The University of Toledo

Facilities and Instrumentation

 

Wolfe Hall

The chemistry department facilities are housed in the Bowman-Oddy/Wolfe Hall complex. Wolfe Hall, which opened in 1998 adjacent to Bowman-Oddy Laboratories, is a 165,000 square foot research and teaching facility for the departments of chemistry and biology as well as the College of Pharmacy. The facility contains state-of-the art research laboratories, modern mediated lecture rooms, a greenhouse, and a fully operational teaching pharmacy. Faculty members in chemistry have research laboratories that average 750-900 square foot of laboratory space. Close access to support space, including instrumentation rooms and walk-in cold rooms, is also available. In addition, the close proximity to researchers in other departments has created many exciting interdisciplinary collaborative research projects among the faculty.

The entire complex is networked for easy data transport between research site and offices and laboratories. The University network allows connection to OhioLink, the library system for all member universities in Ohio, and the Ohio Supercomputer Center. OhioLink provides quick access to a full range of scientific databases(e.g., SciFinder Scholar,Science Citation Index) and electronic journals for quick retrieval of information directly to most desktop computers. The University of Toledo recently became the 200th member of Internet 2 and the 10th member school in the State of Ohio.

 

Chemistry Research Lab Module

Upon completion of Wolfe Hall, Bowman-Oddy Laboratories, which was constructed in 1967, has been undergoing extensive renovation to support the undergraduate teaching mission of the department. Each fall the chemistry department teaches nearly 4000 students in chemistry lectures and labs primarily from the Colleges of Arts & Sciences, Engineering, Pharmacy and Health and Human Services. One of the new chemistry teaching labs is shown below.

 

New Teaching Laboratories

Facilities and personnel to support both the research and teaching missions of the department are numerous. The department employs two Ph.D. instrumentation specialists, two electronics technicians, a glassblower, and enjoys a close relationship with the staff of the Arts & Sciences Instrumentation Center,  which is located in thebasement of Bowman-Oddy Laboratories. A modern 6000 square foot stockroom with a full-time staff of three handles all chemical needs, as well as shipping, receiving and safety issues for the department and the Bowman-Oddy/Wolfe Hall complex.

A machinist is also available at the university. The combined talents of these individuals provide versatility in instrumental and experimental design, construction, maintenance, and user training. Additional staff members include a business manager and two secretaries. In addition to a wide range of specialized equipment found in individual research laboratories (centrifuges, electrochemical, chromatography, electrophoresis, calorimetry, and Raman, fluorescence and UV-visible spectroscopy), the department has a dedicated NMR facility with Varian 200, 400 and 600MHz NMR spectrometers. The Varian 600 MHz Unity Inova has four rf channels, for multi- dimensional NMR of proteins. The new Bruker Avance III 600Mhz spectrometer that was installed early this year has a Cryoprobe which offers exceptional 13C and 1H NMR sensitivity. 

 

Varian 600 MHz NMR

A separations laboratory is also located within the department and includes a Hewlett-Packard Esquire Ion Trap LC-MS with ESI/APCI and nanospray capabilities, three Hewlett Packard GC-MS instruments, an Agilent GC, and two Waters LC systems with isocratic and gradient capabilities. Thermal analysis equipment includes a TA Instruments simultaneous DTA-TGA thermal analyzer and a Perkin-Elmer Pyris 1 differential scanning calorimeter (DSC). An Autopol III digital polarimeter, a Bausch and Lomb Abbe refractometer, an I.L. Video 11 atomic absorption spectrophotometer, a Photon Technologies spectrofluorimeter, a Perkin-Elmer GX FTIR with an ATR attachment, and a Nicolet 60SX GC/FTIR are also available.

 

The College of Arts & Sciences Instrumentation Center is also available to University of Toledo researchers. This 7000 square foot advanced instrumentation facility houses over $5.0 million of modern instrumentation and is staffed by three Ph.D.instrumentation specialists. Located in the Center as an outgrowth of research strengths in the chemistry department is the Ohio Crystallography Consortium, which distinguishes the department and the university as the center of excellence in Ohio for crystallographic research. Single crystal X-ray analysis for small molecules, biological macromolecules, as well as powders is routine. X-ray equipment includes a Rigaku FR-E high brilliance generator equipped with a Saturn 92 CCD detector and a R-Axis IV image plate for macromolecular crystallography.

 

Rigaku FRE Diffractometer

A Rigaku Ultrax rotating anode generator equipped with a Rapid curved image plate and two Bruker CCD Smart diffractometers are also available for small molecule crystallography. In addition, a PANalytical X’Pert Pro with a X’Celerator high speed detector and low/high temperature, capillary, thin film and texture options and a Scintag XDS-2000 are used for powder analysis. In addition, a robotics laboratory for protein crystallization and screening is available.

 

Additional equipment in the Instrumentation Center includes a JEOL 6100 scanning electron microscope, a Cary 5 UV/VIS/NIR spectrophotometer, a Perkin- Elmer Plasma II ICP emission spectrophotometer, a Bruker ESP-300E electron spin resonance spectrometer, and a Perkin-Elmer 2400 Series II CHNS/O combustion analyzer. An important component of having this outstanding instrumentation base at The University of Toledo is the training of our undergraduate and graduate students in the proper use of the equipment.

Robotics Lab for Protein Crystallization

Our basic philosophy encourages hands on experimentation using the advanced instrumentation in the department and the center by all students. Much of the equipment is incorporated into coursework as early as the sophomore year. Ph.D. level scientists and instrumentation specialists are on staff in the chemistry department and the Instrumentation Center to provide the necessary initial training. This feature of our program is recognized by employers of our graduates and makes them highly marketable upon graduation.