A Cost-Effective Way To Extend an Instrument’s Life
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Suzanne Carpenter [1] ; William Baird [1]
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[1] Armstrong Atlantic State University, Georgia
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- Localización: Journal of chemical education, ISSN 0021-9584, Vol. 87, Nº 11 (November), 2010, págs. 1266-1267
- Idioma: inglés
- Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
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Resumen
Extending the usefulness of the instruments we have has never been more important. The current economic crisis has prompted all of us to re-examine how money is spent and to try to minimize our expenditures because of future uncertainties. We have been able to breathe new life into an aging 60 MHz NMR spectrometer used by hundreds of undergraduates each year in the second-year organic chemistry sequence. Minor repairs have been necessary over the years but the recent loss of the plotter necessitated a more extensive “repair”. With the help of a physicist, the instrument output is now routed through a two-channel data acquisition device to a laptop. The data gathered is saved as a comma-delimited text file, and an Excel spreadsheet is used for analysis of the data. Not only does the new system allow faster data collection and processing, it also allows students to save data to a thumb drive. With minimal expense, the 20-year-old spectrometer has been modernized and continues to be an essential part of the organic laboratory.
