Principles of Instrumental Analysis
CHM4354 – Winter 2019
Course Website
uottawa.brightspace.com
Professor
Dr. Brandi J West
STM414
562-5800 ext 4240
BrandiJustina.West@uottawa.ca
Due to the nature of the course there are no weekly office hours, but students are encouraged to make an
appointment to come see me whenever necessary.
Topics to be covered
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The analytical method. What is it, what does it encompass?
o We will review an EPA analytical protocol, and use an in class case study to develop our own.
Instrumentation. This is the bulk of the course. We will review the theory, operation and unique
features of:
o Separations (solid phase extraction, SP m extraction , super critical fluid extractions,
immunoaffinity separations)
o Chromatography (gas chromatography, fast GC, 2 D GC, high performance liquid
chromatography, nano LC, ion exchange and others)
o Mass spectrometry (vacuum systems, analyzers, ion sources, quantitation methods, hybrid
instruments, ion mobility)
Texts, Materials, and Supplies
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There is no required textbook for this course. All the necessary theory will be provided in the lecture videos
but some texts which may be useful are,
o Instrumental methods of analysis / Hobart H. Willard MRT General QD 79 .I5 I52
o Contemporary instrumental analysis / Kenneth A. Rubinson , MRT General QD 79 .I5 R83 2000
o Skoog , Douglas Principles of instrumental analysis. MRT General QD 79 .I5 S58
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Course outline
The course is divided evenly between the theory (lectures) and experimental components.
Theory: Student need to complete the online course modules in brightspace , along with…
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End of module quizzes which takes the place of weekly lectures. All quizzes are due at the end of the
course.
Online midterm. This will cover the content of modules 2-18.
Final Exam. This is cumulative but with more emphasis on the second set of modules (19-33)
Lab: Each student will be assigned an analytical problem. Solving this is separated into 4 steps…
1. Deliverable 1: Literature protocol
 here you will rely on the scientific literature to propose a protocol to solve the analytical
problem you have been assigned. This is really just your first guess at how you will solve the
problem.
2. Deliverable 2: Practical protocol
 here you will submit the final experimental procedure you will use to solve the analytical
problem you have been assigned . This will have required you to train on the instrument in
question so a specific protocol can be submitted.
3. Deliverable 3: Progress report
 here you will submit a one page summary of how things are going at the halfway mark. You can
talk about what problems you have encountered/how you solved them, and how the
experiments are going in general.
4. Deliverable 4: Final lab report
 here you submit your final lab report with full results, statistical analysis, etc , making sure you
hit on each of the 10 steps outlined in the course notes.
Grading
Lecture Component (50%)
Modules Quizzes
Midterm (February 15th, 2019)
Final exam
20%
10%
20%
Lab Component (50%)
Deliverable 1 (due January 18th, 2019 by 5pm)
Deliverable 2 (due February 8th, 2019 by 5pm)
Deliverable 3 (due March 15th, 2019 by 5pm)
Deliverable 4 (due April 5th, 2019 by 5pm)
Lab TA evaluation
Total
05%
10%
05%
20%
10%
100%
There will be NO extensions for the deliverables. You have plenty of time to get everything finished.
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