Lab Equipment

SPectroscopy Studying what occurs with matter when it is interacted with electromagnetic radiation Our colorimeters are spectroscopes. A beam of light is passed through a solution. Some of that light may or may not be absorbed by the solution. The light being absorbed is due to resonance in the electronic vibrations, the electrons in the molecules that make up the bonds can vibrate.

Resonance Materials have a natural frequency, that is the frequency that it will vibrate at the easiest. You can shatter a glass if you can sing a note exactly at the natural frequency of the glass. Flick the glass and listen for the sound it makes. Sing a note exactly at that sound and those sound waves at the right frequency will be absorbed by the glass and cause it to vibrate. The others pass by.

Spectroscopy The light resonating with electrons is what occurs with spectroscopy. When light is emitted though, some will resonate, shake bend, twist different electrons at different sites. This is the energy that is absorbed

UV VIS Spectroscopy UV or Vis Spectroscopes measure ultraviolet and visible light spectroscopy of a substance. https://www2.chemistry.msu.edu/faculty/reusch/virttxtjml/spectrpy/uv-vis/uvspec.htm#uv1

Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy, FTIR This uses a method to measure the absorption of infrared light. A Fourier transform is a mathematical process required to convert the raw data into a spectrum. Instead of shining a monochromatic light beam into a source, a beam containing many frequencies is emitted into the substance. This is repeated with many different beams containing different combination of light frequencies. A computer is used to work backwards from this data to infer which light beams are absorbed using a common algorithm, Fourier transform

FTIR Although a bit counterintuitive. FTIR lessons a common problem in IR spectrometry, noise. In essence it is difficult to get a perfect monochromatic IR light, by testing many frequencies of infrared light at once the signal to noise ratio is much higher.

FTIR

Microprobe Attenuated Total Reflectance (ATR-FTIR) Commonly used in conjunction with FTIR, ATR is an attachment to the FTIR machine. An ATR crystal uses total internal reflection to create an evanescent wave, a wave that doesn’t propagate, that comes in contact with the sample.

Microscopy Study of using tools to see objects too small to be seen with the naked eye. A standard compound light microscope uses lenses to magnify light images. Diffraction limits magnification to approximately 1500x

Optical Microscope

electron Microscopes Works in a very similar fashion to the optical microscope, however, instead of visible light it uses a stream of electrons. Electrons have a wavelength 100,000x shorter than visible light photons. This allows for magnifications of up to 10,000,000x

Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) SEM works by probing the surface of an object with a beam of electrons. Detectors check for deflected electrons. Color- no electron microscope can produce a color image, only gray scale. Some images are colored afterwards. Ant head-----------------

Thermal Gravimetric analyzer Thermal Gravimetric Analyzer measures physical characteristics; mass, phase, over a variety of temperatures. This is used to test the thermal stability of several polymers and ceramics. This tells you what temperatures a material is safe to work under.

Differential Scanning Calorimeter Thermoanalytical device to measure the amount of heat required to increase the temperature of the sample. A material is heated next to a substance with a known heat capacity, heat flows between the two to keep the temperature constant.

Chromatography A method of separating a material by moving a mobile phase through a stationary phase. A simple example is paper chromatography. A sample soluble in a solvent is placed on paper. The paper is then place in the solve so that the sample is above the solvent. The solvent climbs up the paper by capillary action and separates the sample because they have different mobility rates.

High-performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) Works is a manner similar to regular chromatography, except the liquid mobile state is pressurized by a pump. This forces the mobile state through the stationary phase.

Other equipment Particle size analyzer Dynamic mechanical analyzer- applies forces to test