Before a student can understand the interaction between light and matter, they need to appreciate the instrument itself. In today's world, a Bachelor's degree chemist is expected to not only operate numerous types of instruments but they also must be able to troubleshoot them, develop new methodologies, collaborate in teams, and report on results. Therefore, it is essential for students to get away from treating instruments as magic black boxes. Presented here is a guided inquiry fluorescence experiment that allows students to truly understand the origin of their fluorescence data. Several basic principles of fluorescence are covered including integration time, sample averaging, excitation light intensity, concentration dependence, inner filter effect, measuring an unknown, varying pH and quenching.<br/>

Understanding fluorescence instrumentation using guided inquiry

255th National Meeting (2018)

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