The Department of Chemistry and Biology houses laboratories devoted
to undergraduate instruction in each of the subdisciplines we
teach. There are laboratories for chemical instrumentation, chromatography,
and for analytical, inorganic, physical and organic chemistry.
We also have laboratories specifically designed for biochemistry
and microbiology experiments, including gel electrophoresis and
DNA sequencing. Facilities for air pollution control and wastewater
treatment are also available for the use of students in their
undergraduate thesis work.
Departmental
analytical instrumentation includes:
- Chromatography:
high-performance liquid chromatographs (HPLC), gas chromatographs
(GC), a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer (GC-MS), and gel
electrophoresis
- Spectroscopy:
Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), ultraviolet-visible (uv-vis),
molecular luminescence, flame and cold-vapour atomic absorption
(AA), inductively coupled plasma atomic emission (ICP-AES),
and x-ray fluorescence (XRF), 60 MHz Fourier Transform Nuclear
Magnetic Resonance (1H and 13C)
- Powder
x-ray diffraction (XRD)
Students
involved in research activities (including graduate students,
summer students, and fourth-year thesis students) are able to
access three University facilities adjacent to the research laboratories
within the Department:
- The
Ryerson
University Analytical Centre is located next to
the Chemistry research laboratories. The RUAC was built by
the University in partnership with PerkinElmer. It houses the
latest PerkinElmer instrumentation: HPLC with uv, refractive
index, conductance, and fluorescence detection; GC-MS with autosamper;
GC with headspace and purge-and-trap autosamplers; molecular
luminescence, uv-vis, and FTIR spectroscopies.
- The
Ryerson
Clean Room Facility houses a graphite atomic
absorption instrument which can be used for trace metal
analysis. It is also a Level 2 Biohazard Facility licensed for
work with eukaryotes and prokaryotes.
- The
Advanced Microscopy Facility includes a two-photon confocal
laser scanning microscope (CLSM), a Raman confocal microscope
(RCM), and an atomic force microscope (AFM). The microscopy
facility was built from a grant from the Canada Foundation for
Innovation (CFI), with matching funds from the Ontario Innovation
Trust (OIT) and the University.
- Scanning
Electon Microscopy with energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy
and coating facility.
- The
Department houses an inverted laser-confocal microscope suitable
for live-cell imaging and an epiflurescence microscope.
- Access
to ESI/MALDI-Qq-TOF-MS and ESI-Ion Trap-MS is also available
within the Department as are opportunities to access PCR (Roche
Lightcycler) and DNA sequencing. A 400-MHz multi-probe NMR instrument
is currently being installed in the Department.
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