InterChemNet brings crystallography instrumentation to general chemistry students

The University of Maine InterChemNet (ICN) project has purchased crystallography instrumentation that will support opportunities for students in the second-semester general chemistry lab course, CHY 124. Starting in January 2018, the instrumentation will be used in multiweek project- and inquiry-based lab experiments. Crystallography, which uses a single crystal X-ray diffractometer, has been an essential tool in developing many scientific fields, revealing structures and functions of biochemical molecules, catalysts and medicinal drugs. It is the latest modern instrumentation introduced into UMaine’s general chemistry lab in the last 20 years by the ICN project, created by Mitchell Bruce in collaboration with Robert Kirk and François Amar.