C.I.F. - Central Instrument Facility

From the Desk of the Director

The WSU Central Instrumentation Facility was established in 1982 within the Chemistry Department in order to make expensive critical analytical instrumentation available to researchers within the University community, and beyond. Over the last several years we have dramatically grown the facility with the addition of a large number of new state-of-the-art instruments in all disciplines.

The facility consists of several major areas of emphasis:

• Mass Spectrometry
• Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
• X-Ray Crystallography
• TEM/SEM Microscopy
• 'Small' Shared Research Instruments
• Computer Support
• Glass Blowing Operations

Each area is managed by knowledgeable and highly experienced professional staff to provide assistance in using the various techniques. The Department is very aggressive about submitting grant applications to NSF, NIH, and other funding agencies which support shared instrumentation programs. Most instruments are available 24/7 `hand on' and are accessible through our Resource Management System of booking and billing.

If you have interest in, or questions about our facilities, do not hesitate to contact me.

Prof. David M. Coleman
Director, Central Instrumentation Facility

Major Research Equipment

The Central Instrument Facility (CIF), as well as individual research laboratories in the Department of Chemistry are well-equipped with instrumentation needed for modern chemical, physical, and materials research. Within CIF is a staff of PhD-level professional scientist/managers to assist on-going research activities. Most instrumentation is 'open access' 24/7 for trained users.

I. Instrumentation within CIF includes:

NMR: Four high-field superconducting Fourier transform NMR spectrometers: 1.) Varian Unity 300 (300 MHz-multi nuclear with variable temperature capable of advanced experiments such as DEPT, APT, COSY, NOESY, etc.); 2.) Varian Mercury-400 (400 MHz-multinuclear, with variable temperature and pulsed field gradients/ tuned for observing 1H, 19F, 31P and 13C); 3.) Varian-500S (500 MHz- New console installed in December 2006. The NMR system is Engineered with new technology incorporating the sophisticated DirectDrive™ with dual broadband channels, AutoX probe for multinuclear, pulsed field gradients, and variable temperature experiments, especially useful for study of small sample amounts or complex biomolecules); and 4.) Bruker 700 MHz with liquid helium cryoprobe - multinuclear, variable temperature instrument for the study of complex biomolecules. A quadruple-resonance probe is capable of detecting 1H, 13C, 15N, and 31P r.f. signals and XYZ gradients.] A Bruker EPR is also included with room temperature and two cryoprobes.

Mass Spectrometry: Five instruments including: 1.) Micromass Quattro LC 'Triple-Quad' LC-MS/MS (uses electrospray sample ionization for fragile (biological) molecules; 2.) Bruker Daltonics TOF-300 MALDI Ultraflex (allows for vaporization and ionization of non-volatile biological and other samples using laser desorption with a time-of-flight mass spectrometer (TOF-MS); 3.) Micromass VA-GCT Orthogonal TOF Mass Spectrometer for 'exact mass' determination for synthetic chemists. GC and direct probe sample introduction (w/ EI, CI, DCI, FI, etc. ionization); 4.) Micromass ZQ2000-LC-MS with autosampler/PDA/Electrospray/Single-Quad for sample screening; 5.) Hewlett-Packard 5988A quadrupole GC/MS for routine low-resolution experiments.

X-ray Diffractometers: Two instruments: 1.) Bruker APEXII/Kappa produces MoK α radiation. The low temperature option is routinely used at 100K at the sample site. Includes all structure determination software; 2.) Rigaku D-MAX/B powder diffractometer for structural determinations of polycrystalline materials.

Electron Microscopy: Two instruments: 1.) a 200kV JEOL FASTEM 2010 Transmission Electron Microscope includes numerous sample preparation accessories and holders and an energy dispersive spectrometer (EDAX) for examination of materials, nanoparticles, etc.; 2.) A Hitachi S-2400 SEM Scanning Electron Microscope with EDAX analytical capability.

'Small' Shared Instruments (partial list):

• Varian/Digilab Excalibur 3100 High Resolution FT-IR with NIR, Far-IR, and Microscope capability.
• Varian/Digilab Victory 2200 FT-IR
• JASCO FP-6500 Spectrofluorometer
• JASCO V-570 UV/VIS/NIR Spectrometer w/ intergrating sphere
• Applied Photophysics Chirascan high performance circular dichroism spectrometer with accessories.
• Perkin-Elmer automated polarimeter
• Perkin-Elmer Atomic Absorption Spectrometer
• Isothermal calorimeter
• Numerous other instruments for teaching and research

II. Other Instruments in the Chemistry Department (partial list):

• Stopped-flow kinetic spectrophotometers
• Pulsed-laser flash photoanalysis systems
• Femtosecond laser (Ti-Sapphire), eximer, YAG and dye lasers
• Crossed molecular beam apparatus
• Inductively coupled plasma (ICP) and Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometery (ICPMS)
• Analytical and preparative ultracentrifuges
• Single-photon counting equipment
• Biacore Surface Plasmon Resonance Spectrometer
• Radiation-counting equipment
• Gas and liquid chromatographs
• Complete connectivity to the internet
• Numerous computational machines