faculty

Professor Emeritus of Chemistry
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin

Radioanalytical-Radiation Chemistry

Phone: (734) 764-7369
E-mail: gordus@umich.edu

The use of nuclear energy to dissociate water in a chemical cycle to produce hydrogen gas as an alternative clean fuel is being studied using the University of Michigan nuclear reactor. Another study is concerned with the use of a variable neutron-energy source to determine carbon-oxygen-nitrogen contents of materials and identify the presence of explosives and narcotics in luggage at airports. Neutron activation analysis is used to determine the metallic contents of microgram metal samples of archaeological artifacts and ancient coins; the most recent studies have involved examination of hundreds of gold artifacts from a 1000 A.D. Peruvian gravesite. Ancillary elemental analysis techniques such as atomic absorption spectrometry and electron microprobe analysis are also used.

AWARDS

• Guggenheim Fellow, 1973-74

REPRESENTATIVE PUBLICATIONS

1. A. A. Gordus, "Hot Atom Chemistry," J. Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry (1990), 142, 293.
2. A. A. Gordus, A series of eight articles on chemical equilibrium, all in J. Chemical Education, 68 (1991): "I: The Thermodynamic Equilibrium Constant," 138; "II. Deriving an Exact Equilibrium Expression," 215; "III. A Few Math Tricks," 291; "IV. Weak Acids and Bases," 397; "V. Seeing an Endpoint in Acid-Base Titrations," 566; "VI. Buffer Solutions," 656; "VII. pH Approximations in Acid-Base Titrations," 759; "VIII. Precipitates," 927.
3. A. A. Gordus and I. Shimada, "Neutron Activation Analysis of Microgram Samples from 364 Gold Objects from a Sican Burial Site in Peru," Material Issues in Art and Archaeology IV. Materials Research Society Symposium Proceedings, Vol. 352 (1995) Pittsburgh, PA, 127.
4. A. A. Gordus, "Neutron Activation Analysis of Microgram Samples of Sasanian Coins and Metallic Art," Material Issues in Art and Archaeology IV. Materials Research Society Symposium Proceedings, Vol. 352 (1995) Pittsburgh, PA, 613.
5. A. A. Gordus, C. E. Henderson, and I. Shimada, "Electron Microprobe and Neutron Activation Analysis of Gold Artifacts from a 1000 A.D. Peruvian Gravesite," Archaeological Chemistry, ACS Symposium Series 625 (1996) Washington, D.C., 83.