MRI-R2: Acquisition of UV-Vis-NIR, FT-IR, and Fluorescence Spectrometric Instrumentation

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).With this award from the Major Research and Instrumentation (MRI) program, Marisa Buzzeo, John S. Magyar, Dina C. Merrer, Christian M. Rojas and Alison P. Williams of Barnard College will acquire a high-resolution ultraviolet-visible-near-infrared (UV-Vis-NIR) spectrometer, a high-resolution Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectrometer, and a fluorescence spectrometer. These instruments will be used by all research-active members of the Chemistry Department and their research students in biological physical, environmental bioinorganic, synthetic organic, and physical organic chemistry. With the aid of these three spectroscopic tools, undergraduates will be able to conduct research in the following areas: electrochemical biosensing and drug-membrane interactions; mechanisms of DNA damage by the tissue preservative, formalin; metal-binding thermodynamics, coordination chemistry, and conformational dynamics of metalloregulatory proteins in marine microorganisms; formation of metal-complexed acyl nitrenes from azidoformates; and, generation and reactivity of halocarbenes with strained cyclic organic substrates.Spectroscopy is an analytical technique that uses light (electromagnetic radiation) of various wavelengths to probe the structure and composition of matter. The radiation may be absorbed differentially producing an absorption spectrum or absorbed and later emitted producing an emission or fluorescence spectrum. The variation of the absorption or emission as the wavelength is changed provides a spectrum characteristic of the material, sometimes called a fingerprint. These spectrometers will be used by undergraduates in research and laboratory courses providing training in this basic technique essential to quantitative and qualitative analysis in chemistry and biological experiments.