What Is the Wetherill Richard Benbridge Laboratory of Chemistry?
The Wetherill Richard Benbridge Laboratory of Chemistry is a teaching and research facility on the campus of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. It houses the Department of Chemistry’s undergraduate teaching laboratories and supports a range of research activities. The building is named for two notable figures in Purdue’s history: William Wetherill, a former professor and dean, and Richard Benbridge, a chemist and alumnus.
History and Naming
The laboratory was constructed in the mid-20th century as part of Purdue’s expansion of its science facilities. William Wetherill joined Purdue in the early 1900s and served as head of the Department of Chemistry and later as dean of the School of Science. Richard Benbridge earned his degree in chemistry from Purdue and went on to a career in industrial chemistry. The building’s name honors their contributions to the field and to the university.
The facility underwent renovations in the 1990s and again in the 2010s. These updates modernized the lab spaces, added new instrumentation, and improved safety systems.
Teaching Laboratories
The primary function of the Wetherill Richard Benbridge Laboratory of Chemistry is to serve undergraduate students. The building contains multiple general chemistry and organic chemistry teaching labs. Each lab is designed for a specific course level, from introductory chemistry for non-majors to advanced laboratory courses for chemistry majors.
General Chemistry Labs
The general chemistry labs occupy the lower floors of the building. These spaces hold up to 24 students per session and are equipped with standard benchtop apparatus, fume hoods, and shared instrumentation such as spectrophotometers and pH meters. Students perform experiments that cover basic chemical principles: stoichiometry, acid-base reactions, redox titrations, and introductory thermodynamics.
Organic Chemistry Labs
The upper floors house the organic chemistry teaching labs. These labs have specialized equipment including rotary evaporators, melting point apparatus, and infrared spectrometers. Students learn techniques such as distillation, extraction, recrystallization, and column chromatography. The labs are arranged to allow each student to work independently at a designated workstation.
Instrumentation and Safety
The building includes a shared instrumentation room with analytical tools available for teaching use. Instruments include gas chromatographs, UV-Vis spectrophotometers, and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometers. Safety is a priority: each lab has eyewash stations, safety showers, fire blankets, and multiple exits. Students complete a safety orientation before using the labs.
Research Activities
While the building is primarily a teaching facility, it also supports some research activities. Faculty in the Department of Chemistry use the building for specialized research in areas such as materials chemistry, analytical chemistry, and chemical education. The research labs are located on the upper floors and in basement areas.
Chemical Education Research
One notable research focus in the building is chemical education. Faculty study how students learn chemistry and develop new teaching methods. This research involves observing student behavior in the teaching labs, testing new lab curricula, and evaluating assessment tools. The results help improve chemistry instruction at Purdue and at other institutions.
Collaborative Projects
The building also hosts collaborative projects between chemistry faculty and researchers in other departments. For example, chemists work with engineers on materials synthesis projects and with biologists on biochemical analysis. These collaborations often use the analytical instruments in the building.
Architecture and Layout
The Wetherill Richard Benbridge Laboratory of Chemistry is a rectangular, multi-story building with a concrete and brick exterior. It connects to other chemistry buildings on campus via walkways and tunnels. The interior layout is designed for efficient movement of students and materials.
Floor Plan
The ground floor contains a large lecture hall, storage rooms, and the main entrance. The first and second floors house general chemistry labs. The third floor has organic chemistry labs and faculty offices. The fourth floor contains research labs and additional faculty offices. The basement holds instrument rooms, stockrooms, and mechanical systems.
Accessibility
The building is accessible to people with disabilities. It has ramps at entrances, elevators, and accessible restrooms. Lab benches are adjustable to accommodate wheelchair users. The university provides additional accommodations as needed.
Daily Operations and Student Experience
A typical day begins with stockroom staff preparing chemical solutions and checking instrument calibrations. Teaching assistants arrive early to set up equipment for the day’s experiments. Students attend scheduled lab sessions that run between two and three hours, depending on the course.
Lab Session Structure
Each lab session follows a standard format. The teaching assistant gives a brief introduction covering the experiment’s goals and safety precautions. Students then work individually or in pairs to carry out the procedure. For example, in a general chemistry experiment on reaction rates, students might measure how temperature affects the time it takes for a thiosulfate solution to become cloudy. They record data in lab notebooks and calculate rate constants.
In organic chemistry labs, students often work with compounds they synthesized in previous sessions. A typical sequence involves synthesizing a compound, purifying it by recrystallization, and then analyzing it by melting point determination and thin-layer chromatography. Students compare their results to literature values to assess purity.
Post-Lab Work
After the lab session, students clean their workstations and dispose of chemical waste in designated containers. They then complete a lab report, which includes data analysis, error calculations, and answers to discussion questions. Teaching assistants grade these reports and provide feedback. The building has a dedicated room where TAs hold office hours to help students with report writing.
Chemical Stockroom and Waste Management
The building contains a central stockroom that supplies chemicals and equipment for all teaching labs. The stockroom is staffed by trained personnel who prepare solutions, dispense reagents, and maintain inventory. They follow procedures for labeling and storing chemicals to prevent accidents.
Chemical waste from the teaching labs is collected in labeled containers and stored in a designated waste room in the basement. The stockroom staff coordinate with Purdue’s environmental health and safety office to arrange regular waste pickups. Different waste streams are handled separately: organic solvents go into flammable waste containers, heavy metal solutions go into special containers, and aqueous acidic or basic waste is neutralized before disposal.
Connections to Other Facilities
The Wetherill Richard Benbridge Laboratory of Chemistry is part of a larger chemistry complex on the Purdue campus. It connects physically and functionally to other chemistry buildings. The building is connected by enclosed walkways to the Brown Laboratory of Chemistry, which houses faculty research labs and administrative offices. It also connects to the Chemistry Building, which contains lecture halls and additional research labs.
Some resources are shared across the chemistry complex. The NMR facility, located in the Chemistry Building, is available for use by students in the Wetherill Richard Benbridge Laboratory. Faculty from the teaching building can access the shared instrument rooms in Brown Laboratory for specialized analysis. The stockroom in the teaching building supplies chemicals to other buildings in the complex as well.
Key Takeaways
- The Wetherill Richard Benbridge Laboratory of Chemistry is a teaching and research facility at Purdue University.
- It houses undergraduate chemistry labs for general and organic chemistry courses.
- The building was renovated in the 1990s and 2010s to modernize equipment and safety systems.
- Research in the building includes chemical education studies and collaborative projects with other departments.
- The facility is accessible and designed for efficient student use.
