Acquisition of a Research FT-IR Spectrometer for Materials Characterization and Analysis

This award from the Academic Research Infrastructure (ARI) Program will assist the Department of Chemistry at Rutgers University acquire a fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FT-IR). This equipment will enhance research in a number of areas including the following: (1) chemical and electrochemical synthesis of polymers and the characterization of their electrical and optical properties (2) biomaterials including protein structure-function relationships, and (3) solid-state materials including the synthesis and characterization of new ternary and quaternary metal chalcogenids, particularly tellurides. A fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FT-IR) can provide important information about chemical structure reactivity. Its use may enable breakthroughs in our understanding of the properties of reactivity and nonreactivity of molecules.