Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry research 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 Biochemistry, Biological Sciences, and Environmental Sciences in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, as well as the College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. The facility contains state-of-the art research laboratories, modern mediated lecture rooms, a greenhouse, and a fully operational teaching pharmacy. Faculty members in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry 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 sites, 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 the user.

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 Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry teaches nearly 4,000 students in chemistry lectures and labs primarily from the Colleges of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Engineering, Pharmacy and Health & Human Services.

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 Natural Sciences and Mathematics Instrumentation Center,  which is located in the basement of Bowman-Oddy Laboratories. A modern 6,000 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 Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (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 Bruker Avance III 600Mhz spectrometer has a Cryoprobe which offers exceptional 13C and 1H NMR sensitivity.

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. Additional mass spectrometry capabilities include a Synapt High Definition Mass Spectrometry System with nanoAcquity UPLC system.

The College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics Instrumentation Center is  available to all University of Toledo researchers. This 7,000 square foot advanced instrumentation facility houses over $5 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 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.

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 our undergraduate and graduate students receive in the proper use of the equipment.

Our basic philosophy encourages hands on research and 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 freshman year. Ph.D. level scientists and instrumentation specialists are on staff in the 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.