List of FacultyResearch Facilities
Mass Spectrometry | Molecular Structure | NMR | Ultrafast Laser
The
Department occupies a modern, spacious facility that is located in the large
science and engineering complex in the western portion of the University
grounds. The five-story main building houses research laboratories, stockrooms,
shops, library, and faculty offices. In addition, a 30,000 sq. ft. research
facility nearly doubles our research space. Newly renovated laboratories
designed for synthesis boast over 150 new fume hoods, 20 glove-box work stations
for anaerobic synthesis, 11 walk-in cold-rooms, and comprehensive "in-house" utilities
including nitrogen, argon, vacuum, steam and DI water, and ethernet connections
throughout the labs.
Modern research is dependent on advanced instrumentation and the Department is exceedingly well endowed in this area. Fifteen mass spectrometers are currently housed in the Department. These include a general purpose gas chromatograph/quadrupole instrument equipped for both electron impact and chemical ionization, a time-of-flight instrument for surface analysis, a matrix assisted laser desorption ionization/time-of-flight instrument for determining the molecular mass of (bio)polymers, four triple quadrupole instruments that utilize fast atom bombardment, atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) and electrospray ionization (ESI), two tandem quadrupole Fourier transform instruments with ESI, and six ion trap mass spectrometers with ESI and/or APCI. Six of these instruments are connected to micro-capillary HPLC separation systems via nano-electrospray interfaces employed for protein sequence analysis at the sub femtomole level and three of the mass spectrometers are used for low-level drug metabolism studies.
The
department has five nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometers for routine
use: one 500 MHz, one 360 MHz, and three 300 MHz. Solution samples are studied
with the 500 and 300 MHz spectrometers, these instruments perform a wide
range of experiments from the most basic to the most modern and complex.
The 360 MHz spectrometer is used primarily for solid samples and has multinuclear
wide line and high resolution capabilities. In addition, two 600 MHz and
two 500 MHz spectrometers are housed in the department and are used primarily
for obtaining structural and dynamic information about large biological molecules.
The spectrometers are supported by several networked computers including Unix workstations and personal microcomputers (PC and Macintosh), which are used for the NMR lab WWW site (http://ernst.chem.virginia.edu), the electronic spectrometer scheduling system, and for data processing. See http://ernst.chem.virginia.edu/labdescript.html for a more complete lab description. There is a full time NMR spectroscopist who maintains the instrumentation and assists instrument users. Users are strongly encouraged to be as independent as possible.
Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy is another important tool for the determination of molecular structure and dynamics. Presently the Department maintains two cw EPR spectrometers, a Bruker ESP 300 and a Varian E-line spectrometer. Both machines are computer interfaced and networked and are capable of variable and low temperature experiments. These machines have also been fitted with modern loop-gap resonators, which provide improved sensitivity and higher microwave power densities.
The
Molecular Structure Laboratory consists of two facilities: the X-ray diffraction
facility and the molecular modeling laboratory. The X-ray laboratory is equipped
with a Bruker SMART APEX CCD diffractometer and an Oxford Cryosystems 700
low temperature device. Measurements are carried out using MoKa radiation,
usually at -120oC. The SHELXTL software (both the PC and Unix version) is
used for the structure determination. The Cambridge Crystallographic Database
(the Unix version) is available in the laboratory for extensive structural
searches. Several computers are in use in the molecular modeling laboratory,
including Silicon Graphics Origin 2200, Octane and Personal Iris 4D35. Computational
and quantum chemistry programs of the laboratory include the latest versions
of Insight/Discover, Macromodel, Spartan and Gaussian98. The laboratory also
has access to supercomputers and other larger computing systems.
Polymer characterization facilities in the Chemistry department include Waters and Hewlett Packard gel permeation chromatographic stations equipped with refractive index, Wyatt multangle laser light scattering, UV/Vis diode array detectors, as well as Viscotek in-line viscometry. TA Instruments thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) and modulated differential scanning calorimetry (MDSC) capabilities are also in house. Additional imaging facilities for materials characterization are available in Biology and in Electrical and Chemical Engineering and Materials Science. Routine surface analysis of materials by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) or by ion scattering spectroscopy (ISS) is available at the Surface Science Center. Within Chemistry, there are a number of dedicated surface analysis machines with capabilities to do XPS, AES, thermal programmed desorption (TPD), low energy electron diffraction (LEED), reflection absorption infrared spectroscopy (RAIRS), 2-photon photoemission, laser time-of-flight spectroscopy, and low and variable temperature scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). State-of-the-art transmission and scanning electron microscopy, including dispersed X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy is available in Materials Science. Nanoscale sculpting of materials can be done by ion-milling using a focused ion beam machine (e.g. for sharpening STM tips). Next door to Chemistry, the NSF MRSEC Center for Nanoscopic Materials Design provides extensive facilities for creating, imaging, and spectroscopically analyzing nanoscale and nanopatterned materials. Other instruments include Jasco J-720 spectropolarimeter, Cary SE UV-vis-NIR spectrophotometer, and a Perkin Elmer LS 50B Luminescence Spectrometer.
Physical chemistry instrumentation includes a low temperature scanning tunneling microscope that can image and manipulate single atoms and molecules, a high resolution (0.00013 cm-1) molecular beam spectrometer capable of ir/µwave triple resonance spectroscopy, a 2-D vibrational spectrometer for gases and liquids driven by tunable femtosecond or picosecond lasers, a subnanosecond resolution time correlated single photon counting luminescence spectrometer, and two time resolved circularly polarized luminescence instruments. A large collection of pulsed and cw lasers allow spectroscopic and photochemical investigations to be pursued over a spectral range from the infrared to the vacuum ultraviolet. For example, the ultrafast laser facility can provide high power 100 fs or 2 ps laser pulses at wavelengths from 10 µm to 200 nm and 20 fs pulses at harmonics of 800 nm down to ~8 nm. Experiments requiring exceptionally high photon flux are pursued using the world's most powerful free electron laser at the nearby Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Newport News, VA. Virtually all physical chemistry experimentation is supported by sophisticated computer interfacing and data analysis.
The Ultrafast Laser Laboratory is a shared University facility housed on the second floor of the Chemistry building. A wide range of multidisciplinary research involving lasers and researchers drawn from across the University is conducted here. Three high power amplified Ti:sapphire laser systems operating at 1 kHz repetition rate are available with pulse energies up to a few milliioules over durations of 2 ps, 100 fs, and 20 fs. Non-linear optical amplification and mixing using the 2 ps and 100 fs laser systems yields tunable radiation from 10µm to 200 nm. High harmonic generation from the 20 fs laser system extends the available spectral range out into the extreme ultraviolet (lmin ~ 8 nm; hnmax ~100 eV). The laboratory also houses a versatile collection of high power Nd:YAG lasers, excimer lasers, dye lasers, and a high resolution infrared optical parametric oscillator/amplifier that run at 10 Hz repetition rate with pulse durations of several nanoseconds. The Ultrafast Laser Laboratory is part of the University's Center for Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Sciences (CAMOS) and a focal point of its NSF Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training Program in the Science and Engineering of Laser Interactions with Matter (SELIM).
The Chemistry Department is unique in that it has it own dedicated Bioanalytical Microchip Fabrication Facility - something usually only found in Electrical Engineering Departments. This facility is used to design and fabricate analytical microchip devices with the goal of revolutionizing conventional analytical techniques. The facility consists of a 150 sq. ft. "class-100" clean-room linked to a 200 sq. ft. "class-10,000" clean-room. The "class" categorization refers to the fact that HEPA filters installed in the ceilings of these rooms maintain an air cleanliness that, in the case of a the"class-100" clean-room, contain fewer than 100 particles 0.5 µm or larger in a cubic foot of air - a normal laboratory would be approximately "class 4,000,000". Both of these rooms are used for photolithography and microchip fabrication. The processes used are basic photolithographic techniques, well established by the microelectronic industry. Our facility is already fully equipped with basic photolithography equipment, wet-etching stations, a spin-coater, microscopes, glass drilling facilities, and glass bonding ovens. With such capabilities at hand, analytical microchips can be fabricated in ~72 hours (from AUTOCAD design to chip-in-hand).
Every office and laboratory in the Chemistry Department at the University of Virginia is equipped with an ethernet outlet, which allows world-wide high-speed transmission of data and text. The Academic Computing Resources at UVa provides large-scale batch and interactive computing facilities, which include a variety of IBM RS/6000 RISC machines and an IBM 3090 mainframe. The statistical mechanical theory group at the Chemistry Department is equipped with two dual-processor DEC ALPHA workstations. A variety of other workstations, including Sun-3 s and Sun-4 s, NeXT machines and Apple Macintoshes, are available, as well as IBM-compatible PC's. In addition, direct terminal access is available to a Cray C90 supercomputer and Thinking Machines CM-5 at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center.
All of the instrument facilities and research efforts are fully supported by well-equipped machine and electronic shops under the supervision of skilled instrument makers and technicians. The University operates a glass shop in the Chemistry Building for the fabrication of research glassware. Our master glassblower makes routine Pyrex ware for the laboratory, in addition to specialized research items.