Analytical Chemistry

Catalog description

This course will cover both classical analytical chemistry and instrumental methods of analysis in a 14-week period. It will start with the fundamentals of analytical chemistry, which include chemical equilibrium and how it underpins acid-base titrations, complexometry, redox and precipitation titrations, as well as gravimetric methods of analysis. In addition, experimental errors, statistical analysis of data, propagation of uncertainty, distribution of measurements and results, limits of detection, will also be presented. The next section in this course will provide the theoretical basis for the most important and widely used instrumental methods of analysis. This will include atomic spectrometry, molecular spectroscopy, as well as molecular mass spectrometric techniques. The main emphasis will be to explain how instrumental methods can be used to quantitate a variety of analytes present at trace levels in complex samples. This includes the use of some of the most powerful chromatographic techniques which are vital for separating complex mixtures of compounds and analytes in a wide range of sample types.