Description. The goal of the chemistry lab in Matter & Motion is to provide students with "hands-on" experience in chemistry. The focus will be on chemistry as a skill, much like woodworking is a skill, i.e.,  to be competent and creative, the practioner needs a solid foundation in the basic tools of the trade. In chemistry, the tools include both classical "wet" techniques, such as titrations, and modern instrumentation and computer data analysis. Over the course of the year, we hope to provide students with broad coverage of these facets of the chemical laboratory. Many of the experiments are analytical in nature, that is, the emphasis will be on learning and applying proper technique to mimimize experimental error and bias in the results.

Textbook. "Exploring Chemical Analysis", by Daniel C. Harris, Freeman, 1997.

Notebook Requirement.  You will be required to keep a permanent, bound laboratory notebook for recording experimental measurements and observations. A regular composition notebook will be satisfactory, provided the pages are not perforated. Keep the first four pages blank to leave room for table of contents (which you will keep up-to-date).  Write page numbers in your book to help organize your work.

The goal of your book is to give yourself and others the ability to read and understand your work. This means that you should enter data in well-labeled tables, use complete sentences when recording observations and explain all entries clearly.

The following points should be kept in mind as you use your notebook:

•  Date and initial your notebook each day that you work in the laboratory as well as any day that you make entries in the notebook (such as when you do calculations etc).
• Use a descriptive title and start a new page when you begin work on a new experiment.
•  Always make entries directly into your book -  never write data on loose sheets to be transcribed later in neater form.
• Always use a ballpoint pen. When you need to make a correction,  put a line through any entry you would like to change and date and initial all changes that you make.

Schedule. The tentative laboratory schedule is below. Note that each experiment is linked to a more complete description. Please check these pages to get the reading and pre-lab assignments.
 

Week of:	Experiment Title
March  28	No Lab
April 4	Introduction to Molecular Modeling: PC Spartan
April 11	Introduction to Infrared Spectroscopy: Hooke's Law & CHCl3 and CDCl3
April 18	Chemical Kinetics I: The Iodine Clock Experiment
April 25	Spectrophotometric Determination of an Equilibrium Constant I: Iron Thiocyanate
May 2	Spectrophotometric Determination of an Equilibrium Constant I: The Scatchard Plot
May 9	Halide Determination by a Precipitation Titration
May 16	Introduction to Coordination Chemistry: Synthesis of [Co(NH3)5Cl]Cl
May 23	Chemical Kinetics II: Aquation of [Co(NH3)5Cl]Cl
May 30	Chemical Kinetics III: Chemiluminescence

Reading and Pre-Lab Assignments. You will need to prepare for most experiments by reading relevant sections in Harris. These will provide you with an introduction to the theory of the technique to be used. For many experiments there will also be pre-lab assignments. These are intended to introduce you to the types of calculations an experiment entails and to give you practice in performing them. They will be due the day of the experiment.
 

• Abstract: provide a concise description of the lab and the results (150 words maximum); placed at the beginning but usually written last.
• Introduction: include a description of the chemistry and theory of the experiment; this does not need to be overly long - be brief - include only what is necessary to explain what the technique entails.
• Experimental: a description of the unique aspects of the experiment. For steps that are outlined in the literature, cite the reference.
• Data & Analysis: include important data (in tables when possible) and show how the data is used in the analysis; show important equations but do not include sample calculations; include computer graphs with well labeled axes and titles.
• Results & Discussion: what were the final results of the analysis; where applicable give standard deviations, confidence limits, etc. Discuss possible sources of error.
• Conclusion. Provide a brief statement of the lab results.

"Sample Lab Report" by Rosebud D. Hound
 

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