This Course Guide has been taken from the most recent presentation of the course. It would be useful for reference purposes but please note that there may be updates for the following presentation.
CHEM S312
Instrumental Analysis
Welcome to CHEM S312 Instrumental Analysis!
This is a one-semester, five-credit course offered by the School of Science and Technology. It is a core subject course for students pursuing Bachelor of Science with Honours in Applied Science (Biology and Chemistry). The course is also an elective course for the Bachelor of Science with Honours in Environmental Studies and Bachelor of Science with Honours in Product Design, Testing and Certification.
The purpose of the course is to provide you with working knowledge on a range of instrumentation that is commonly used in chemistry laboratories. The term 'instrumental analysis' refers to an integrated subject which covers the separation, detection, identification and quantification of matter based on its distinctive properties such as size, charge, hydrophobicity, electromagnetic wave absorption and emission, molecular vibration, and even exact mass. The course is divided into five units which cover optical methods (Units 1 and 2), separation techniques (Unit 3), mass-selective identification methods (Unit 4) and their applications as an integrative approach (Unit 5). The principles of instrumental methods and testing strategies introduced in the course have a wide range of applications in society, particularly in consumer testing services, environmental protection, food safety, pharmaceutical research, forensic investigation and so on.
The course is delivered in print mode, with support from the University's Online Learning Environment (OLE). The study units are written at an appropriate level of difficulty together with plenty of diagrams to illustrate the instrument designs, as well as self-tests that help you consolidate the newly acquired knowledge. In addition, as the course is designed to train you up with working knowledge of instrumentation and related data interpretation, there will be two optional laboratory sessions. The course will also be complemented by five two-hour optional tutorials and two two-hour surgery sessions for direct knowledge transfer and tutor-student interaction.
Purpose of this Course Guide
This Course Guide gives you an overview of CHEM S312 and helps you to work through the materials. In this guide, you will find out about the resources and support provided by HKMU to facilitate your learning, as well as the assessment procedures used to evaluate your performance. Please read through and refer to this Course Guide when needed.
Course aims
CHEM S312 Instrumental Analysis aims to:
Course learning outcomes
Upon completion of CHEM S312, you should be able to:
CHEM S312 Instrumental Analysis is organized into five key learning areas and each of them is designed to take three to four weeks of your study time. The presentation strategy for the course is based on print material which consists of one course guide and five study units. The units are delivered at an appropriate level of difficulty whereas more complicated subtopics are complemented with extended reading. Working examples, activities and self-tests are added so that you can evaluate your progress as you work through the course.'
The course material also includes two laboratory manuals and two assignments. The former provides information on the experimental set- up and working procedures for the two experiments. The latter evaluates the learning outcomes of students in three stages and accounts for 50% of the continuous assessment. They will be uploaded to the OLE later for you to download.
The following table gives a general overview of the course structure.
| Unit | Weeks | Assessment (end of unit) | |
| 1 | Molecular spectroscopy | 3 | |
| 2 | Atomic spectroscopy | 3 | |
| 3 | Separation techniques | 3 | Assignment 1 |
| 4 | Mass spectrometry | 4 | |
| 5 | Hyphenated techniques and case studies | 3 | Assignment 2 |
| Total study weeks | 16 | ||
The course consists of five study units along with two experiments. Answers to self-tests are included at the end of each unit.
Study units
A brief description of each study unit is given below.
Unit 1 Molecular spectroscopy
More than half of all instrumental analysis of matter involves the absorption or emission of electromagnetic (EM) radiation. In Unit 1, the interactions between EM radiation and molecules are introduced and three molecular spectroscopic methods, including ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis), infrared (IR) and fluorescence spectroscopy, are discussed in view of their principles, instrumental set-ups and applications in qualitative/quantitative analysis.
Unit 2 Atomic spectroscopy
The elemental or metal composition of a substance can be determined by decomposing it into atoms prior to spectroscopic or mass-selective analysis. In Unit 2, different types of atomizers such as flame, graphite furnace (GF) and inductively coupled plasma (ICP) are described. Atomic spectrometric methods including atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS), optical emission spectrometry (OES) and atomic mass spectrometry are discussed in terms of their working principles, atomization efficiency, and potential spectral interferences.
Unit 3 Separation techniques
Instrumental analysis generally involves complicated sample matrices that may adversely influence measurement. In Unit 3, separation methods that isolate target analyte from interferences, e.g. gas chromatography (GC), liquid chromatography (LC) and electrophoresis are introduced. In particular, LC columns that are used to separate substances according to their physical properties such as size (size- exclusion chromatography), charge (ion exchange chromatography) and hydrophobicity (reverse-phase chromatography) are discussed. Qualitative and quantitative analyses are based on the analyte's retention time in the column and distinctive signal measured by the detector(s) coupled to the separation system.
Unit 4 Mass spectrometry
Every substance has its own mass and therefore the scope of application of mass measurement is very broad. In addition, mass spectrometry (MS) wins praise for its high sensitivity, excellent resolution and outstanding mass accuracy and therefore it serves as a powerful tool for chemical identification. In Unit 4, the principle and features of various types of mass spectrometers are explored, compared and discussed in a comprehensive way.
Unit 5 Hyphenated techniques and case studies
Public concern on environmental protection and consumer safety against toxic substances gives rise to numerous regulations and guidelines established by international authorities. Chemical instruments are valuable tools for rapid identification and quantification of substances of high concern. In Unit 5, the concept of combining separation and detection techniques (Units 1–4), or 'hyphenated techniques', is introduced, followed by an array of selected applications of instrumental analysis in society.
Reference books
The course provides self-contained materials and no additional textbook is required. The following three books which can be borrowed from the HKMU Library are suggested to you for a deeper understanding of the course materials:
Online resources
The course is supported by the University's Online Learning Environment (OLE) which is a fully integrated e-learning platform for teaching and learning activities. In the OLE, you can find the course schedule and course materials including study units, lab manual, assignments, specimen examination paper and useful links to external resources delivered by the University. A discussion board is also available for communication between students, tutors, and the course coordinator.
You are encouraged to research the latest information through the live links in the OLE or URLs integrated in the course materials. Online resources in different formats such as webpages, PDF, video clips and e-learning programmes not only facilitate learning in a more efficient way, they can also help you develop skills in research and collection of up-to-date information related to public concerns, testing methods and chemical instrumentation. Some useful websites are listed below:
You should pay particular attention to this Course Guide and all instructions in the study units. Also, you are urged to attend all your tutorials, surgeries and laboratory sessions where you will meet other distance learners; you will find that you have much in common.
Study units
You should read each study unit carefully because it guides your learning. Each unit tells you what to do and how to approach any assignment related to the unit. If you do not read the study unit carefully, you may miss important information. It is also helpful to read as widely as possible. You should read articles in newspapers and journals, other books on the topic and related cases, if possible. The more widely you read, the better your appreciation and understanding of instrumental analysis will be.
Each study unit is organized into a number of sections. A unit usually starts with an introduction, which outlines what will be covered. Within the main part of the unit, you will have the opportunity to attempt activities and self-tests. Feedback on the self-tests is provided at the end of the unit. A summary is also included.
Activities
Throughout the study units, you will come across non-assessed activities. These are designed to help you understand what you have learned and to help you prepare for your assignments and examination. What's more, the activities encourage you to reflect on the learning materials and apply them in your working life. It is vital that you make strong links between what you are learning from the course and what you are confronted with at work.
Checking understanding
Some of the concepts in this course will be new to you, and you may have to make an effort to understand them. Keep a note of any problems and raise them with your tutor as soon as possible. Be specific about the problem; your tutor can then help you much more easily.
CHEM S312 assesses student performance through two assignments and a final examination. The overall continuous assessment score (OCAS) and the final examination are the formal means of performance evaluation. Assignments account for 50% of the overall course score (OCS) and the final examination accounts for the other 50%. To pass the course, you are required to obtain 40% or above in each criteria of assessment (i.e. a pass in both the OCAS and the final examination).
Assignments
There are two assignments for the course and all the marks will contribute to the total course assessment. Tutors will mark and return the assignments to students with their comments and suggestions.
Examination
At the end of the course, you are required to attend a final examination. The examination aims to test understanding of the topics covered in the course to evaluate whether you have achieved the key learning outcomes of the course. The duration of the final examination will be three hours. The examination will consist of a mixture of short questions, data-interpretation questions and problem-solving questions.
The assessment items are outlined in the following table.
| Assessment | Course area covered | Weighting |
| Assignment 1 | Units 1 to 3 | 25% |
| Assignment 2 | Units 4 and 5 | 25% |
| Final examination | Units 1 to 5 | 50% |
| Total | 100% | |
CHEM S312 provides face-to-face tutorials, surgeries, hands-on laboratory sessions and electronic means of learning support to students.
Tutorials
There will be five two-hour tutorials and two two-hour surgery sessions. The tutorials comprise interactive learning activities between tutor and students involving supplementary materials such as PowerPoint presentations, lecture handouts and worksheets. Tutors will help you acquire knowledge in key learning areas and give you advice based on your own progress or performance in assignments. You can have face-to-face consultations with tutors to address any course-related questions.
Laboratory sessions
There will be two laboratory sessions for you to accumulate hands-on experience on modern instrumentation operations for chemical analysis. Laboratory technicians and tutors will transfer their knowledge and practical skills to you and assist you in carrying out the experiments.
Electronic means
Email and the OLE discussion board will allow you to post any questions and problems to your assigned tutors and fellow students. These interactive channels provide an effective and flexible way for students and tutors to communicate with each other. You can also access the study units via the OLE.
CHEM S312 Instrumental Analysis is an advanced-level course that aims to provide you sufficient knowledge and some hands-on experience of chemical instrumentation and qualitative and qualitative analyses, helping you to develop a career path in the testing industry.
The main objective of the course is to show you how we can use modern analytical approaches to identify and quantify substances according to their distinctive physical properties. For instance, molecular and atomic spectroscopy (Units 1–2) determines the molecule’s concentration and its elemental composition respectively, based on the intensity of the EM wave absorbed or emitted. Separation techniques (Unit 3) are used to isolate and monitor target analytes from interferences as different substances may have different retention time in the separation column, depending on their size, charge or hydrophobicity, etc. Mass spectrometry (Unit 4) facilitates the identification of substances according to their exact atomic or molecular weight. Selected applications of modern instrumentation and combined techniques (Unit 5) give you insights on how instrumental analysis impacts different sectors of society.
Upon completion of the course, and with some years of working experience, you will become a competitive candidate for a variety of positions related to the testing industry, such as:
Tsang Cheuk-Nam, BSc (HKU), PhD (HKU)
Dr C N Tsang received his Bachelor of Science (1st Hon.) with specified theme in Medicinal Chemistry from the University of Hong Kong in 2006 and obtained his PhD in the field of Chemical Biology under the supervision of Prof. Hongzhe Sun from the same institute in 2011.
Dr Tsang’s doctoral research focused on metallomics — an emerging field in the post-genomic era which utilizes modern instrumentation to explore the roles of metals in life. His primary research applied affinity chromatography and LC-MS/MS to identify metallodrug-binding motifs in the pathogen H. pylori. In addition, he utilized time-resolved ICP-MS to track metal uptake in a single-cell basis and utilized LA-ICP-MS to demonstrate a novel strategy for identifying metallodrug protein targets.
Dr Tsang received the Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award from the University in 2009 and the Best Poster Award in the 18th Symposium on Chemistry Postgraduate Research in Hong Kong in 2011. He was also the recipient of Eli Lilly Asia Outstanding Graduate Thesis Award and the JJSI Asia Outstanding Graduate Thesis Award in Bio-tech from the Sino-American Pharmaceutical Professional Association in 2012.
Upon completion of his doctoral degree, Dr Tsang joined SGS Hong Kong Limited as a chemist in the Consumer Testing Services division. He serves Hong Kong Metropolitan University as a part-time tutor and course developer.
