Enhancing the undergraduate chemistry curriculum with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

CHED 159

Elaine S. Magyar, emagyar@ric.edu, Marc C. Lamontagne, mlamontagne@ric.edu, and James G. Magyar, jmagyar@ric.edu. Physical Sciences Department, Rhode Island College, 600 Mt. Pleasant Ave., Providence, RI 02908
Integrating gas chromatography-mass spectrometry into courses at every level of instruction has added new elements of discovery, excitement, and understanding to the curriculum for all chemistry students at Rhode Island College, including chemistry, biology, physics, and clinical lab science majors, pre-medical and nursing students, and pre-service and in-service science teachers. The versatility and ease of use of the Varian 2200 GC-MS and autosampler have enabled us to design and implement a wide range of experiments. Our focus is on the use of GC-MS to enhance understanding of fundamental chemical principles related to structure, reaction mechanisms, or quantitative analysis. It is used as a problem-solving tool; and interestingly, it often presents new, unanticipated questions for students to resolve. We shall discuss our experience with GC-MS, including the response of students and laboratory instructors. The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the NSF (DUE 0310870) for support of this project.