The theme will be practical structure determination culminating in a drug screening experiment performed on members of the class who are prepared to participate. In practice, neither approach on its own is widely successful. This lecture deals with the fundamental physical principles of ionisation and the reasons behind the inevitability and repeatability of fragmentation processes. These skills are extremely important when pattern recognition methods are unreliable. This lecture extends the material covered in the previous lecture.
Quantification is discussed briefly.
Students can undertake this work at their own pace in an open laboratory environment subject to availability of PC computers in the spectroscopy and chromatography laboratories. Demonstrators will be available at a pre-arranged time to provide students with assistance if required. A set of unknown data files will be provided and students will be required to identify the structures of the compounds in these and justify their conclusions based on pattern matching and interpretation of fragmentation information. This work will be assessed. Non prescription drugs and caffeine-containing beverages will be used in a practical drug screening exercise.