Acquisition of a Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer for Enhancement of Research and Teaching of Microspectroscopy of Crystals, Glasses, and Organic Compounds

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EAR-0549637SeamanThis award will provide funds to purchase a Nicolet 8700 Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR) with a Continuum microscope that will be housed in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Massachusetts. The new instrument will be an accessible and valuable tool for faculty and students throughout the Five Colleges (Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mt. Holyoke College, Smith College, and the University of Massachusetts) in the Pioneer Valley of western Massachusetts. The instruments will be used by petrologists, mineralogists, structural geologist, and planetary geologists to analyze volatiles such as water, carbon dioxide, and sulfur compounds in minerals and rocks, and by biogeochemists, Quaternary geologists, and hydrologists to analyze organic compounds in sediments and in water. The machine identifies compounds on the basis of the frequency of vibration of bonds between atoms. The FTIR is an instrument of utmost value in an Earth sciences program because it provides essentially instant answers to questions that can be translated into an experiment. Thus, access to this instrument will encourage students at all educational levels to recognize good geologic questions, and to design experiments that will answer those questions. This machine is appropriate for student interaction because the function of the instrument is easily understandable, and because it takes little time to learn to use the machine well enough to obtain useful data. Use of this instrument will promote critical and independent thinking in the process of design of experiments that will test geologic hypotheses. The FTIR will be used as a fundamental tool in mineralogy and spectroscopy classes at the undergraduate level, as a tool for undergraduate independent study and senior thesis projects, and as the basis for graduate student research. Students at Mount Holyoke College and the other undergraduate institutions in the area (Amherst, Smith, and Hampshire Colleges) will especially benefit from exposure to the research environment at the University. A recent Five College field trip to Iceland (August, 2006), led by one of the PI's (Seaman) along with faculty from all of the Five Colleges, and one high school teacher, sparked interest among both students and faculty in projects involving identification of volatiles and measurement of their concentrations in volcanic materials and sediments. The FTIR, with its wide application to experiments on a variety of geologic materials, will promote research interaction at all educational levels between members of the Five College geologic community.