CM3141 - INSTRUMENTAL TECHNIQUES IN ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY

Academic Year 25/26 - Semester 2

Assessments:​

​Part 1

• Lecture Test: 25%

• Mass Spectrometry Elucidation Quiz: 15%

• Unannounced Lecture Quizzes: 5% (×2)

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Part 2

• Lecture Tests: 25% (×2)

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Lecturers: Dr Tan Wee Boon (Part 1) & A/P Chua Lay Lay (Part 2)​

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No. of responses: 2

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REVIEWS

What advice would you give to someone considering taking this course?

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George: Not all analytical techniques stated in the course description are covered in CM3141. The alignment, however, should be better now that Prof Chua is fully taking over the course. For Prof Chua's CM3141, the whole course would be blended learning. Physical lectures are replaced by pre-recorded videos. Tutorials are therefore the only contact hours. Prof Chua sends a schedule of the suggested timeline for watching the videos and the topics she will be going through for that week's tutorials. Prof Chua's assessments are quite similar to the tutorial questions, both in terms of difficulty and format. She sets it such that time is definitely not the differentiating factor, and many students leave the lecture venue before the end.

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DolleEicir: Temper your expectations, because it can be either a broad overview of multiple analytical techniques, or a deeper, mathematical-formulae dive into the theory of selected analytical techniques. Things might change in future semesters, so take this with a pinch of salt. In Part 1, we focused largely on MS, followed up by 1-2 lectures on Thermal Methods. In previous semesters, it would have included much more techniques like in course description, not limited to: i) x-ray techniques: XRF - X-ray fluorescence, XRD - X-ray diffraction; ii) chemical and elemental analysis: AAS and AES - atomic absorption/emission spec., AFS - atomic force spec.; iii) optical and imaging techniques: SEM - scanning electron microscopy, TEM - transmission electron spectroscopy. The scope of MS will be reviewed further below.

In Part 2, we covered the full scope, which includes UV-VIS-NIR, FTIR, Raman and XPS, with mathematical insights into the formulas on how the theory works, with links to optics and quantum mechanics. Personally, just know that every technique has a solid amount of theory in it, which can only be covered to a certain extent and mathematical rigour in the course. Do your due diligence to go further as per your interests, and do not assume/ presume or take for granted that these techniques are simple; simple and easy to learn (instrumentation wise), but hard to master (theory). Else, it's pretty cool to be exposed to so many new analytical techniques, all of which have their respective uses in whichever industry or research you find yourself in, in the future to come.

What did you enjoy or find most useful in this course?

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George: Prof Chua's blended learning lecture videos are well edited and animated. It is especially appropriate for the course as her slides/videos include many intentionally-created diagrams that highlight the anatomy of the instrumental techniques covered. Animations are utilised effectively to highlight certain parts of the diagrams as she talks about them. Since her videos are made from scratch and not repurposed from previous lecture recordings, Prof Chua has a script for each video - each sentence she speaks is purposeful, and there is no filler. Therefore, students need to pay much more attention while watching her videos than to regular lecture recordings. Each analytical method is allocated a chapter (eg: Chapter 1: UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy), and topics within each analytical method are dedicated sub-chapters (eg: Chapter 1.2: Instrumentation, Chapter 1.4: Selection Rules, Chapter 1.5: Applications, etc). Each video is dedicated towards a sub-chapter. Each sub-chapter/video is also further divided into smaller topics and ideas. This clear organisation of ideas makes it easy to digest the contents. Prof Chua's videos also include practice questions and an end-of-video summary, serving as intended learning outcomes for students to assess their understanding.

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DolleEicir: For Part 1, appreciated the rigour to go through the logical thinking of eludication. It is one thing to use MS as a technique, but to know MS enough to be able to solve problems, is another. For instance, you can always compare MS spectra against a library database to determine if your analyte is your desired product, but it takes accumulated time and experience to make that same conclusion based on the MS spectrum alone. It is more of a skill than just knowledge. For Part 2, appreciated the intent to include both the breadth and depth in the slides. Generally, every technique can be broken down into 3 parts: fundamentals/ theory, instrumentation and applications. Applications are probably the most relevant to the majority of those that go into industry, because chemical analysis is always part of it somewhere along the chemical industry ecosystem, like in QC or application testing.

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What aspects of the course did you find most challenging, and why?

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George: Just like in CM2143, Dr Tan's slides are completely plagiarised with minimal changes, and therefore they are hard to comprehend without the full context. Other challenges for Dr Tan's portion include his knowledge deficiencies/inaccuracies, disinterest in teaching, poor assessments, removal of tutorials, and severe deviations from the syllabus, among other things, which have already been highlighted in a previous CM2143 review and shall not be repeated. Critically, his portion disproportionately focuses on fragmentation patterns of organic mass spectrometry (MS). It is a completely inappropriate choice for a compulsory level 3 course. Not only does it involve high-energy physics, which is still poorly understood by researchers (let alone Dr Tan), it is entirely unnecessary because the fragmentation patterns that he teaches (more accurately: describes and lists) are for small organic molecules: a complete database has already been catalogued, at least for the ultra-specific type of MS that he teaches (electron ionisation, which is deterministic). Applications of MS are also completely disregarded, unless one counts a single slide in the first slide deck, mentioning in bulleted points, some areas of application where MS can be used, with no accompanying elaboration. For the amount of time and emphasis he places on MS, the contents he chooses to cover completely miss the mark for anyone who might use such a technique in research or industry (biochemistry and quantification are completely not covered, despite them being the 2 biggest uses of MS in research and industry, respectively).

For Prof Chua's segment, she places emphasis on instrumentation and fundamental principles, on top of interpretation. This makes her style of teaching analytical chemistry different from other courses, which might otherwise black-box the machine's anatomy and mechanistic origins that give rise to the detected signal. Consequently, her portions are content-dense and might hence require a higher workload to fully comprehend. Students should keep this in mind when deciding whether to do CM3141 in the semester that Prof Chua teaches: If you just want to know how to use and interpret each analytical technique, take it in the other semester. If you want to know how each technique really works, take it in her semester.

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DolleEicir: For Part 1, MS requires practice. There is little to no shortcut to go about learning a skill. You can always memorise the theory, but it may not always translate exactly to new problems in industry. For Part 2, techniques have a more mathematical-physics basis, so it does take some rigour to go through and understand the theory behind it.

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What resources did you find most helpful in helping you better understand the course material?

George: Just like any other course taught by Dr Tan, his slides are plagiarised from external sources. In this case, Mass Spectrometry: A Textbook, by Jürgen H Gross. It can be argued that reading the textbook is necessary to understand the context of his slides, because he removes entire chunks without paraphrasing the rest, making the remainder incoherent.

For Prof Chua's part, there might be some parts where students do not have the background knowledge. They might therefore need to use AI to explain certain points, especially those relating to Quantum Mechanics, symmetry or more advanced mathematics (eg: Fermi resonance, frequency and time as conjugate variables of a Fourier transform).

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DolleEicir: Textbooks can probably help, but may go down deep into the theory rabbit hole, or side paths that could be out of the scope of the course.

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What other courses do you think should be taken before or concurrently with this course?

George: CM2133 is absolutely required if done under Prof Chua, because the selection rules and quantum mechanical treatment are expected to be known. Character tables and symmetry from CM1102 are also used. Some A-Level physics knowledge is also used, such as the quantum physics content (X-Ray spectra, photoelectric effect, absorption and emission spectroscopy). AI can be used to bridge the content gap on appropriate topics.

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DolleEicir: Good to take CM3192 with it, because there is little coverage of theory for the lab techniques used, and it is more self-directed learning rather than taught formally in lectures. Relatively manageable with other courses, so feel free to pair with a heavier course like CM3131, which also complements CM3192 well.