St. Mary's College Chemistry Program partners with NAWCAD

St. Mary's College of Maryland student Tessa Scheckelhoff, left, prepares a sample of tri-cresyl phosphate, or TCP, for analysis on a Gas Chromatograph as Associate Professor Dr. Randy Larsen, looks on. Some TCP isomers, or molecules with chemical groups in certain positions relative to the main structure, are believed to be toxic to humans and may be implicated in "toxic cabin air syndrome." The GC-FID device shown here can be used to measure which isomers are present in the TCP formulation and their relative concentrations. The education partnership between St. Mary's College of Maryland and Naval Air Warfare Center Aviation Division affords students the opportunity to use test equipment previously not available to them, which better prepares them for real-world chemistry experience.

U.S. Navy photos by Kathy Glockner St. Mary's College of Maryland students, Kaiolani Siregar, left, and Alexandra Moore, weigh an Yttrium solution using an analytical balance to prepare a sample for the Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometer, or ICP-OES. The ICP-OES measures the amount of dissolved metals in fuels or lubricants samples down to sub part per million levels, or ppm. A ppm is the equivalent of the weight of one paper clip out of a ton of material. The college visit exposed its students to the analytical laboratory equipment used in fuel analysis. a