Lasers in the undergraduate curriculum: Part II. Coursework experiments and research projects

Abstract

The focus here is on specific experiments suitable for different topical areas of chemistry.

Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy: A Novel Physical Chemistry Experiment for the Undergraduate Laboratory

“…The spectrum was scanned from the laser line (514.5 nm; 19,436 cm ᎑1 ) out to lower energies to observe the Stokes lines. Although this is the Raman system that was used in our work, other possible configurations for Raman spectroscopy have been described in the literature (16)(17)(18).…”

Raman Spectroscopy of Symmetric Oxyanions

“…Raman spectroscopy has been the subject of several recent articles in this Journal (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7). Most undergraduate physical chemistry texts discuss Raman scattering, and laboratory experiments with pure substances such as CCl 4 as samples are well established (8), but relatively few undergraduate students currently get lab experience with this important technique (9).…”

The Introduction of Lasers into the Physical Chemistry Curriculum

“…Lasers have been applied in many different subdisciplines and in many innovative ways. A review of some of the experiments published in The Journal of Chemical Education appeared recently (9)(10). Among the exercises cited in the most recent review (9, 10) are those involving laser-induced fluorescence, laser photoionization, energy transfer kinetics, and refractometry among others.…”