The Department of Chemistry maintains a wide array of sophisticated instrumentation necessary for modern chemical research. Departmental researchers also have access to shared user facilities maintained by other departments and by the many campus-wide research centers. Among these is the Protein Chemistry Core Facility at Columbia’s Medical School, which provides protein sequencing, amino acid analysis, and peptide and DNA synthesis services. Additional facilities for research in microelectronics, photochemistry, and superfast dynamic processes are housed in the Columbia Microelectronic Sciences Laboratory (Columbia Radiation Laboratory). Work in nanoscience/nanotechnology is supported by several near-field optical microscopes, scanning tunneling microscopes, and atomic force microscopes housed on the Morningside campus. The Columbia Nano Initiative also maintains an array of electron microscopes in its state-of-the-art Electron Microscopy facility housed on the first floor of the Department’s own Havemayer Hall. At nearby Brookhaven National Laboratory, the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) generates short-pulse optical radiation from 1 to 10,000 Angstroms for spectroscopy and photochemistry experiments.
The Department of Chemistry is home to ten NMR spectrometers, including four instruments with solid-state capabilities. Our facilities allow researchers to conduct all common NMR experiments as well as many more complex experiments, and many of our instruments are capable of observing most NMR active nuclei. Seven of these instruments are available for use by all trained departmental researchers, while three are maintained by the McDermott Research Group.
Walk-up access to the following instruments is given to trained users. If you are interested in using these instruments, sign up for training by adding your name and contact info to the sign-up sheet outside 544 Havemeyer (in the case of the MALDI TOF, contact Brandon Fowler).
Alongside the MALDI TOF in 216 Havemeyer, our second HRMS instrument combines many of the functions of the walk-up instruments (SFC, direct infusion, and ASAP modes) but with a QTOF mass spectrometer for accurate mass and MS/MS measurements. The instrument consists of a Waters XEVO G2-XS QToF mass spectrometer equipped with a UPC2 SFC inlet, on-board fluidics, an ESI probe, an APCI probe, and an ASAP. Installed February 2015.
This instrument is not available for walk-up use, so follow the instructions below for submitting a sample for Accurate Mass/HRMS analysis:
The department’s computing facility is a 100-MHz network of machines optimized for maximum computational capability and data throughput. Among these networked machines are 75 dual-processor Intel platforms, 9 Dell PowerEdge machines, and 10 SGI Origin 200 dual-processor systems. Our file server is a Sun SPARC Ultra 5 Model 333. It serves a 500-Gb RAID 5 storage array. There is also a 200-Gb RAID array available for processing large data sets. The department has 3 SGI Octane computers for viewing graphical output from molecular modeling programs such as Macromodel. Other computational software available to researchers are MSI Insight II, Grasp, Jaguar, Titan, and Rasmol.
The Precision Biomolecular Characterization Facility (PBCF) is located primarily in Havemeyer Hall, rooms 546 and 428. This core facility is new and will be adding instruments, capabilities, and additional space soon. The PBCF will provide access to state of the art biophysical and biochemical instrumentation focused on the study of conformations, activities and assembly of biological and other macromolecules. For access to the PBCF and the Badger LIMS scheduler, or to coordinate training, contact Jia Ma, Manager of the PBCF. More information can be found at the PBCF website.
Materials science researchers have access to a wide range of spectroscopy, crystallography and other instruments for materials characterization in the Columbia Nano Initiative’s SMCL, housed on the second and fifth floors of Havemeyer Hall.