This manual has been prepared for students taking forensic chemistry. Forensic chemistry is one of the special areas of analytical chemistry. It is the subset of analytical chemistry that supports the efforts of law enforcement officials as they enforce both criminal and civil laws. As a discipline, forensic chemistry is relatively new but the concept is quite old. Today, most states and many large cities and counties have forensic chemistry laboratories. There is a large backlog of work for most of the forensic labs and most are expanding. Job opportunities in the near term are excellent but competition is keen for those jobs. There is also considerable interest in the field among graduating students. In Illinois, for example, the State Police Crime Laboratory administrators hoped to fill 30 vacancies prior from an estimated 500 candidates. The 30 vacancies is a large number of positions to be filled for any group/company for one year, but the competition allows selection of only the top 5-10% of applicants.

After reviewing the large number of topics and over 100 experiments that could have been included in this manual, a small set of experiments were selected that require knowledge we believe scientists will most likely use, in one way or another, for much their scientific careers. We also believe that most students will be able to learn, and will be able to demonstrate that they have learned everything in this manual during the semester. The teaching method of exposing students to a limited amount of new knowledge and expecting them to learn all of the new information may be different and new to many students. We use it because we believe it is easier for the students. If you are a student using this manual, please be aware of this point. To summarize the point, you are expected to clearly demonstrate that you have a detailed working knowledge of all of the experiments in this manual that you are assigned to complete. A "detailed working knowledge" includes an understanding of all chemical reactions, a knowledge of the structure of all compounds used in the experiment, all calculations, the basic operation of any instruments used and the reliability of the data produced. You do so by analyzing unknowns correctly and by writing publication quality reports for the experiments you complete. Remember, if you are planning on a career in forensic science, you will be expected to defend your data and conclusions in court against competent challenges.

None of the experiments contain unusual reactions, reagents or "tricks" to confuse students. That is not our purpose. Our purpose is to select those experiments that contain procedures most scientists will be likely to use in the future and to provide each student with the opportunity to learn enough about these procedures so they will be competitive in the workplace after they graduate. However, several of the experiments are difficult to perform completely and correctly because they contain "problems" you will frequently encounter in the workplace, so don't expect to completely understand any of these experiments without considerable preparation. We expect an average student to spend 12 hours per week (during a 16 week semester) outside the laboratory preparing for these experiments and then writing the reports.

Students will earn no credit for simply trying hard, for any extra effort or for just completing an experiment. Credit will be given only for satisfactorily achieving measurable objectives. Examples might include analyzing a sample correctly, using spectroscopic data to determine the structure of a molecule, evaluating the accuracy and precision of a data set, clearly explaining a set of observations or determining the analytical detection limit of an analytical method. Therefore, it will be to the student's advantage to continue to read the chapters in their textbooks on the topics covered by these experiments because it is unusual for anyone to learn everything in those chapters with one reading and before they have actually experienced the topics in the laboratory. Students are both encouraged and expected to ask questions about those things they do not understand, before they make a mistake. They should expect no sympathy should they fail to do so, and they may be sure we will make every effort to answer those questions they do ask in a timely manner.

We understand that many experiments will be completed in the laboratory before they are covered in the lecture. That is how it will be after you graduate when there will be no lectures at all and no professor. Therefore, we look at this course as a transition from an academic environment to a workplace environment. It is an opportunity for each student to demonstrate that they can learn new material by themselves. The ability to do so is one of the most valuable assets of a good employee. In order to encourage each student to develop this most valuable learning skill, how to learn efficiently without assistance or guidance from anyone, we have deliberately left some of the details out of this manual that we believe students should either know or should be able to learn by themselves. For example, we may direct you to standardize a reagent, determine a detection limit or analyze a sample without telling you specifically how to do so. In these instances, feel free to ask anyhow, but be prepared to get a response to the effect that the answer is for you to figure out on your own.

One of the variables students are encouraged to learn from this class, if they have not already done, so is how to set priorities and how to manage their time. Because specific directions are not given, students can spend many hours studying things that are not important toward meeting the defined objectives. Time that would be better spent studying more important topics. No one has enough time to learn everything about one of these experiments or one of the instruments used in this class. Therefore, students are cautioned to continue to review what their primary objectives are and how they are using their time to meet those objectives.

We would like to acknowledge those students who used this manual in draft and provided many recommendations for improvements. A special thanks goes to Jonathan Maas (alcohol in blood and breath), Hollie Fawcett (thin layer chromatography) Emma Conlin (Kovat's Indices), Yu Shi (DNA) and Robbie Montgomery (GC). We would also like to thank those students and the Teaching Assistants who have used this manual since it was first prepared in 2001 and who have taken the time to suggest improvements in the experiments and in this manual. We continue to include those suggestions as we update this manual each year. If you have suggestions for improving this manual, we would appreciate hearing from you. Send your comments to Dr. Tolley.