Experimental Physical Chemistry:
Advanced Courses in Kinetics, Spectroscopy, and Surface Sciences and Vacuum
Techniques
If you want to participate in a lab course in the winter term 2026/27, enrol in this StudIP group:
https://www.studip.uni-goettingen.de/dispatch.php/course/details?sem_id=3149472b3c23305776c31fe1df54778b&again=yes
For more information, read on.
Overview
We offer three different advanced physico-chemical laboratory courses:
- “Spectroscopy” (module M.Che.1304)
- “Kinetics” (module M.Che.1305)
- “Surface Science and Vacuum Techniques” (module M.Che.1308)
Participation in a lab course is voluntary, but you must complete at least one lab course before doing a PC-research internship (M.Che.1321). Each course is worth 6 credits.
In a lab course you have to:
- Give a seminar talk
- Perform three experiments and write the corresponding reports
- Pass a 15-minute oral exam
We will explain the organization and procedures of the lab courses in detail in the obligatory preparatory meeting. Below, you will find a brief overview.
Seminar Talks
Each lab course includes a seminar where you have to give a 20-minute talk, followed by ~10 minutes of discussion. A teaching assistant will be assigned to your talk, to help you with feedback and corrections if you submit a draft of your slides in good time. Attending the talks of your fellow students and taking part in the following discussions is mandatory. Your slides are shared with the other students. You must upload them to StudIP by the due date before the first seminar, so everybody has the chance to review them before your talk.Experiments
For each experiment, you will be supervised by a teaching assistant who explains the safe handling of the experimental setup and discusses the theoretical and practical background of the experiment with you. This discussion—the colloquium—ensures that you are well prepared for the experiment and for writing the report. You can find a list of our experiments via this link.
Reports
For each experiment, you must submit your report to your teaching assistant within two weeks. The assistant will check it and ask for revisions if necessary. Follow our guidelines to avoid lengthy corrections. Once approved, the report will be signed digitally by the assistant.Rules and Responsibilities
To avoid problems and wasted effort on your and our side, follow these rules:
- Prepare thoroughly for your talk and experiments, and submit your slides and reports in good time.
- Do not cancel your participation on short notice.
- Notify us immediately if a problem arises.
- Always adhere to the Rules of Good Research Practice—do not plagiarise, do not falsify or conceal measurement data.
- When using large-language-models such as ChatGPT or the GWDG Chat service (chat-ai.academiccloud.de), validate the output and cite the LLM service in your references.
You will do well if you allow enough time, are genuinely interested in the topic, and work carefully. Take advantage of the close guidance of your teaching assistants and ask many questions!
Winter Semester 2026/27
(For the previous semester, click here.)
Preparatory Meeting
We will have a preparatory meeting in early November. The tentative schedule is November 9, 15:00 to 16:00. The meeting room will be announced later. Note that you must attend the preparatory meeting and enrol in this StudIP group (link) if you want to participate in a lab course.
Schedule
The courses run from mid-February to mid March. We will do the experiments on the days marked "Experiments" in the (not yet final) calendar below. You will be able to choose your course days individually via StudIP. Up to two students can book a single time slot and work on an experiment together. How exactly the registration works will be explained in the preparatory meeting.
Note that you can only take one course this winter semester. Taking two courses in parallel is not possible.
Questions can be sent at any time to nluetts@gwdg.de or via StudIP message.
