Handbook

Is this water safe to drink, or should a factory be charged for polluting it? And is this a question with only two possible answers? This course investigates analytical chemistry and how it can be applied to issues such as water quality, environmental contaminants, drugs, and doping in sports.

This course builds on students’ existing background in analytical chemistry to develop both theory and practice relating to the latest analytical techniques used in industry and research. This course covers advanced separation techniques, mass spectrometry, electroanalytical chemistry and the use of biologically derived analytical techniques. There are among the most widely used analytical instrumental techniques across a broad range of disciplines and industries, and may also be found in the domestic scene, and are necessary for solving a multitude of real world issues.

Examples of such real world issues are understanding the difference between water or soil not containing any lead vs merely not detecting the presence of lead due to a poor analytical technique; and the difference between a measurement of a drug being higher than a legal limit and being able to conclude with confidence that the drug is present at a level above a legal limit. Importantly, you will also learn to recognise when the appropriate answer is “we don’t know”.

This course has a theoretical component to teach the theory of these different techniques and the wide variety of applications; combined with a lab component which will provide hands on experience with the analytical techniques to reinforce the theoretical knowledge, followed by a workshop to build data analysis skills.