The Department of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry is at the head of general chemistry education as well as basic and advanced education in inorganic and analytical chemistry, with the goal of providing comprehensive education for undergraduate and graduate students in our College.

Additionally, the department is developing a series of research areas related to the disciplines that it practices, and in this way it contributes to undergraduate and graduate student education in the different programs offered by the University of Chile.

It includes 14 required undergraduate courses divided between the first and eighth semester. It also offers various elective courses for specialized education in subjects such as computational chemistry, catalysis, chemometrics, chirality in chemistry, spin trapping, environmental chemistry, renewable energies and solid state properties and inorganic chemistry in biological systems. It also offers the possibility of participating in research units and theses for the different careers within the college, on subjects related to its areas of research.

Meanwhile, the Academics teach elective and required graduate courses for the different graduate programs that are offered by the college that are related to their area of research.

The department has eight areas of research that cover inorganic, analytical, and environmental chemistry. These are supported by outside grants in the areas of science and technology, which fund research activities and create interaction with national and international scientific communities. The college also offers scientific support to other disciplines that include inorganic and analytical chemistry as one of their foundational pillars.

	Director Gerald Amilcar Zapata Torres E-mail: gzapata@uchile.cl Telephone: +56 2 2978 2843
	Subdirector Tatiana Garrido Reyes E-mail: tgarrido@ciq.uchile.cl Telephone: +56 2 29782925
	Secretary Rossana Jorquera Espinoza E-mail: rjorquera@ciq.uchile.cl Telephone: +56 2 2978 2851

Academic Staff

Postdoctoral Researcher

Yolimar Gil Sánchez
Investigador Postdoctoral
Correo electrónico: gil.yolimar@gmail.com

Areas of Research

• Ground and water contamination due to inorganic and organic compounds
  Inés Ahumada (Head), Prof. Loreto Ascar and Prof. Pablo Richter.
• Analytical developments in preparing environmental and food samples for measuring persistent, emergent and trace element contaminants
  Pablo Richter (Head) and Prof. Inés Ahumada.
• Inorganic Materials
  Evgenia Spodine (Head).
• Molecular and quantum mechanic modeling
  Gerald Zapata (Head).
• Analytical chemistry related to the study of organic compounds and trace elements in the environment and in foods
  María Estrella Báez (Head), Prof. Edwar Fuentes and Prof. Jeannette Espinoza
• Free Radicals and Antioxidants
  Claudio Olea (Head), Prof. María Carolina Zúñiga and Prof. Hernán Speisky.
• Synthesis and characterization of Coordination Compounds and their use as homogenous catalysts
  Pedro Aguirre (Head).

Molecular Graphics Unit

Professor
Gerald Zapata Torres
Email: gzapata@uchile.cl

Brief description
The molecular graphics unit uses theoretical models and computational tools to understand, predict, and quantify biological processes of interest from a chemical perspective.

Descriptions of the electronic structure and conformational changes of medium-size molecules, as well as a detailed analysis of the changes in macromolecules of pharmacological interest, contribute to the understanding of processes that occur at the atomic level, with the goal of using this knowledge of rational design and linking it to possible therapeutic applications.

Of particular interest are the G Protein Coupled Receptors and Monoamino Oxidase enzymes, ligands, and substrates of the diseases associated with these structures. By applying classic and quantum methodologies, we face the challenge of modeling and interpreting the interactions that govern ligands’ bonds to the bonding or active sites of macromolecules. This allows us to predict the behavior of these molecules which leads to subsequent confirmation of a certain predicted action through experimental trials.

Inorganic Physical Chemistry Laboratory

Professors
Evgenia Spodine
Email: espodine@ciq.uchile.cl
Pablo Fuentealba
Email: pfuentealbacastro@ciq.uchile.cl

Brief description
This Laboratory is dedicated to researching inorganic materials in the areas of heterogenous catalysis, magnetism and luminescent properties of materials based on trivalent lanthanide ions.

Organic and Trace Element Analytical Chemistry Laboratory

Professors
María Báez
Email: mbaez@ciq.uchile.cl
Jeannette Espinoza
Email: jeespino2007@gmail.com
Edwar Fuentes
Email: edfuentes@ciq.uchile.cl

Brief description
This Laboratory develops the area of research “Analytical Chemistry related to the study of organic compounds and trace elements in the environment and in foods.” It is dedicated to developing analytical methods based on liquid and gas chromatography, spectroscopy related to multivariate calibration, and instrumental extraction techniques, with the goal of supporting the study of organic and trace element contaminants in the environment and in foods. In this sense, the processes that govern the mobility of contaminants in the soil-water system are evaluated in order to predict its contamination through models that describe the different physical and chemical interactions.

In another area, we study the presence of chemical and peptide markers in apicultural products related to the immunologic-metabolic state of domestic honeybee hives as well as the quality and properties of these products. We use chemometrics in handling and interpreting analytical information.

Soil Chemistry and Biochemistry Laboratory

Professors
Tatiana Garrido R.
Email: tgarrido@ciq.uchile.cl
Jorge Mendoza C.
Email: jmendoza@ciq.uchile.cl
José Parada A.
Email: jparada@ciq.uchile.cl

Brief description
This Laboratory carries out research in “Organic contaminants and trace elements in the environment.” The main subject is the study of organic and inorganic contaminants present in the water matrix, soil, plants, and foods, evaluating the interaction of these contaminants and the components of these environmental matrices, such as organic material of low and high molecular weight.

This research also involves studying the mobility of contaminants between edaphic, aquatic and soil-plant systems, evaluating their adsorption, absorption, translocation, accumulation, and interaction with plant biomolecules and the processes that intervene in their bioavailability and bioaccessibility. The Laboratory addresses these issues from an Analytical Chemistry perspective, using advanced chromatographic techniques such as atomic absorption spectroscopy.

Free Radical and Antioxidant Laboratory

Professors
Claudio Olea Azar
Email: colea@uchile.cl
María Carolina Zúñiga
Email: mczuniga@ciq.uchile.cl

Brief description
Research in this Laboratory focuses on the area of medical chemistry and natural products. We study the behavior of drug families whose mechanism of action consists of forming free radicals. These are studied using electrochemical techniques, characterization, and analysis of intermediate free radical products using electronic spin resonance spectroscopy through chemical, electrochemical, photochemical and biochemical mechanisms. We study short-lived radicals using Spin Trapping techniques. Rationalization of experimental parameters for ab-initio and DFT semiempirical theoretical models. We also study natural products such as propolis, chia, etc., as well as compounds synthesized for pharmaceutical chemistry, using various methodologies to measure the antioxidant capacity (ORAC-FL, ORAC-PGR y REE), characterization using the liquid spectrophotometric chromatography detector and mass spectrometry.

Environmental Chemistry Laboratory

Professors
Inés Ahumada Torres
Email: iahumada@ciq.uchile.cl
Loreto Ascar Estay
Email: lascar@uchile.cl
Pablo Richter Duk
Email: prichter@ciq.uchile.cl

Brief description
There are two areas of research that are carried out in this Laboratory: “Soil and water contamination from organic and inorganic compounds” and “Analytical developments in sample preparation: application to analytical problems that involve persistent contaminants in environmental, biological and food samples.”

We perform studies to evaluate the contamination of soil substrates by organic and inorganic compounds. We study the behavior of contaminants in the substrates in terms of their bioavailability, mobility, and interactions. We also develop new sample preparation strategies to separate/measure different contaminants with the goal of achieving quantitative and biomimetic analytical methods that are in line with green analytical chemistry.

Coordination and Organometallic Chemistry

Professor
Pedro Aguirre Alvarez
Email: paguirre@ciq.uchile.cl

Brief description
This Laboratory has all the instruments and equipment necessary to carry out the synthesis of coordination and organometallic compounds. These compounds have applications in homogeneous catalysis. To achieve these applications, we have high pressure reactors with the most advanced technology as well as gaseous chromatography and HPCL chromatography to analyze reaction products.

All courses are taught in Spanish.