Implementation of GC-MS in Environmental Chemistry

by Jeffrey Ashley, Philadelphia University (ashleyj@philau.edu)

With the current dominance of environmental-based monitoring in research and development in academia, industry, and government, it is becoming essential to expose undergraduates to those analytical tools that are vital to environmental chemists. Perhaps the most powerful of these tools is the GC-MS.  Students in the guided-inquiry, collaborative environmental chemistry laboratory project consider the question “Are Philadelphia’s sediments contaminated?”.  Using the “sediment quality triad” approach (4,5), results from chemical analyses using a GC-MS are coupled with simple bench-top toxicity studies and biology population community surveys to assess the extent and significance of pollution-induced degradation.  This highly multidisciplinary approach encompasses aspects of organic, analytical, and environmental chemistry. 

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This inquiry based lab was developed through funding from NSF (DUE# 0126468 - Implementing Guided-inquiry Laboratories Utilizing Gas-chromatography Mass-spectrometry in the Chemistry/Biochemistry Majors Sequence)