Facility Policy

Chemical Instrumentation Facility Mission

The mission of the Chemical Instrumation Facility (CIF) is to provide analytical instrumentation services and consultation in the areas of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Mass Spectrometry, X-Ray Diffraction, Spectrophotometry, and other related areas. These services include operation, training, purchase, and assistance in experimental planning and data interpretation as it pertains to the facility instrumentation. CIF is one of four units comprising Chemical Services which are administered by the Chemistry Department, but exist to support chemical research campus-wide.

Access to NMR Spectrometer

Users associated with Iowa State University have equal access to the facility and are charged with the same rates.

Users who have undergone user training may operate the instruments without supervision. To request the training, you must have an account established with the Chemistry Department by filing the Authorization Form. The Form is available in 1708 Gilman Hall and should be returned to Nancy Olson (1605C Gilman Hall) when completed. You must also have a Project Vincent account, as the data processing is performed on the network.

All instruments are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Time requests for the next week must be submitted by noon on Friday. Time reserved, but not used/cancelled, will be charged at the normal rates against the user, unless other users use the instrument time. Two instruments (VXR-300 and DRX-400) are run on a first-come first-served basis during portions of the day.

The Facilities are also open to the users from other institutions and industry. This usually involves submitting samples to NMR staff for data collection. Contact either Dave Scott or Shu Xu for details.

Spectrometer Rates

The rates for instrument time (user run samples) are listed below. The rate for spectroscopist time is $22.50 per hour.

Within 3 Hrs

After 3 Hrs

Bruker DRX-400

$ 11.50

$ 4.50

Varian VXR-300

$ 8.75

$ 3.50

Bruker AV-600

$ 12.00 < 2 hours

$ 3.50 > 2 hours

Bruker ER-200D

$ 5.25

$ 5.25

Samples submitted for analysis from outside the University are billed at 2.87 times the inside rate.