GC/MS for Chemistry and Biology

Doane University, Crete NE

Investigators

Abstract

Chemistry (12) At Doane College, we use a gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer (GC/MS) to significantly increase the opportunities for students to acquire sophisticated data in its chemistry and microbiology courses, as well as in undergraduate research in those areas. The students are learning to critically evaluate the data from this instrument and to integrate that data with other data from currently available instruments and techniques to solve progressively more difficult problems in their coursework and research. The goal is to help our students develop deductive reasoning and problem solving skills and gain hands-on experience with common modern instruments. We are adapting a number of experiments from the J. Chem. Educ. and from the microbiology literature such as the J. Microbiol. Methods for inclusion into our chemistry and biology curriculum to achieve our goal. The instrument gets its greatest use in organic chemistry and in microbiology courses and research. In most organic chemistry experiments, each student gets a unique set of starting materials and has to determine the outcome of the reaction by analyzing the often-complex product mixtures. In Bacteriology and in Environmental Microbiology, the phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) method of analysis is used to explore mixtures and consortia of bacteria form both laboratory and field samples. In both areas, the GC/MS provides information that allows more complex and meaningful experiments to be performed. We are also developing new undergraduate experiments that will be used in both chemistry and biology courses.