Students develop new chemistry laboratory

Adellyn Rule was working on a new lab for her instrumental analysis chemistry class at the University of North Georgia (UNG), which she hoped could be utilized in future instrumental analysis classes, when inspiration struck. Rule, now a senior chemistry major with a biochemistry concentration, and an Oakwood, Georgia, resident, was interested in the possibility of quantifying proton nuclear magnetic resistance.

The resulting work from Rule and her lab partners Ronald Smith, a senior biology major with a chemistry minor from Buford, Georgia, and Katherine Marsack, a junior chemistry major from Dacula, Georgia, ended up being expanded to a scientific poster presentation entitled "Quantitative Analysis using Proton NMR."

This presentation was awarded the top prize in the Analytical-Physical Chemistry Undergraduate Poster session at the 2018 Southeastern Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society (SERMACS).

Chemistry professors Dr. Andrew Thomas and Dr. Paula Nolibos oversaw the research and mentored the students throughout the research process.

Rule said the group built on similar work from the 1970s, and she added that the SERMACS judge encouraged them to do a little more work and publish their work in a nationally recognized journal so that other colleges and universities could benefit from their hard work.