Rowan University

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry

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ORGANIC SPECTROSCOPY

Instructor: Dr. Robert Newland
Office: 130 New Science Building
Phone: 256-4502
Email: newland@rowan.edu

Texts: Crews, Rodriguez and Jaspars, Organic Structure Analysis, Oxford University Press, 1998; Pavia, Lampman and Kriz, Introduction to Spectroscopy, 3rd Edition, 2001.

Lecture/discussion/lab: The topics to be covered this term are: infrared & Raman spectroscopy, mass spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and some "wet chemistry" as needed. The theme of the course will be the identification of organic molecules. The qualitative aspects of each technique will be our focus. The lab activities will include both technique development and compound identification. Each student will be working independently.

There will be a crunch for use of some instruments such as the NMR and GC/MS so these devices will be available at other times during the week. You may find it to your advantage to plan on coming in at times other than the scheduled lab periods.

Problem sets: Each week you will do a problem set. The average of these will be worth 40% of your total grade. The set will be handed out at the beginning of each Monday's class and are due back a week later. Answers will be distributed and you should spend time going over them. Late answers will not be accepted. Of course, all effort on these problem sets must be independent. The instructor may be consulted and any texts and web sites may be examined but no other human resources but your own may be used. Violators of this rule will flunk!

Lab work: A report of your lab effort is expected. There will be two different types of experiments; technique development and unknown purification and identification. More information about writeups and deadlines will be distributed later. The lab average will be worth 35% of the total grade.

Notebooks: A person is not a scientist if s/he cannot keep an accurate lab notebook. Your notebook will be worth 5% of the total grade. It will be examined on an unannounced schedule. See the handout on keeping a notebook and also read the material on notebooks in your old organic lab text.

Lab safety: Read the department handout. Lab glasses are mandatory!

Exams: Two exams will be given during the term. One will be during the finals period and the other will occur about the middle of the semester. Each test will be worth 10% of the total grade. Their format will be very similar to the problem sets. These tests will be take-homes.

CAI: H-NMR and C-NMR prediction software from ACD is availabel on one of hte computers in the Chem/Biochem computer lab. Spartan cna predict IR absortiion peaks althogh different calcualtion methods give different answers.

The information on this page represents that of Robert Newland and not necessarily that of Rowan University.
Robert Newland takes full responsibility for the information presented.