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UCD Chem 105: Lab Manual

  • Page ID
    2370
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    March 2018 note: The traditional Experiments #0 Introduction to Electronic Equipment and #1 Analog Electronics are no longer part of the current curriculum and were combined and replaced by Lab View.

    This manual is the culmination of the efforts of many individuals. While some of the experiments are "classics", and appear in various forms in many Quantitative Analysis textbooks and laboratory manuals, much effort was expended to ensure that the experiments work well here at U.C. Davis and thus each experiment has been extensively tailored for our laboratory program. We view this manual as one of continual modification, and often improvements arise from comments and criticisms. We thus encourage you to discuss ideas for improvements with your TA and instructor.

    • Introductory Details and Lab Format
      This is primarily an experimental chemistry course. Nine experiments are specifically designed for those who want to acquire basic knowledge and experimental stills in analytical and physical chemistry. Through this course, students will learn how to properly acquire and analyze data, and how to write standard lab reports.
    • Lab 0: Introduction to Electronic Equipment (retired-goto Expt #1)
      In this workshop, you will learn to use several important, ubiquitous pieces of electronics test equipment. You will use this equipment to complete the Electronics Laboratory Experiment later. The equipment used in this workshop includes a Digital Multimeter (DMM), an oscilloscope (O-scope), a Function Generator (F.G.) and a Direct Current Power Supply (DCPS). You will use these items to generate and measure several common types of electronic signals.
    • Lab 1: Lab View (Analog Electronics)
      In modern analytical chemistry, the quantity to be measured, for instance, the intensity of a light passing through a solution, is converted into an electrical signal which is then amplified or modified to operate a device which can visually display the numerical value of the measured quantity. A simple example is a pH meter in which the potential of the glass electrode responds to the concentration (more precisely, the activity) of hydrogen ions in solution.
    • Labs 2/3: Standardization of HCl & Potentiometry: Determination of an Unknown Soda Ash
      Standardization of HCl and Potentiometry: Determination of an Unknown Soda Ash In this experiment a pH meter equipped with an ion selective electrode (selective toward protons) will be used to construct the titration curve. The unknown carbonate/bicarbonate mixture which contains sodium bicarbonate and potassium carbonate in an unknown ratio is to be titrated with standard HCl using a potentiometric (pH) end point measured with a pH meter employing a pH glass electrode.
    • Lab 4: Gas Chromatography
      Gas chromatography is a physical method of separation in which the components to be separated are distributed between two phases, one being a stationary bed of large surface area, and the other a gas that percolates through the stationary bed. When the stationary phase is a solid, the separation process is more precisely called gas-solid chromatography.
    • Lab 5: Principles and Properties of Semiconductor Lasers
      In this experiment, you will learn the characteristics and the operation of one of the most commonly used and increasingly popular lasers (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) in chemical instruments: a semiconductor laser.
    • Lab 6: Atomic Hydrogen Spectroscopy
      The experiment described in the main procedure uses a prism spectrograph to disperse light and the image of the emission spectrum is recorded on a photographic plate. See the attached text for a detailed description of the theory of this experiment.
    • Lab 7: Absorption Spectra of Conjugated Dyes
      This experiment investigates the absorption spectra of a series of 3,3’-diethylcyanine iodide dyes.
    • Lab 8: Quantifying Protein Concentration
      Molecular absorption in the ultraviolet and visible region depends on the electronic structure of the absorbing molecule. Light energy is absorbed in quanta, elevating electrons from filled orbitals in the ground state to empty orbitals. Excited molecules return to the ground state, most often by radiationless transition, the absorbed energy appears in the system as heat. Since the frequency (or wavelength) of light absorbed is characteristic of the energy levels in a molecule.
    • Lab 9: Atomic Absorption
      Atomic absorption is an absorption process in which the amount of absorption of a reference emission beam by a ground state atomic vapor is measured and related to concentration. The emission beam is attenuated by atomic vapor absorption according to Beer's Law. The attenuated emission is focused directly on to a monochromator and the selected emission detected by a photomultiplier tube (PMT).

    Contributors

    Many faculty, teaching assistants, staff members, and students have been involved in this developmental process. While they are all too numerous to mention here, special acknowledgement must be given to Paul Hrvatin, Professor Donald P. Land, Professor Carlito B. Lebrilla, Professor Dino Tinti, Professor W. Ron Fawcett, Professor Ting Guo, Dr. Dara Gilbert, Dr. Fred Wood, Dr. John R. Berg, and Kymron B.J. deCesare for their efforts to continually improve these experiments for the benefit of the student. Thanks also to K.D. Hutches for revisions in Spring 2006 and Adam J. Jenkins in Winter 2019.

     


    UCD Chem 105: Lab Manual is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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