State of the Art Facilities

The Valparaiso University Chemistry Department has the following equipment that is available for use in undergraduate instruction and research.

Fourier Transform Nuclear Magntic Resonance spectrometer (FT-NMR) - Bruker 200 MHz - Used to determine molecular structure of organic compounds.
Fourier Transfer Infrared spectrometer (FTIR) - Bomem 120 - Used to determine and identify molecular structure by susing a substances vibrational properties.
Ultraviolet/Visible spectrometers (UV/VIS) - Beckman, HP diode array & Molecular Devices microplate reader - Used to make qualitative and quantative analysis using a sample's ability to absorb visible and ultraviolet light.

Valpo student are exposed to a variety of equipment in several labs.

Raman Laser spectrometer - Used a research setting to study colloids and surfaces. Fluorescence Spectrometer (SLM) - Used to probe protein-substrate interactions.
Atomic Absorption spectrometer (AA) - Used to analyze trace metals in solution.
Inductively Coupled Plasma spectrometer (ICP) - Used to analyze minute quantites of metals.in solution.
X-Ray diffraction spectrometer - Used to determine powder patterns of crystaline materials.
Gas Chromatograph - Mass Spectrometer (GC-MS) - HP GCD - Used to separate and identify compounds in mixtures.
Gas Chromatograph (GC) - HP5890 - Used to separate volatile mixtures.
High Preformance Liquid Chrmatographs (HPLC) - Waters - Used to searate non-volatile mixtures.
Chromatatron -
Gel Electrophoresis - Used to separate protein mixtures.
Speed-Vac Concentrator -
Superspeed centrifuge - Beckman -
High capacity refrigerated centrifuge - Juan -
Protein Sequencer - Porton Instruments - Used to obtain amino acid sequences of proteins.
Microbalance - Cahn - Used to weigh minute quantities of protein.
Magnetic Susceptibility - Johnson Matthey - Used to determine number of unpaired electrons in metallic compounds.
Electrochemical workstation - BAS - Used to examine the electrochemical properties of materials.
Polarograph/Voltammeter - Princeton Applied Research - Used to examine the electrohemical properties of materials.
Silicon graphics workstations - Used to perform molecular modelling.
Computer interfaces and various probes