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Physical/Analytical Chemistry

Professor

Education
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Research Interests

Infrared spectroscopy and microspectroscopy are versatile sampling methods allowing one to perform a variety of experiments including transmission, absorption-reflection, specular reflection, attenuated total reflection (ATR) and diffuse reflection experiments.
graphic Our research group has used infrared spectroscopy to develop several analytical methods: the characterization of historic papers using ATR, the quantitation of asbestos in airborne and bulk samples using diffuse reflection, the identification of microscopic paint fragments from medieval manuscripts using transmission microspectroscopy, and the classification of bacterial colonies in-situ using specular reflection and ATR microspectroscopy. Our current work uses grazing angle reflection spectroscopy to characterize a self-assembled catenane monolayer on gold as illustrated in the adjacent figure. Catenane monolayers can potentially serve as fundamental electronic devices if the relative positions of their chemical components can be induced to change as a result of some external stimulus.

Publications

  1. "The Infrared Microspectroscopic and Energy Dispersive X-ray Analysis of Paints Removed from a Medieval Statue of St. Wolfgang," Patricia L. Lang, Chad D. Keefer, Jessica C. Juenemann, Khoa V. Tran, Scott M. Peters, Nancy M. Huth, and Alain G. Joyaux, Microchemical Journal 74(1) 33-46 (2003).

  2. "Infrared Spectroscopic Gram Stain," Patricia L. Lang, Jennifer C. Hodges, and Chad Keefer, Cellular and Molecular Biology, 47, 2, OL7-OL14, 2001.

  3. "Infrared Microspectroscopy," Patricia L. Lang. In Encyclopedia of Analytical Chemistry: Instrumentation and Applications, Robert A. Meyers, Ed., John Wiley & Sons, 2000.

  4. "Characterization of Historic Papers using Attenuated Total Reflection Infrared Spectroscopy," Patricia L. Lang, Brenda Fuller Morris, Scott Telles, Scott Cullison, Timothy Barrett. Applied Spectroscopy 52(5) 713-716 (1998).

  5. "Quantitation of Asbestos Using Diffuse Reflection Infrared Spectroscopy," Patricia L. Lang, Vir-Vir Chu, Karen McCune, Susan Franssen-Godown, Michelle Goodnight-Schmidt, Ron Mendenhall, and Wendi Conner. Applied Spectroscopy 52(2) 212-217 (1998).

  6. "The In-Situ Infrared Microspectroscopy of Bacterial Colonies on Agar Plates, Patricia L. Lang and Shu-Chih Sang. Cellular and Molecular Biology 44(1) 231-238 (1998).

  7. "Visualization of Wavefunctions Using Mathematica," Patricia L. Lang and Marcy Hamby Towns. Journal of Chemical Education 74(4) 506-509 (1998).

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