Size Exclusion Chromatography and Thermal Analysis as Teaching Tools in Polymer, Biophysical, and Physical Chemistry

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In order to add new experiments across the upper-division Physical Chemistry laboratory curriculum, the university is purchasing thermal analysis and size-exclusion chromatography instrumentation. This equipment has a wide range of instructional uses, both as a cornerstone to a series of characterization experiments in the newly developed Introduction to Polymer Science course and as a part of the Biophysical and Physical Chemistry laboratories. Several experiments that use differential scanning calorimetry and size-exclusion chromatography as primary tools are being used to integrate the equipment into the upper-division undergraduate laboratories. These experiments include an examination of the thermal behavior in polyethylene, two high-performance composite materials (polyetheretherketone and a polyester of similar chemical nature), agarose gel, and the binary napthalene-diphenylamine systems, as well as an analysis of molecular weight concepts in the polystyrene, polymethylmethacrylate, and cellulose polymers. Adding these experiments can improve the university's undergraduate laboratory curriculum in terms of modernization and interdisciplinary focus.