Facilities and Instrumentation

The Department of Chemistry and Physics at the University of South Carolina Aiken is well equipped for research activities, thus demonstrating the commitment of the Department and University to undergraduate research. The Department is housed in the 80,000 square-foot USCA Science building, which is home to both the Department of Chemistry and Physics and the Department of Biology and Geology. This building has two 1000 square-foot greenhouses and seventeen research laboratories. In addition, each faculty member has a private office and his or her own personal laboratory, which is utilized solely for that faculty member’s research interests. 

 

Analytical instrumentation available to all USCA faculty members includes:

  • Perkin Elmer AA Analyst 100 Atomic Absorption Spectrometer
  • Perkin Elmer Lamba 35 UV-Vis Spectrophotometer
  • Two Hewlett Packard Series 1050 HPLC systems
  • Two Varian CP-3380 Gas Chromatographs
  • Anasazi EFT 60 MHz FT-NMR spectrometer
  • Three FT-IR spectrometers--Thermo Electron Nicolet 4700 , Mattson Polaris , and Nicolet 5SXC
  • Jobin-Yvon U1000 Double Monochromator Raman system  equipped with a photomultiplier tube with excitation provided by a 12 W Coherent Innova 70 Argon Ion Laser
  • Pine Instruments Model APCBP1 Potentiostat
     
  • Various ion selective electrodes.
     

Accessories for the Nicolet 4700 FT-IR include the Spectral Systems Model 500 Variable Angle Specular Reflectance Accessory coupled with a Specac KRS-5 wire grid polarizer (used for grazing-angle reflectance) and Thermo Electron’s Smart Orbit Diamond ATR accessory. A microscopy lab (available through USCA Biology and Geology Department) is also available that is equipped with a research-grade stereoscope and an Olympus BX-60 fluorescent compound microscope equipped with digital imaging software. All of the equipment listed is either less than 5 years old or has been refurbished and updated within the last 5 years. All of the computers in the Department are serviced and maintained by USCA’s Computer Services Division (CSD). The general laboratories used for sample preparation contain all needed glassware as well as a Barnstead NanoPure II Filtration system that supplies deionized water for both research and teaching applications.  

Additional resources are available to our Department through the University of South Carolina system. One such resource is the machine and instruments shop at USC Columbia. This resource is available to USC Aiken faculty to assist in their research efforts. Additional resources available through USC Columbia include access to electron microscopy (i.e., SEM, ESEM, and TEM), atomic force microscopy, mass spectrometry, and high field nuclear magnetic resonance instrumentation. Additionally, comprehensive library resources are available that include access to on-line research journals (i.e., ACS, Elsevier, etc.) and reference search engines (i.e., Science Direct, Web of Science, etc.). These library resources are available to USC Aiken faculty either through the USCA library or the USC Columbia library system and are easily accessed from each faculty member’s personal computer.