Jon Parcher
Margaret McLean Coulter Professor
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Contact Information
Office: 305 Coulter Hall
Phone: 662-915-5426
Email: chjfp AT olemiss.edu
Educational and Professional Background
B.S., Lafayette College, 1962 Ph.D., University of Colorado, 1966 Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Edinburgh, 1967
Research Interests: Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry |
Research Summary
Professor Jon Parcher and his group are supported by the Analytical and Surface Chemistry Program in the Chemistry Division to study fundamental aspects of reversed-phase liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC), the most common analytical separation technique in use today in analytical, pharmaceutical, environmental, synthetic, and drug-testing laboratories throughout the world. Despite this wide use, the exact mechanisms for the resolution of analytical solutes are not clearly known. The predictive capabilities of HPLC models are therefore severely limited. Prof. Parcher's research centers on the investigation and elucidation of the strong molecular interactions observed in both the stationary and mobile phases, addressing the observed complexity of the stationary phase and the experimental and theoretical problems involved in delineating or even defining the mobile and stationary phases within an RP-HPLC column.
The research facilitates the design and development of improved materials, instruments, and experimental techniques for the separation and identification of a wide range of analytical samples. It involves the application of novel experimental techniques to the investigation of a long-standing problem, viz., the exact role of the stationary phase in RP-HPLC. Even small improvements in our understanding of the fundamental parameters controlling a technology used so extensively in a wide variety of laboratories could have a wide-spread impact in science. A potential peripheral benefit would be a reduction of the empiricism and Edisonian approach to methods development presently practiced in many analytical laboratories. Students participating in this work will receive excellent professional preparation in critically important research at the interface between physical and separations chemistry.
Recent Publications
Mei Wang, Jennifer Mallette, and Jon F. Parcher. "Strategies for the determination of the volume and composition of the stationary phase in reversed-phase liquid chromatography," Journal of Chromatography A, v.1190, 2008, p. 1.