Instrumentation in the Teaching Laboratories is broadly grouped into two methods of use. There are instruments which you are able to walk up to, use, and immdiately obtain your results, for example IR, and UV-Vis. There are other instrumentation which relies on data submission, where you prepare a sample for this to be added to an instrument queue which will then be recorded later (usually overnight). The approach to finding data varies depending on the method of submission, with details for each given below.

Walk-up instrumentation

Instruments which you are able to walk up and run your sample immediately are generally simpler to locate your files. When recording data it is important that you make a note of the filename which is created the time of data collection. The filenames usually consist of three parts:

• You will need to know the name of the PC used to record the data. These are usually displayed on a label on the PC monitor. PCs in teaching labs start with 'CTL' (standing for Chemistry Teaching Labs), then the next bit of the name usually relates to the technique being used (eg IR) and an instrument number. For instance a PC used for recording IR might be named 'CTLIRPC1'.

• The next part of the name consists of the date. This is given in the format yyyymmdd (year, month, day).

• The final part is the time the measurement was taken, and is in the format hhmmss (hour, minute, second). Note that some instruments record the time at the start of the measurement, and some the time when data collection finished.

When recording data, you should make a note of the PC name, along with the date and time you recorded the sample. This filename will also usually be displayed by the instrument in its software, so that you can record this into your lab book, or if not, record the time from the clock on the PC, and the PC name which will be on a sticker on the monitor.

A typical filename might be "ctlirpc1_20200313_155702", which would correspond to a teaching labs (CTL) PC connected to IR number 1 (IRPC1), recorded on 13/03/2020 at 15:57:02.

Sample submission instrumentation

For other instruments, samples may need to be submitted to a queue, and samples will be automatically loaded by the instrument using an autosampler. For example NMR, HPLC and GC may use autosamplers. For these samples, you will typically complete a submissions form and label your sample with a submission number. These submissions can be accessed from the relevant  and your sample filename can be found by looking in the submission spreadsheets. You may find columns in the spreadsheets which allocate your sample to a particular instrument (eg GC1, GC2 etc) and to a particular autosampler position or experiment number. These spreadsheets will allow you to identify the data you need to access.

Finding the right location to look for data

Data is stored inside subdirectories which are organised by instrument type. Details for where to locate data for a particular instrument can be found in the relevant instrument pages. Generally it is easiest to go to the instrumentation page for the data you want to access, and copy the link provided on that page.

Data is collected in a wide variety of different formats, and the  provide details on the formats provided for specific instruments. In general these can be categorised as:

• Automatically produced PDF results, eg a spectrum or chromatogram, which has been automatically processed by the instrument software

• Data for reprocessing, which can be downloaded and processed in another programme (e.g. Spectrus Processor). This allows specific analysis of data, zooming and picking of peaks etc.

• Raw data in text/number format, e.g. kinetics results from a UV-Vis spectrometer. These are most commonly in CSV format.

• Propriatory data which can only be read by the software on the instrument PC used to record the data.

In general, in year 1 you would expect to be using the PDF files which have been automatically produced. In year 2 onwards, you would usually be expected to be reprocessing your data.