Project Title: UV-Vis spectrometers for Chemical, Paper and Bioengineering Undergraduate Labs

Project Lead: Jason Berberich

Email: berberj@miamioh.edu

Phone: (513) 529-0772

Affiliation: CEC

Other Team Member Names: Catherine Almquist

Project Details: The goal of this project is for the College of Engineering and Computing (CEC) to gain additional UV Vis spectrophotometers for use in student labs and design/research projects. CPB has developed multiple labs and student projects that require the use of UV-Vis spectrophotometers. Currently, however, Miami's CPB department has only one UV-Vis used for undergraduate labs. The bottleneck to analysis of samples in lab is often the use of the UV-Vis spectrophotometer, where 5 or 6 groups of students take turns utilizing a single UV-Vis spectrophotometer. With additional instruments, it will be possible to accommodate our growing number of chemical and bioengineering students in lab and in student projects.

Problem Project Attempts to Solve: CPB has conducted several labs and student projects that require the use of a UV-Vis spectrophotometer. Oftentimes, students prepare samples and have to wait in turn several hours for the use of a single UV-Vis instrument, and so they cannot complete labs without coming back to the lab on their own time to complete the sample analysis. Additional UV-Vis spectrophotometers can be used to alleviate our bottleneck and also provide room for growth within our labs to conduct several experiments requiring the UV-Vis spectrophotometer with several students at the same time.

Does this project focus on Graduate Studies?: Yes/No

If yes, explain: This project would benefit both undergraduate and graduate students through the added accessibility and capability offered in CPB laboratories.

Does it meet tech fee criteria?: Having additional UV-Vis spectrophotometers available to a laboratory will allow for the development of labs that can be conducted at the same time by all students, so that students can experience the same lab on the same day without having to wait several hours for their sample analysis. By having multiple instruments, students can each be assigned to a lab station to complete a single lab developed for that day, rather than taking turns running the lab or requiring us to conduct several different labs on each day due to availability of instruments. Example labs that require the use of UV-Vis spectrophotometers may include catalysis and photocatalysis, chemical kinetics, fermentation kinetics, enzyme kinetics, adsorption, and absorption, to name a few.

How will you assess the project?: The project will be considered a success multiple student groups can conduct a lab utilizing a UV-Vis spectrophotometer; if senior design projects that require the use of UVVis spectrophotometers are implemented; and if the UV-Vis spectrophotometers are used to support undergraduate and graduate research and independent studies. The value to students will be assessed by their increased knowledge, awareness, and critical thinking skills related to analytical chemistry, data acquisition, and data analysis. Such criteria will be assessed further by the number of labs, research papers, technical posters, and presentations that were written containing data from the UV-Vis spectrophotometers.

Have you received tech fee funding in the past?: Yes

What results were achieved?: I have been funded with a Tech Fee award last year. I use the award to refurbish an old FTIR in the department. The FTIR is now used by undergraduates for design projects and independent research projects and graduate students for research.

Did you submit a final report?: Yes

What happens to this project in year two?: It is anticipated that this equipment will be used for many years in the chemical, paper, and bioengineering curriculum due to the importance in water sample characterization, reaction monitoring and materials characterization. Each of the faculty listed on this proposal have experience in use of UV spectrophotometers, and there are no additional staffing or personnel requirements. The hardware is practically maintenance free and many spectrophotomers are used for decades with little or no maintenance. There are no consummables that are required for use of the spectrophotometer. No computer or software resources are required. This equipment can be "dualuse" in that it can be used both for undergraduate/graduate learning in existing courses but can also be used in on-going extramurally-funded research projects/programs in the Department of Chemical, Paper, and Biomedical Engineering. Future funding proposals (3-4 years in the future) will be written to include upgrades where allowed by the funding agencies, and the use of overhead recovery by the department/division may be appropriate for research-related facilities upgrades to the equipment.

Hardware: Cole-Parmer Scanning Beam UV-vis Spectrophometer, $15,930

Total Budget: $15,930