Department of Chemistry

West Chester University

Chemistry Information
Office: 119 Schmucker
Science Center South
West Chester, PA 19383
Phone (610) 436-2631
Fax (610) 436-2890
Email: Department Chair


Facilities

Facilities Available for
Student Research and Chemistry
Courses

The department has a variety of modern scientific instruments, all of which are used in teaching and undergraduate student research. You will learn to operate and interpret results from many state-of-the-art instruments, such as gas and liquid chromatographs, including a number of chromatographs interfaced with other equipment (e.g., mass spectrometry), Fourier-transform infrared spectrometers, 60 MHz and our 400 MHz nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometers, ultraviolet-visible spectrometers, atomic absorption spectrometers, a differential scanning calorimeter, and a mass spectrometer.

One of the most recent upgrades is a Bruker D2 Phaser X-ray diffractometer. X-ray powder diffraction is a powerful technique for determing the structure of solids as well as their chemical composition.

In addition, many students will have the opportunity to use the department's other specialized instruments (thermogravimetric analyzer, catalyst evaluation facility, cyclic voltammeter, particle size analyzer, atmospheric sampler, titration microcalorimeter, etc.), as well as instruments housed in other departments and available for student use, such as transmission and scanning electron microscopes, laser scanning confocal microscope, analytical ultracentrifuge, scintillation counter and X-ray fluorescence spectrometer. The microscopy facilities are housed within the Center for Microanalysis & Imaging Research & Training (CMIRT), a powerful resource at West Chester for the investigation of the microscopic structure of matter.

Justin Hartline using a diffuse reflectance attachment on the FTIR spectrometer to measure the infrared spectrum of a porous silicon sample.

Bryan Kelly evaporating a 4 nm thick film of a Au/Pd alloy onto a porous silicon thin film to prepare it for scanning electron microscopy analysis.

Bryan Kelly placing a porous silicon sample
into the scanning electron microscopy to perform structural analysis.

Maria working on an individual research project with Dr. James Falcone in the Materials Research Center

Much of Maria's work is performed on our Nicolet Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectrometer. FTIR spectroscopy is a versatile technique that allows us to identify compounds by investigating their vibrational properties. Our spectrometer is equipped not only for transmission experiments but also it can perform attentuated total reflectance (ATR) and diffuse reflectance (DRIFTS) measurements.


Dry box in Dr. Felix Goodson's Polymer Chemistry Laboratory

Glassware used for synthesis in the Polymer Chemistry Laboratory

Elizabeth using one of the many analytical balances in the Chemistry department

Thermogravimetric Analyzer in one of the Instrument Laboratories

Ion Analyzer in one of the Instrument Laboratories

Dina Performing Analytical Separations on a High Performance Liquid Chromatograph in the Chromatography Laboratory

Chromatography is an extremely powerful and varied technique that is used to separate the components in a mixture. It is a technique that is essential to both analytical chemistry as well as synthetic chemistry. Here's a tutorial on chromatography.


A Parr 1455 Solution Calorimeter, which facilitates the measurement of thermodynamic properties, such as the heat of combustion.


Andria using the Gas Chromatograph/Mass Spectrometer in one of the Analytical Laboratories