Equipment and Facilities

State-of-the-art instrumentation is an essential component of our research and instruction. The Department and individual research groups collectively maintain a multi-million dollar inventory of advanced hardware and software. There are seven staff instructional specialists and technical support personnel who, along with designated faculty members, support and supervise the use of instruments and equipment in the Department. Both research and instructional instrumentation are constantly updated.

Specialized core facilities are available in the Chemistry and Life Sciences Research Buildings Researchers can also access the Tissue Culture Core, Biological Imaging, Animal Care Facility, and Greenhouse Facility located in the Life Sciences Research Building (LSRB).

Additional Core Services, such as microarray and HT sequencing, are available at the Center for Functional Genomics and Center for Cancer Genomics at East Campus.

College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) Technical Services- Scientific Store, where researchers can purchase chemicals and common laboratory supplies, is located at the basement level of the Chemistry Building (https://www.albany.edu/castech/index.shtml). Services provided by the Machine Shop and Electronic Shop can also be found at the same website. These services are managed by the CAS Technical Scientific Department.

NMR Spectroscopy

The Chemistry Department NMR Facility is located in Chemistry B39, and is used by researchers to characterize small molecules. The facility contains a Bruker Avance 500 MHz NMR spectrometer equipped with BBO and BBI probes. Data can be collected over a temperature range of -80 °C to 100 °C. Users must have an account to access the instrument. Members of the Chemistry department are charged at a rate of $9/h and users from outside the department at $30/h. New users must complete an initial NMR training session before using the instrument, regardless of past NMR experience. Training is available for first time users. The facility is used by the Physical Chemistry and Forensic Chemistry classroom laboratories.


General Policy

  • No food or beverages near the spectrometer or workstation.
  • Do not leave NMR samples in the NMR lab.
  • If a sample breaks in the magnet or gets stuck in the magnet, contact the staff immediately so that the probe can be cleaned.
  • All users must solvent lock on the dummy sample when finished using the spectrometer. The dummy sample is CDCl3. If the sample breaks or evaporates, contact the staff immediately so that the sample can be replaced.
  • Prepare samples using standard 5 mm NMR tubes. The NMR lab does not provide samples tubes or solvents.
  • The recommended minimum sample concentration and volume is 10 mg/mL and 0.5 mL.


Usage policy

  1. Sign up in ¼ hour increments using the scheduling calendar.
  2. Keep each user session to less than 1 hour between the hours of 8 am and 8 pm.
  3. Limit usage to 1 hour per user between noon and 6 pm Monday through Friday.
  4. Include a contact phone number or e-mail address when signing up to allow users to resolve scheduling conflicts.
  5. Do not sign up unless you are certain that you will be able to honor your commitment.
  6. Delete your name from the scheduling calendar as soon as possible when you determine that you cannot keep your time slot.

The schedule permits overnight runs (up to 12 h) from 8 pm to 8 am on weekdays; up to a 24 h run on the weekends starting Friday at 8 pm, and, on the 2nd weekend of each month, an extended run of up to 60 h beginning at 8 pm on Friday and ending by Monday at 8 am may be scheduled.

Users should schedule only a single 24 h experiment over the weekend (except for the second weekend of each month) to allow other users to use the instrument. Weekend time slots are for experiments that require very long data acquisition times and not for multiple short duration experiments.

There will be exceptions to these rules; if you need to use the instrument for 1-2 hours, you can do this once during the 8 am to 8 pm period every few weeks, but if you anticipate needing several sessions greater than 1 hour each, back-to-back sessions totaling more than one hour, and up to 12 hours during the course of a week, use the 8 pm to 8 am (overnight) period for this work.


Training Policy

The initial training session is intended to familiarize the user with running 1D experiments and usually takes about an hour to complete. Topics covered include: NMR sample preparation and handling. Set-up of a single nucleus 1D experiment and acquisition of a spectrum. Automatic and manual tuning and shimming Basic 1D processing and integration.


Usage Scheduling

Directions for using and viewing the “Chemistry NMR400” scheduling calendar are at https://wiki.albany.edu/display/public/askit/Working+with+a+Room+Calendar Only users with an NMR account may access the calendar.

Contact
Dr. David S. Burz
518-442-4413
Chemistry B38
[email protected]

Additional solution NMR spectrometers, used primarily for macromolecular structural studies, are part of the Life Science Research Building (LSRB) core facilities, which is located in LSRB 1166. These instruments include a HFCN, QCI-F, and quadruple resonance, HPCN, QCI-P cryoprobes; and a 700 MHz Bruker Avance II equipped with triple resonance, HCN, TXI cryoprobe. The 600 MHz NMR spectrometer is designed to support structural studies of nucleic acids.

Contact
Dr. Alex Shekhtman
518-442-4163
LSRB 1149
[email protected]

Mass Spectrometry

The Chemistry department has excellent facilities for characterizing small molecules and biological macromolecules by using mass spectrometry.

A JEOL AccuTOF C-plus model JMS T100LP mass spectrometer is located in Chemistry B36. To use this instrument, please contact Dr. Rabi Musah at [email protected] or 518-437-3740.

A Bruker Daltonics SolariX FTICR mass spectrometer equipped with a 12 Tesla magnet and an ion funnel ESI source; a Waters Synapt G2 HDMS IMS/Q-TOF with nanoESI source; a Thermo-Fisher LTQ-Orbitrap Velos XL; an Advion TriVersa NanoMate1 unit for automated direct infusion analysis, simultaneous LC/MS coupling to ESI Chip and fractionation unit are located in LSRB 1160.

In addition, an Agilent G6530BA mass spectrometer is located in the LSRB Chemistry Core Facility (LSRB 01151, Chemistry Core Advanced Instrumentation facility). This is a quadruple time-of-flight mass spectrometer with an electrospray ionization (ESI) source. It works over a wide mass range of up to 20000 m/z and provides mass resolution of up to 20000 (FWHM). The instrument is coupled with an Agilent 1260 Infinity HPLC system and designed for identifying and characterizing low molecular-weight compounds and biomolecules using accurate mass measurements in MS and MS/MS mode.

Mass spectrometry services are also available at the East Campus Center for Functional Genomics.

Thermogravimetric Analysis

The Chemistry Department acquired a TA Instruments TGA-5500 coupled to a mass spectrometer capable of both TGA and TGA-MS experiments. The instrument also features a differential thermal analysis (DTA) signal for measuring enthalpy during the TGA experiment.

This instrument was acquired via general support from the NSF MRI program under grant #1919810.

For more information and to use this instrument, contact Professor Jeremy Feldblyum at [email protected].

Gas Sorption Analysis

A Micromeritics 3Flex gas sorption analyzer is available in the Feldblyum lab for external use. This instrument can be used to obtain the surface area and pore size distribution of powder materials. The 3Flex is also capable of sorption experiments with compatible solvent vapors.

For more information and to use this instrument, contact Professor Jeremy Feldblyum at [email protected].

Atomic Force Microscopy

An MFP-3D Origin+ from Asylum Research is available for nanomaterial morphology and surface spatial and force mapping.

For more information and to use this instrument, contact Professor Jeremy Feldblyum at [email protected].