PSC2031 - Analytical methods

At the end of this unit students will be able to:

1. Understand the chemical compositions of aqueous solutions, apply the effects of electrolytes on chemical equilibria and solve equilibrium calculations for simple and complex systems;
2. Apply the basic principles underlying gravimetric and titrimetric methods of analysis (including precipitation titrations, neutralization titrations, complex acid/base systems, complexation reactions and titrations and non-aqueous titrations) and analyse chemical equilibria to determine the concentrations of species of interest;
3. Understand basic separations and chromatographic theory and apply this knowledge in predicting the separation, identification and quantitation of compounds;
4. Acquire knowledge of commonly used instrumental techniques, namely GLC and HPLC, and apply these principles to the qualitative and quantitative analysis of compounds;
5. Evaluate the basic properties of electromagnetic radiation and the interactions between radiation and matter on an atomic and molecular level and calculate specific spectrochemical descriptors (energy, frequency, wavelength, % transmittance and absorbance);
6. Understand and apply the functions of instrumental components used in optical spectrophotometry;
7. Understand and apply the basic principles of molecular absorption, molecular fluorescence and atomic absorption/emission spectroscopy to practical scenarios;