Spectroscopic characterization of molecules is typically reinforced in the organic chemistry teaching laboratory via the analysis of reaction products by NMR and IR, and initial coverage of these topics can include experiments involving the identification of unknown compounds. To combine the unknown identification component with common laboratory…

Chemistry undergraduate curricula typically place Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) lectures under either Organic Chemistry or Spectroscopy courses, aiming for students to acquire basic knowledge for the determination of the structure of simple organic compounds. On the other hand, regarding laboratory practice, NMR is frequently disregarded by…

The pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing industry has become the largest industrial sector for the employment of chemists, indicating a need for experiments with a pharmaceutical sciences context in the undergraduate chemistry curriculum. In the pharmaceutical industry, testing drug dissolution is a key analytical task for solid oral dosage…

A functionalized fiber (PAN[subscript ADMAP]F) was synthesized by immobilizing "N,N'"-dimethyl-"N"-(4-pyridinyl)-1,3-propanediamine (ADMAP, a DMAP analogue) onto the surface of polyacrylonitrile fibers (PANF). The structure and morphology of the functionalized fibers were characterized by Fourier transform infrared…

The reduction of alkenes usually involves a hydrogen source and a catalyst. This process is both expensive and not well-suited for a large teaching laboratory. This paper presents an alternative procedure using a mixture of cobalt chloride and sodium borohydride to achieve the reduction of methyl oleate to methyl stearate. This procedure is safe,…

Nitrate is a crucial parameter for assessing water quality, owing to its dual function in ecological systems. These functions can be beneficial or detrimental depending on whether nitrate concentrations are low or high, respectively. The ultraviolet spectrophotometric method (standard as 4500-NO[subscript 3]--B) is a classic method for determining…

[superscript 1]H NMR spectroscopy is a molecular characterization technique that is ubiquitously used in research and teaching laboratories alike. Strategic deuteration of molecules is a commonly employed technique in the deconvolution of [superscript 1]H NMR signals. Here this approach is applied in a second-year chemistry course in which…

The design of undergraduate laboratory courses that provide meaningful research-based experiences enhances undergraduate curricula and prepares future graduate students for research careers. In this article, a course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) laboratory module was designed for upper-division undergraduate biochemistry and…

A robust laboratory protocol for the three-step synthesis of "p"-tolyl 2,3,4,6-tetra-"O"-benzoyl-1-thio-[beta]-d-glucopyranoside from commercial glucose pentaacetate is reported. The previously reported procedures have been modified to accommodate laboratories and students without proper training or equipment needed to conduct…

An experiment for the synthesis of N-acyl derivatives of natural amino acids has been developed as part of the Distributed Drug Discovery (D3) program. Students use solid-phase synthesis techniques to complete a three-step, combinatorial synthesis of six products, which are analyzed using LC-MS and NMR spectroscopy. This protocol is suitable for…

This laboratory experiment employs an innovative approach to introduce undergraduates to liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) by developing a method based on multiple reaction monitoring (MRM). During this qualitative investigation, students operated a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer in the MS scan and product ion scan…

This article reports the results of a curriculum survey of 322 analytical chemistry instructors (92% U.S.-based) conducted during Spring 2021. This snapshot of current course formats, topics, and pedagogical methods will be useful to both seasoned and novice teachers of analytical chemistry. The majority of respondents reported that their major…

A low-cost, time-resolved spectroscopy experiment appropriate for third year physical chemistry students is presented. Students excite o-methyl red in basic solutions with a laser pointer and use a modular spectrometer with a CCD array detector to monitor the transient spectra as the higher-energy cis conformer of the molecule converts back to the…

A laboratory experiment is described that extracts the tetrapyrrolic teal-colored biliverdin IXa, as its dimethyl ester, from commercially available emu eggshells. The extraction of ~10 mg samples of biliverdin is simple and requires two 3 h lab periods: A two-step acid digestion and liquid-liquid extraction, followed by short silica gel flash…

We have developed a multiweek laboratory project in which students isolate myoglobin and characterize its structure, function, and redox state. The important laboratory techniques covered in this project include size-exclusion chromatography, electrophoresis, spectrophotometric titration, and FTIR spectroscopy. Regarding protein structure,…