Advanced Higher Chemistry – Instrumental Analysis

Forth Valley College welcomes Schools running Advanced Higher Chemistry to enrol your students in the Practical course “Instrumental Chemical Analysis”.

The 2-day course runs yearly from August to January in our Falkirk Campus on a Friday-Monday basis, from 9:00 am till 4:00 pm. Please be aware of some variation around holiday periods.

Your students will be gaining practical experience on different techniques such as spectroscopy, chromatography, organic synthesis and melting point determination. The students will also be completing a lab booklet during the course, which offers a great opportunity to develop skills on problem solving such as; analysing, processing and selecting information. All of the above, will be beneficial when choosing, carrying out and writing up their practical Investigation.

Having completed the performance criteria of the course (described below), your students will be credited with 0.5 credit from SQA, which will appear in their Certificate.

PPE will be provided during the course including, Lab coat, gloves and safety glasses.

Performance Criteria: Instrumental Chemical Analysis.

Outcome 1 Perform Experimental Analyses

• The preparation for the analysis is correct with respect to the setting up of an analytical instrument
• The chemical and instrumental procedures carried out are safe and correct

Outcome 2 Process Recorded Experimental Results

• The presentation of the experimental data is accurate and in the appropriate format
• The calculation of the analytical results from the experimental data is accurate and conclusions drawn from the analytical results are valid

Outcome 3 Describe the basis of selected instrumental analyses

• The description of the chemical principles of the analysis is correct
• The description of the instrumental basis of the analysis is correct

Completion of a minimum of three experiments is required to achieve a pass in the unit (student must attend both days). Also, students are required to present sufficient evidence that they have met all performance criteria via completion of the laboratory booklet.

Experiments include:

Use of visible spectrometer                                                                              

• Analysis of Manganese in Steel
• Beer Lambert’s Law Proof

Melting point determination and organic synthesis

• Aspirin synthesis

• Reaction product, purification and quantification

Infra Red Spectroscopy                                                           

• Identification of unknown carbonyl compound
• Produce spectra of liquids and/or solid organic compounds

High Pressure Liquid Chromatography

• Separation and Quantification of caffeine in commercial drinks
• Calibration graph, retention times, peak areas

Dehydration of cyclohexanol (Optional practical)

• Synthesis of cyclohexene
• Separation, purification and analysis by GLC

Prerequisites

Prior to students attending the short course, it would be helpful but not essential for them to be familiar with some knowledge on visible and IR spectroscopy, melting point determination and chromatography. However, these techniques will be explained in detail during the course.

For any queries, please email colin.mcmorrin@forthvalley.ac.uk