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Spectroscopy in a suitcase

9th May 2019

Dr Mike Foulkes and his postgraduate Assistant, Ry Crocker were welcomed to Helston Community College on Thursday 9th of May to deliver a Spectroscopy in a Suitcase Workshop. Dr Mike Foulkes and Ry Crocker are from Plymouth University with the workshop funded by the Royal Society of Chemistry.

 

It is designed to provide a hands-on experience with spectroscopic equipment that is found in a university lab and to solve problems using real spectra.

 

When identifying unknown substances scientists need to use several techniques to identify or characterise a chemical compound. Each technique tells us a slightly different piece of information that we can use to solve the puzzle. In the session our A level Chemistry students used Infrared Spectroscopy, Mass Spectrometry and NMR Spectroscopy. Such techniques are used to discover the chemical structure of new drugs for medicinal purposes for example.

Many thanks to Miss Siseman for organising this excellent event.