelrohr micro-distillation, spinning-band distillation, and vacuum distillation; rotary evaporation; calorimetry; polarimetry; refractometry; magnetic susceptibility; gas phase kinetics; radioactivity measurement; preparation of anhydrous solvents; purification and use of non-aqueous and dipolar aprotic solvents; reactions carried out at low and at high temperatures; generation and manipulation of reactive reagents (e.g. ketene, ozone, diazomethane); inorganic, organic, and organometallic syntheses; manipulation of sensitive materials under an argon atmosphere; glass blowing.
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