Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

Elemental analysis (EA) is a microanalytical technique using 1 - 2 mg of material for the determination of carbon (C), hydrogen (H) and nitrogen (N) composition in organic, inorganic and organometallic molecules through the process of oxygen combustion. For synthetic chemists EA is a critical tool for testing both sample composition and purity. EA is a requirement of many chemistry journals for researchers wishing to publish the synthesis of new materials. The current EA instrument has been a workhorse for the many synthetic research groups at the University of Windsor (currently over 50 PDF/graduate students and 50 undergraduate researchers) and we have been able to support several other academic groups around Canada and the USA through service work. The instrument has been maintained in excellent working condition for well over a decade but parts and support have become challenging in recent years. Over the last 9 months, the EA equipment has persistently failed to calibrate, despite the best efforts of a highly experienced senior graduate student, supported by our lab technician and faculty member. Facing this lack of EA support, our faculty have had to rely on external service work for EA. This is financially untenable in the long term when considering both the costs of analysis (typical academic rate: $50/sample) plus shipping costs. Moreover, the shipping and handling of both water and moisture sensitive compounds (decomposition or solvent loss), or those samples which are thermally unstable, is particularly problematic. While a number of academic institutions in Southern Ontario offer EA as a service with academic rates, in many cases turnaround times on those EA measurements are measured in weeks and months, significantly retarding research progress. The current proposal seeks support to purchase a new state-of-the-art EA instrument, which will permit all our EA measurements to be done in-house by trained HQP. Established protocols are already in place for HQP training and equipment maintenance (as well as invoicing for service work for external users). The requested instrument implements the existing infrastructure associated with the old EA equipment and will provide not only CHN analysis but the ability to undertake sulfur (S) analysis which will provide additional analytical information for the PI (Rawson) and co-I (Eichhorn) whose research routinely involves the generation of sulfur-containing materials.