This outstanding facility includes two CCD area-detector diffractometers. One is a Nonius KappaCCD instrument equipped with molybdenum radiation, and the other is a Bruker Kappa Apex-II instrument with copper radiation. Both instruments are equipped with Oxford Cryosystems Cryostream chillers for low-temperature data collection, and virtually all data are collected at approximately 100 K. The facility is thus equipped to optimally handle organic, organometallic, and inorganic compounds, and to perform absolute configuration determinations for chiral compounds, including chiral organics. The facility has a number of dedicated computers, with LINUX, Windows and Macintosh operating systems. A wide range of crystallographic software is available, including the Apex-II, SHELX, maXus, PLATON and WinGX program packages for solving, refining, analyzing, visualizing, and reporting structures. Access to crystallographic databases is available, including the Cambridge Structural Database for organic and organometallic compounds, as well as the Inorganic Crystal Structure Database. This facility is managed on a full time basis by an expert Ph.D crystallographer, Dr. Frank Fronczek, and it annually produces approximately 500 structure determinations. Both formal and informal training of students in the use of the facility is available. The availability of rapid and high-quality crystal structure analysis by single-crystal X-ray diffraction methods has established LSU as a leader in structural chemistry in the United States.

 

 

A Bruker D8 Advance Powder Diffractometer is located in Prof. Julia Chan's X-ray lab.

The D8 is a high resolution powder diffractometer with a sealed X-ray source (Cu) in the standard vertical q-2q geometry. A germanium incident beam monochromator is used produce Ka2 free radiation.

PROTEIN CRYSTALLOGRAPHY FACILITY

The on-campus facility for macromolecular crystallography houses a Nonius FR591 rotating anode with a Mar345 image plate detector. The system is equipped with Osmic mirrors. An Oxford Cryojet allows data collection at low temperature. In addition, LSU has a synchrotron located approximately four miles from campus. The recent addition of a protein crystallography beam line at the Center for Advanced Microstructures and Devices (CAMD, see link below) by the Gulf Coast Protein Crystallography Consortium should provide LSU with 24-30 days of scheduled beam time per year.

  Dr. Frank Fronczek with the new Bruker Kappa Apex-II

 

Dr. Frank R. Fronczek, Research Associate, has been the manager of the X-Ray Crystallography Facility since its inception in 1980. He has determined over 3000 crystal structures during this time, and has published over 700 papers in structural and chemical journals. His distinguished contributions to the field of X-ray crystallography were recognized by his appointment as a Co-Editor for the premier crystallography journal Acta Crystallographica, and he served nine years in that capacity. He has also served on the U. S. National Committee for Crystallography. Dr. Fronczek’s duties include the day-to-day operation of the facility, crystal mounting, diffraction data collection, structure solution and refinement, maintenance of the instruments and computers, assistance to authors in publishing crystallographic results, as well as formal and informal teaching of crystallography to graduate students.

 

Dr. Julia Chan

 

The Mass Spectrometry Facility provides analytical support for the chemistry department and other academic departments at LSU, researchers at other universities, and customers from private industry. The facility offers a broad range of services with six mass spectrometers (listed below). This facility is staffed by Dr. Azeem Hasan (director), a Service Assistant, and an undergraduate student worker.

Mass Spectrometers in Facility:

• Agilent 6210 time-of-flight MS for high accuracy mass analysis in support of the synthetic chemists (organic, inorganic and biological) at LSU.  This instrument was purchased through a grant from NSF that will support “cyber-enabling” of the Mass Spectrometry Facility.  This project is currently underway.

• Varian Saturn 2200 GC/MS for routine GC separations and electron ionization (EI) or chemical ionization (CI) mass spectrometry of semi-volatiles.

• Bruker ProFLEX III MALDI-TOF mass spectrometer.

• Hitachi MS-8000 3DQ LC-ion trap mass spectrometer with electrospray and APCI ionization methods.

• Applied Biosystems QSTAR XL quadrupole time-of-flight MS with nano LC system. MALDI, ESI, and APCI available.

Polymer Analysis Laboratory (PAL): includes seven state-of-the-art laser light scattering systems. Distribution of polymer molecular weight can be measured qualitatively or absolutely on one of three Agilent-Waters-Wyatt gel permeation chromatography (GPC) or field flow fractionation (FFF) systems equipped with multiangle laser light scattering detectors. The field flow system is especially powerful for large polymers and colloidal particles. Dynamic light scattering can be performed on custom-built equipment devices, a Malvern ZetaPALS (which can also measure zeta potential) or on-line in flow-through mode using a Wyatt QELS. PAL's thermal analysis facility (Seiko and TA Systems) includes differential scanning calorimetry (DSC - three instruments), simultaneous thermogravimetric/differential thermal analysis (TGA/DTA), steady state and oscillatory thermomechanical analysis (TMA), and dynamic mechanical spectroscopy (DMS).

 

 

 

 

For polymer analysis at the molecular level, the mass, size, and aggregation characteristics of polymers may be characterized on either of two state-of-the-art laser light scattering systems built to the specifications of the department in LSU's Scientific Instrumentation Shops. Distribution of polymer molecular weight can be measured qualitatively or absolutely on one of two Waters-Wyatt GPC systems equipped with multiangle laser light scattering and DRI detectors and, or on a Waters-Viscotek TA60 triple detection system, which combines light scattering and viscometry and DRI in one GPC system.

PAL's optical microscopy facility is equipped with Olympus and Leitz optical microscopes for polarized, Normarski, transmission, and epi-fluorescence illumination, as well as confocal mode for "optical sectioning" of materials in three dimensions. A special apparatus for fluorescence photobleaching recovery combines laser illumination and computer-interfaced photometry to measure diffusion rates in solutions, gels, melts, and liquid crystals. Film and video cameras interface to two separate image processing systems.

Other instrumentation includes assorted viscometers and osmometers and a NIMA Langmuir Blodget trough, equipped for surface pressure measurement and production of thin films.

LSU's compact synchrotron light source is the centerpiece of the Center for Advanced Microstructures and Devices (CAMD) that provides a powerful tool for many areas of research, particularly those involving atomic and molecular spectroscopy. Synchrotron radiation is produced by accelerating charged electrons to relativistic velocities. This produces in an intense continuum of radiation in the far ultraviolet and x-ray range of the electromagnetic spectrum.

This short wavelength (high energy) radiation is useful in chemical research for two principal reasons. First, x- ray wavelengths are comparable to inter-atomic spacings at the shorter wavelengths, and this provides access to detailed structural information. Second, these high energy photons have sufficient energy to eject core electrons from samples of interest. This is useful for providing additional insights into molecular electronic structure as well as studying condensed phase effects on electronic structure.

This computing facility is composed of an IBM RS/6000 model 590 server (75-120 MFLOPS performance), a SGI Onyx Reality Station and a SGI Octane which provide excellent 3-D graphics and computing performance for molecular modeling and quantum mechanical calculations. There is also a high performance Linux Beowulf cluster consisting of 22 nodes and one master node.

The electro-who-cardio-flux beowulf cluster consists of 26 nodes and one master node. Each node is either a 400 MHz or 750 MHz Pentium with 512 MB RAM and 10 GB local disk space. The nodes are connected with a HP procurve 4000M switch (100 Mbps). Software applications include Monte Carlo, molecular dynamics, ab initio quantum chemistry, molecular dynamics, and band theory. Please visit the website of this cluster.

Major program packages available:

An electronics shop for use by all College of Basic Sciences faculty is located in a new and spacious facility in the Physics Department, about two blocks from Chemistry.  A staff of four can assist with a wide range of electronics problems, including design of new instrumentation and computer interface needs (both hardware and software).

• Digital & Analog Controls for instrumentation, data collection and data refinement.
• Transducer Interfacing
• RF and Pulse Amplifiers
• Active and Passive Signal Filters

The Glass Blowing Shop provides support to the faculty and researchers within the College of Basic Sciences. The shop's primary mission is to design and fabicate prototypes of specialty laboratory equipment as well as repair existing types of glass apparatus and equipment. Types of glasses routinely used for fabrication include borosilicate (i.e. Pyrex), fused quartz, alumino silicate and some soft glass as well as heavy metal glasses such as lead glass.

Available equipment includes both large and small lathes along with various types of bench torches and equipment necessary to drill, cut, sand blast and grind glass. A 7 ft. long regular glass oven as well as a quartz oven are available for annealing. This shop is well stocked with tubing, joints, as well as valves. The shop is staffed by a full time master glass blower. Both office and shop space are located within Choppin Hall.