Mass Spectrometry Facility

The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry operates an in-house Mass Spectrometry facility to support research and teaching activities. Mass Spectrometry is a primary tool for structure elucidation, molecular weight determination and molecular formula confirmation for organic and biological materials. This family of techniques measures the masses of organic and biological molecules by creating gas phase ions from the analytes and manipulating those ions in electric and magnetic fields. Chemical structure may be probed by fragmenting molecular ions and mass measuring the resulting product ions. 

A wide range of ionization techniques and capabilities are available. Services are available by sample submission to the facility staff or by direct instrument access for trained users on a 24/7 basis. Facility staff is available for operator training as well as consultation on experimental design and data interpretation.

Instrumentation Available

A Waters QTOF2 tandem MS system is equipped with an electrospray ionization (ESI) source.  Samples may be introduced by direct infusion or via one of two available HPLC systems.  The QTOF2 is ideal for the analysis of polar organic materials, peptides, intact proteins (<60 KDa), as well as nucleic acids (<40 KDa).  Available analyses include full spectrum, accurate mass measurement, and MS/MS.  Protein identification is available via nanoLC-MS/MS analysis of protein digests. 

A Waters GCT Premier Time-of-Flight MS is equipped with electron ionization (EI), chemical ionization (CI), and field ionization/field desorption (FI/FD) ion sources.  EI, CI, and FI techniques are suitable for volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds with sample introduction via an Agilent capillary GC or by direct insertion probe for thermally labile compounds.  FD is a powerful tool for the analysis of small polymers and other non-polar materials (<4000 Da). Full scan analyses and accurate mass measurement are available.

An HP GC/MSD is a dedicated GC-EI MS low resolution instrument for routine GC/MS analyses of volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds including reaction mixtures.

Ionization Techniques Available:
Electron Ionization (EI)
Chemical Ionization (CI)
Field Ionization/Field Desorption (FI/FD)
Electrospray Ionization (ESI)

Services Available:
Full Scan MS
Accurate Mass Measurement (HRMS)
GC MS
Direct Infusion or HPLC ESI MS
Direct Insertion Probe EI, CI, FI/FD
Data Interpretation
Instrument Training

Facility Manager and Spectrometrist: Dr. James Pavlovich; pavlovich@chem.ucsb.edu
Location: Physical Sciences Building North (PSBN), Room 4624W
Phone: 805-893-4252
Webpage: Mass Spectrometry Facility

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Facility

NMR spectroscopy is a highly sensitive technique in probing molecular structure and dynamics of chemical compounds, polymers and biomolecules. The in-house NMR Facility is currently home to four solution-state NMR spectrometers: Varian 400, 500, and 600 MHz spectrometers and a Bruker 800 MHz spectrometer. All spectrometers are equipped with multiple solution-state NMR probes for direct or indirect detection of 1H/19F and low frequency nuclei such as 13C, 31P, and 15N. The 600 and 800 MHz spectrometers are also each equipped with a cryoprobe. The state-of-the-art, cryogenically cooled probes provide significantly enhanced 1H and/or 13C sensitivity relative to room temperature probes, reducing experiment time up to 20 fold and making it possible for the detection of small-quantity of material. The high-field spectrometers along with the cryoprobes are ideal for biomolecular protein NMR. They are also being used for challenging small molecule projects, such as studies of low-quantity of natural products. The 400 and 500 MHz NMR spectrometers are dedicated to the needs of the synthetic chemists. Experiments conducted at the Facility range from routine 1D and 2D experiments for small molecule and polymer analysis at natural abundance to complex 3D and 4D multinuclear correlated experiments for protein structure determination using isotope-labeled samples. All instruments are user-operated and are open to researchers with 24/7 access after proper training. User training is offered throughout the year in group and mostly hands-on individual sessions. Technical assistance is readily available in data collection and analysis.

The NMR user lab of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry collaborates with the Spectroscopy Facility of the Materials Research Laboratory (MRL), operated by Dr. Jerry Hu. The MRL-supported NMR facility is also available to all users on campus, and offers complementary capabilities, including solid state NMR instrumentation at 300 and 500 MHz, solution NMR instrumentation at 500 and 600 MHz, a CW Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) spectrometer and NMR imaging and diffusometry instrumentation. The laboratory of Prof. Han offers other dedicated capabilities, including pulsed EPR and dynamic nuclear polarization NMR at 10 and 200 GHz.

400 MHz

500 MH

600 MHz

800 MHz

Facility Manager and Spectroscopist: Dr. Hongjun Zhou; hzhou@chem.ucsb.edu

Location: Physical Sciences Building North (PSBN), Room 3614A
Phone: 805-893-2938
Wepage: NMR Facility

Optical Characterization Facility

In the Optical Characterization Facility, light is used to probe the intrinsic properties of materials prepared by chemists and serves as an analytical and quality control tool. We study energy and charge migration in materials for novel optoelectronic devices, test new biosensors and materials for data storage, zap bacteria with laser beams, and provide state of the art technical capabilities that are not commonly available to non-expert chemists in their own laboratory. The optical characterization facility gives students the ability to have hands-on experience in modern optical spectroscopy. The facility does not have dedicated instruments; rather experiments are designed to meet the need of the user. The facility manager assists its users in the design, assembly, and final analysis of experimental data. Custom optical experiments and support include photoconductive atomic force microscope, solar simulators for photovoltaics research or optical setups for characterization of organic semiconductors and many more chemical, materials and biological systems.

Major Capabilities and Areas of Expertise:

Time-resolved fluorescence measurements in the range 50 ps – 10 s (time-correlated single-photon counting etc.).
Transient absorption spectroscopy with sub-100 fs resolution
Custom luminescence spectroscopy (temperature-dependence, photoluminescence up-conversion, thermoluminescnce, electroluminescence, quantum-yield measurements)
Non-linear optical spectroscopy (multiphoton absorption and optical harmonics spectroscopy)
Raman spectroscopy and microscopy
High laser power processing of materials
Optical holography

Facility Instrumentation include 1 kHz repetition rate, 100 fs pulse Ti:Sapphire amplifier, Ti:Sapphire femtosecond oscillator laser, optical harmonics generator, high power Ar-ion laser with single-mode operation capability, various smaller semiconductor and gas lasers. We also have several monochromators equipped with spectroscopic CCD cameras, single channel detectors and a high-end Raman microscope.

Facility Manager and Spectroscopist: Dr. Alexander Mikhailovsky; mikhailovsky@chem.ucsb.edu
Location: Chemistry 3312
Phone: 805-893-2327
Webpage: Optical Characterization Facility