Improvement of the Chemistry Curriculum and Undergraduate Research with Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy

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The University of Detroit Mercy serves a diverse student body, is committed to excellence in undergraduate education, and has recognized the need for constant improvement of undergraduate laboratory instruction with well thought out, relevant experiments and state-of-the-art instrumentation. The Department of Chemistry will acquire an energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometer, to be integrated into the General and Analytical undergraduate laboratory curricula. A detailed plan for this integration is set forth. The Department is implementing research-based projects in teaching laboratories that will impact several undergraduate courses, including the general chemistry laboratory routinely taken by freshman students who will go on to science and engineering majors and careers. These experiments are interdisciplinary in nature, connecting chemistry and archaeology, as well as chemistry and the materials science of metals (which is well suited to the Detroit area, home of the nation's automobile industry). This new spectrometer will increase significantly the department's ability to train its undergraduate students, a large percentage of whom are women and minorities, in modem analytical techniques that are attractive to employers. Addition of this instrument to the undergraduate laboratories will attract more students into the undergraduate labs, and expose those students to the use and understanding of a powerful analytical tool.