Texts/Resources/Readings/Supplies

Required Text and other Items:

Principles of Instrumental Analysis, by D.A. Skoog, F.J. Holler, and S.R. Crouch., 6th Ed., Brooks Cole 2007. ISBN-13: 978-0-495-01201-6.
This book is designated as S in the schedule and assignments

i>Clicker We will use clickers in this course, and access to your own clicker is required. Bring your clicker to every lecture every day. For more info about clickers, see the FAQ page.
The clicker is available from the UD Bookstore or other vendors. As the clicker is about to be "upgraded" in Fall, I'll permit smartphone clickers for this course. The burden lies with the student to make these work.

Recommended Text:

Quantitative Chemical Analysis,by D.C. Harris, 8th Ed., W.H. Freeman and Co., New York, NY, 2010. ISBN-13: 978-1-4292-1815-3.
This book is designated as DCH in the schedule. It is not required - and you do not need to have the 8th edition in any case - but its more modern treatment
of analysis is worth at least a glance. In addition, the coverage in Harris is often far more clear than the presentation offered in
Skoog/Holler/Crouch. You should still have a copy of this book from Chem 115/120/220. This is not the main text because Harris has no coverage of instrumental methodsbeyond the basics.

There will also be readings from handouts and papers from the literature available for download at the Chem 437 site on Sakai.

You will need to be registered for the course as a student or as a listener to gain access to the Sakai site.

Learning Resources:

This course will be recorded for your repeated viewing.
Full lecture notes will be available in PDF format online, through Sakai. You are expected to attend lecture and to read material that I provide.

Student feedback on instruction:

I will ask for student feedback at midterm for course/instructor improvement purposes. There will also be an end-of-term student evaluation with a supplement to departmental student evaluation form.

Catalog Description

Chemistry 437 is an overview course covering a variety of methods of analysis using chemical instrumentation. As a required course for the Chemistry and Biochemistry undergraduate majors, the course is intended for third-year, undergraduate chemistry and biochemistry majors or for well-prepared students in closely allied fields. The emphasis is on the principles and practical application of instrumental transducers for quantitative determination of chemical compounds. This course presumes knowledge of basic physics and electronics, chemical nomenclature and some prior exposure to classical chemical analyses done using titrimetric or gravimetric methods. Concepts such as figures of merit of an analysis are introduced to provide a framework for a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages offered by various transducer systems used to relate physical properties to quantitiation of a target analyte in different sample matrices. Methods covered in the overview of instrumental analysis include a variety of spectroscopic methods, surface analysis, and electrochemical methods.

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Course Requirements and Policies

Course Requirements

This course is an introduction to chemical instrumentation and its use in quantitative and qualitattive analysis of complex samples. Chemometrics involves some math, so you will need to become comfortable with probability, statistical tests, matrix algebra and regression. You will learn a mixture of theory and practice, and will be asked to implement the theory in working computer code. Much of the code that you will need will be made available to you, but you will need to know how to make changes to existing code to do some of the work required. This skill will enable you to make use of the large code base available on the web.

 

Each homework set will involve some theory, some computation and may involve some critcal evaluation of results.

Course Policies

Academic Honesty:

You are encouaged to become familiar with The University’s Policy of Academic Honesty found in the UD Student Guide to University Policies. More on the whole issue of academic integrity can be found here. Policies delineated in the Catalog apply to this course. While homework sets for Chem 437 can be done in collaboration with others enrolled in the course, all answers should be your own and all work on the examinations must be done entirely independently. By turning work into the instructor of this course, you acknowledge being made aware of the academic honesty policy and affirm your adherence to the letter and spirit of the policy.

Clicker Question Policy:

Each week, there will be several clicker questions embedded in the lecture. Your resonse to these questions will be recorded and the percentage of correct answers will determine the clicker score you earn for the class. The score is determined as follows: any percentage of correct answers of 50% or higher earns 20 points. Scores between 0 and 50% earn a corresponding fraction of the 20 points. A percentage of 0% earns 0 clicker points. Clicker points cannot be made up, even for excused absences. You may not re-take clicker questions to improve your score.

While consultation and collaboration between students is encouraged in answering the clicker questions, use of any clicker (of any sort, including any pda or cell phone) other than your own to answer clicker questions is considered a violation of academic honesty. All clicker questions given in lecture prior to an exam are material subject to examination.

Assignments:

Collaboration is allowed - even encouraged - on homework, but all answers submitted must be your own. Any identical/duplicate (e.g., xeroxed or copied word-for-word) answers submitted may be penalized, in accordance with the academic honesty policy. Homework deadlines are posted and you are expected to meet these deadlines. If you have a problem and cannot make the deadline, please let the instructor know. I may be able to allow some extra time for a once-only problem. Late work will generally be penalized. Work missed for a reason (illness, conference travel, etc.) can be made up without penalty. You are expected to submit carefully-prepared solutions to all problems. Answers should be clearly indicated and all work shown. No credit will usually be given for work submitted after the solutions are posted on Sakai.

Any homework assigned with a due date prior to the date of an exam is eligible for inclusion on that exam if the solutions are posted 48 hrs prior to the exam.

Attendance and Excused Absences Policy:

Though formal attendance is not taken at lecture, you are expected to attend all scheduled lectures. Information provided in lecture may not always be duplicated on the class web site. You will be responsible for all information given in lecture, whether or not you are in attendance.

The class policy on absences follows the University policy, which can be found here. Any absences from exams should be announced, if possible, in advance of the exam, and the student missing an exam will need to provide an excuse note to be offered a make-up exam. Absences will be excused for medical reasons (serious illness requiring a doctor's care), family emergencies, some University sanctioned events, and employer-required absences. Scheduled absences must be made known in writing to the course instructor in advance so that arrangements can be made for adjustment of due dates of class and laboratory assignments. Scheduled absences may require an e-mail from the Dean's Office or from the employer to support student claims.

Minor absences may be excused at the discretion of the course instructor on a case by case basis, depending on the reason for the absence and what course material is missed.

Special Accomodations:

Students requesting special accomodations in Chem 437 must already be registered with UD's Disabilities Support Services or Academic Enrichment Center, as appropriate. Those students should contact the course instructor well in advance of any course activity to arrange for special accomodations that follow the terms of the arrangements set by the Support staff.

E-Mail Policy:

Important notices and correction of errors will be sent to the e-mail distribution list for the class to provide the fastest dissemination of the information. The registrar will include your campus e-mail account on these class distribution lists, so plan to check it regularly.

I make every effort to repond promptly to e-mailed questions or concerns from students. Be aware that because University filters may trap and remove mail - especially external mail - under some circumstances, I may not receive or be able to respond to e-mail originating from off-campus e-mail accounts.

Cell Phone Policy:

Placing and especially receiving phone calls and texting in class is disruptive and discourteous to your fellow students and to the instructor. You are expected to turn your cell phone off and stow it during lectures and course help sessions.

Note: Accessing a cell phone, ipod or pda during any Chem 437 exam may result in the immediate expulsion of the student from the exam.

Grading

Grading, Evaluation Policies and Procedures:

The course will be marked on the basis of your performance on homework, on clicker questions, on the best 2 of 3 midterm exams and on a final exam. The grade given will be determined on the basis of the total number of points earned.

The distribution of points is as follows:

Task                                                                Points

Homework (5 sets, each worth 30 pts):           150 pts
Clicker points:                                                 30 pts
MidTerm Exams (lowest score is dropped):     200 pts
Final Examination (5/18-5/24/11):                   120 pts
TOTAL:                                                        500 pts

All grade disputes must be submitted no later than 5 business days after the graded work has been returned to you. A decision on the dispute will be made promptly and the new grade will be available to you on Sakai.

Grading Scale:

    > 425 pts   A
375-424 pts   B
250-374 pts   C
200-249 pts   D
     < 200 pts   F

The average grade earned by previous students in this course offered by this instructor has been B-.

Calendar

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General course information

Course information

Course pre-requisites:

Prerequisite courses are Chem 322 or Chem 334 and concurrent enrollment in Chem 418 or Chem 443. This course presumes some basic knowledge of chemical instrumentation at the level of Chem 120 or 220/221.
Students should also have had an exposure to basic physics as covered in Phys 201-202 and in elementary statistics as covered in Chem 115.

Course Description:

Study of the principles of design and application of spectroscopic, chromatographic and electroanalytical techniques to the solution of chemical problems. A required, three-credit, survey course intended for majors in Chemistry and Biochemistry or closely related subjects.

Course Objectives:

Students completing this course should be able to understand and critically evaluate basic instrumental measurement techniques from spectroscopy, chromatography and related separation techniques, and electrochemistry. Students should also understand how figure of analytical merit concepts allow selection of measurement methodology and should be able to perform basic calibration calculations for an instrumental analysis.

Completion of this course will provide the student a foundation for more advanced work or research in measurement-oriented chemistry.

Departmental Objectives:

This course meets Departmental Objectives 1 and 6.

Teaching Assistant Information:

Name	Section	Lab Time	E-mail	Phone	Office	Office Hour
B. Herbert	020	M 1230-1630	bherbert@udel.edu	x6860	QDH 210	1030-1200 WF
J. Gao	021	M 1800-2200	gaoj@udel.edu	x0667	LDL 113	1400-1600 F
Q. Zou	022	W 1230-1620	qjzou@udel.edu	x2625	LDL 003	0900-1100 F
J. Wang	023	W 1800-2200	jingwang@udel.edu	x2625	LDL 005	1000-1200M, 1600-1700 T

 

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Last Updated: 11 February 2011

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