Chemistry - Faculty

CHEM 531      Advanced Analytical Chemistry

CHEM 435      Analytical Chemistry

CHEM 330      Quantitative Analysis

CHEM 222      College Chemistry II

CHEM 120      College Chemistry I

CHEM 116      Introduction to College Chemistry

Analytical

liquid chromatography, gas chromatography, sample handling

My main area of interest is the development of improved chromatographic methods.  Method improvements hopefully lead to fewer sample handling steps, thus making the job of the analyst easier and more enjoyable.    Together with Professor Burris, we have been working on a project that uses surfactants controlled by an electric field as an extraction phase. The anionic surfactant, dodecyl sulfate, for example is held on a positively held gold surface then released together with the absorbed organic analyte by disrupting this applied electric field interaction.   Students working on this project gain experience in chromatographic and electrochemical methods.  Another collaborative project, with Professor G. Kane Jennings at Vanderbilt, involves using pH responsive surfaces as adsorbents.  These surfaces can “switch” from hydrophobic to hydrophilic with a change in pH.  With this “switch”, extracted hydrophobic analytes can be released in solutions with less reliance on organic solvents compared with conventional methods.   We are also working on improved chromatographic methods for the determination of antibiotics in agriculture samples with scientists Drs. John Loughrin and Kimberly Cook at the US Department of Agriculture.  With the rise of antibiotic bacteria “super bugs”, there is an urgent need for rapid and reliable methods of analysis of these substance in these very challenging matrices.  Chromatographic instrumentation used in these projects include high performance liquid chromatography with mass spectrometric, fluorescent and photo diode array detectors, and gas chromatography with mass spectrometric and flame ionization detectors.