Course Intro

LAB MANUAL - SPRING 2025 EDITION

Welcome to the analytical laboratory and welcome also to the newest edition of this online laboratory manual.

Analytical chemistry seeks to answer the questions What? and How much?. This means that our goal as analytical chemists is typically to determine the identity of one or more chemical species in a sample, as well as the amount of these species in the sample. Often times these questions are referred to as qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis, respectively. Most of our laboratory projects in this class will focus on quantitative analysis. We will be trying to determine the amount of a specific chemical component present in a mixture, with both high accuracy and high precision. In fact, a significant portion of your grade will be determined by how well you answer the question How Much?. With this in mind, your technique in the laboratory is more important than ever before. You must learn to be patient, yet efficient, and you must always pay attention to the details.

OBJECTIVES

It’s important to keep in mind the objectives of the laboratory aspect of a course in analytical chemistry. I see our objectives as the following:

• • To refine laboratory skills and develop confidence in using these skills

  • To become comfortable with the routine operation of common analytical instruments

  • To learn to critically evaluate scientific data and draw conclusions from that data

  • To gain a practical understanding of the use of statistics for interpreting and reporting scientific data

  • To develop skills in the clear and concise presentation of experimental results

  • To gain experience in carrying out each step of the analytical process: gathering samples, preparing samples, acquiring data, interpreting data, reporting results, drawing conclusions, and disseminating information

Another overall goal for this course is to help each of you develop the skills of a “professional” chemist. The most common "chemistry job" for our graduates after graduation is as a laboratory analytical chemist. So I want you to leave this course prepared to begin a position as an entry-level analyst in a typical analytical laboratory. Many of the skills you will need involve very traditional laboratory procedures such as solution preparation, sample preparation, etc. But the skills of today's professional chemists must go far beyond good laboratory technique. Today's chemist must be:

• • Able to work both individually and in a team

  • Computer-literate

  • Familiar with a wide variety of chemical instrumentation

  • Adept at keeping clear and accurate records

  • Able to effectively communicate scientific information through both writing and speaking

THE PAPERLESS LABORATORY

In an attempt to use more sustainable practices, this will be a "paperless" laboratory. Paperless does not mean that the use of paper is forbidden, it simply means that I will not give you any paper, and I will not ask you to give me any paper. Now while going paperless simply for sustainability purposes may seem like enough, but my goal is to also make every paperless practice better than its paper counterpart:

• • Lab manual. This online lab manual includes lots of photos, links to helpful sites, and videos for important steps in the procedures. It also allows for easy edits to portions that may be unclear or incorrect.

  • Lab notebook.  An online lab notebook (LabArchives, in our case) allows for faster, clearer, and more complete note-taking. It is trivial to upload photos, videos, spreadsheet files, and data files. Notebooks can be accessed anytime from anywhere, which is also helpful for grading.

  • Lab reports.  All lab reports are submitted on a form in LabArchives. This minimizes mistakes and allows me to grade reports more quickly and accurately.

  • Pre-lab quizzes.  All pre-lab quizzes are delivered through Moodle so they can be taken from anywhere. You can take a quiz up to three times and only your highest score will be recorded.