Facilities and Instrumentation
![]() |
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.

![]() |
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.