LEARNING OUTCOMES
After the course the student will be able to
- Describe the theoretical basis of currently important instrumental analysis methods excluding electroanalytical methods.
- Describe the functional components of the instrument/instruments used in the method
- Select suitable methods on the basis of the actual needs (i.e. allowed costs, precision, detection limit, calibration range).
- Find and read basic scientific literature on a given topic related to the novel developments of selected method/method group.
Credits: 5
Schedule: 24.10.2023 - 04.12.2023
Teacher in charge (valid for whole curriculum period):
Teacher in charge (applies in this implementation): Sakari Kulmala
Contact information for the course (applies in this implementation):
sakari.kulmala@aalto.fi
CEFR level (valid for whole curriculum period):
Language of instruction and studies (applies in this implementation):
Teaching language: English. Languages of study attainment: English
CONTENT, ASSESSMENT AND WORKLOAD
Content
valid for whole curriculum period:
The course covers the most important instrumental methods used in quantitative analysis.
applies in this implementation
This course considers commonly used modern instrumental analysis methods, based on the text book:
"Principles of Instrumental Analysis" by Douglas A. Skoog, F. James Holler, Stanley R. Crouch, Belmont, CA , Thomson, Brooks/Cole, 2007. Chapters: 5-16, 20-21, 26-30. (If you happen to already have "Instrumental Methods of Analysis", by Willard, H H; Merritt, Jr, L L; Dean, J A; Settle, Jr, F A, it contains practically the same information as our textbook, but presented in a bit less interesting way).
Course covers most of the important quantitative analysis techniques/methods in the fields of organic, inorganic and bioanalysis with updates to the present state of the art of these methods. However, potentiometric, coulometric and voltammetric analysis methods are presented in detail in a separate course considering instrumentation and electroanalytical methods (CHEM-E4165). Some novel material not included in the textbooks are added in our homeworks and handouts.
The outline of the course is following: Introduction to Analytical Chemistry and Instrumental Analysis; Signals and Noise; General Concepts in Spectroscopy/Spectrometry; UV-Vis Phenomena, instrumentation and Techniques; Luminescence as a phenomenon; Infrared Spectroscopy/Spectrometry; Atomic Spectroscopy/Spectrometry; X-Ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy/Spectrometry; Mass Spectroscopy/Spectrometry; Electron Spectrometry (ESCA and Auger); Electron Probe Microanalysis; Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry; General Concepts in Separations; Capillary Electrophoresis; Gas Chromatography; Liquid Chromatography, Flow Injection Analysis.
Course included some instrumental demonstrations in labs earlier, but due the lack of resources these are now replaced by demonstration videos and by writing two compulsory essays about two instrumental methods that you yourself feel to be most important for your assumed future needs. This year is the last that this course is available within our school.
In the autumn 2021 only remote lectures were offered (i.e. no lectures in the lecture rooms). We had two remote lectures per week and the students were asked to give their questions and comments after each lecture by email to me.
In the years 2022 and 2023 these remote lectures are also used, but relatively novel and a bit trendy flipped teaching is applied. Flipped teaching is the process of moving lecture content from face-to-face class time to before class by assigning it as homework. This is supposed to allow more interactive forms of learning to take place during class. Flipped teaching is also known as flip teaching, reverse teaching and the inverted classroom. Thus, two remote lectures per week are studied by the student as homework and the third week-lecture (each Tuesday on the following week) is occurring face-to-face (Room B202b, at 12.15, or 12.30, if it suites better, agreed during the first week) and is used for questions, discussion and/or slides of the most important points of the week. If there is not plenty to ask, I will just talk about the most important matters of that week. Thus, two homeworks per week are supposed to be studied each week any time before the following week Tuesday, and Tuesday's discussion/lecture is held in the class room B202b (the first will be on 31th of October.
In addition, you'll have two options: (i) you can ask any time during the week public questions which will be anonymously visible in the MyCourses or (ii) you can ask private questions which are not shown to other course participants and I only answer directly to you by email (send the questions and comments by email to me: sakari.kulmala@aalto.fi). I'll add your public response on each Fridays at 6 PM in the MyCourses after the last year's comments and questions which you can already now find from the Announcements.
Thus, those of you who work somewhere else in the day time, may carry out this course wholly remotely as it happened during the COVID restrictions. Also the examinations will be remote examinations.
Each homework, as well as, the public questions and comments on the basis of Handouts and Homeworks can be found in chronological order from the section Announcements and the link to the handout sets from the section Materials (materials) (this link should lead to Handouts, it works for me, but if it is not working for you, download the Handouts from the first Announcements pages).
Assessment Methods and Criteria
valid for whole curriculum period:
Lectures, homework, 2 PBL/Essay tasks, and final examination.
applies in this implementation
See above
Workload
valid for whole curriculum period:
Lectures 18 h
Homework 84 hPBL/Essays 30 h
Exam 3 happlies in this implementation
See above
DETAILS
Study Material
applies in this implementation
See above and annoncements
Substitutes for Courses
valid for whole curriculum period:
Prerequisites
valid for whole curriculum period:
FURTHER INFORMATION
Further Information
valid for whole curriculum period:
It is possible that we must still apply only remote teaching due to the continuously emerging new dangerous COVID 19 virus variants. Alternatively, flipped teaching is applied: The two weekly remote lectures are taken as homework and the third weekly face-to-face lecture is used for questions/discussion on the week's topics. In this way we can minimize the amount of contact teaching promoting transmissions of old and new COVID 19 virus variants and, importantly, it is presently regarded that flipped teaching increases considerably the effectiveness and interactivity of learning. If only remote teaching can be applied, students can ask public questions which will be anonymously visible in the MyCourses or they can ask private questions which are not shown to other course participants and are only answered directly to the asker.
Teaching Language : English
Teaching Period : 2022-2023 Autumn II
2023-2024 Autumn IIEnrollment :
Registration will take place on Sisu (sisu.aalto.fi).
A course implementation may be cancelled if the number of students enrolled to the course implementation does not meet the required minimum of five students. In the case of cancelled course implementations, the students enrolled to them must be provided with an alternative way of completing the course or be advised to take some other applicable course.
- Teacher: Kulmala Sakari