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 2025/26, enrol in this StudIP group:
https://www.studip.uni-goettingen.de/dispatch.php/course/details?sem_id=3afafb7f69b3d8283b91eee4a36b557d&again=yes
For more information, read on.
Overview
The advanced lab courses are the final physico-chemical practical courses in our master program where you can work with well-established experiments, specifically designed for you. The courses are divided into:
- “Spectroscopy” (M.Che.1304)
- “Kinetics” (M.Che.1305)
- “Surface Science and Vacuum Techniques” (M.Che.1308)
Participation in these lab courses is voluntary, but you must complete at least one before doing a PC-research internship (M.Che.1321). In a lab course you have to
- give a seminar talk,
- perform three experiments and write the corresponding reports, and
- pass a 15-minute oral exam.
A course is worth 6 credits.
What can you expect, and what should you keep in mind?
The most important points are discussed below.
Experiments & General Safety
Each experiment is supervised by a teaching assistant. They will give you a safety-briefing and discuss the experiment with you in detail. In this discussion – the colloquium – the assistant is going to ask you questions about the experiment and its basic theory, to make sure that you know what you are doing. Only start the experiment after receiving the safety-briefing and confirming this with your signature in the provided safety folder. Note that you should bring your own lab coat and goggles and wear long pants and closed shoes.
Reports
For each experiment you must submit a report no later than two weeks after the experiment. The assistant will check the report and ask you to correct any shortcomings. We provide guidelines on how to write the report correctly – follow them to avoid lengthy revisions. You may submit the report up to three times. Once the report meets all requirements, the assistant will approve it with a digital signature.Seminar Talks
Each lab course includes a seminar where you will give a 20-minute talk and answer questions at the end. You will also listen to the talks of the other participants, ask questions, and share your thoughts on how their talks could be improved. Slides are uploaded to StudIP before the first seminar so everyone can review them in advance. In the weeks leading up to the seminar, a teaching assistant will give you feedback on your slides.Misconduct
Unfortunately, rules are not always followed. To avoid problems:
- Prepare the experiments thoroughly, write your reports carefully, and submit them in good time.
- Do not cancel your participation shortly before the course starts, because a place would be wasted.
- Never violate the rules of Good Research Practice – do not plagiarise, falsify, or conceal measurement data.
- When you use large-language-models such as ChatGPT or the GWDG Chat service (chat-ai.academiccloud.de), validate the output and cite them in your references.
Successful Participation
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! Keep an eye on submission deadlines and inform us early if problems arise.
Winter Semester 2025/26
(For the previous semester, click here.)
In the winter term, two lab courses per topic run in short succession over a period of 2–3 weeks, from mid-February to early March. A preliminary schedule will be published soon.
You can participate in only one of these courses; taking two lab courses is possible only in summer semesters.
Introductory Video
We will produce an introductory video that explains how the lab courses are organised and how everything works. The video and further information will be made available in this StudIP group at the end of October:
In StudIP we will also organise the registration for the courses and a Q&A session, so please join the StudIP group linked above. Questions can also be sent at any time via e-mail to nluetts@gwdg.de.