Although metal spatulas are damaged through everyday use and become discolored and corroded by chemical exposure, plastic drinking straws are inexpensive, sterile, and disposable, reducing the risk of cross-contamination during laboratory procedures. Drinking straws are also useful because they come in a variety of sizes; narrow sample containers…

Two methods for the extraction of maltol from Fraser fir needles are performed and compared in this two-week experiment. A traditional benchtop extraction using dichloromethane is compared to a microwave-assisted extraction using aqueous ethanol. Students perform both procedures and weigh the merits of each technique. In doing so, students see a…

Magnetic stirrers and hot plates are key components of science laboratories. However, these are not readily available in many developing countries due to their high cost. This article describes the design of a low-cost magnetic stirrer with hot plate from recycled materials. Some of the materials used are neodymium magnets and CPU fans from…

A syringe-based, electronic fluid dispenser is described. The device mechanically connects a syringe plunger to a linear slide potentiometer. As the syringe plunger moves, the electrical resistance between terminals of the potentiometer varies. Application and subsequent measurement of a DC voltage between the potentiometer pins is used to track…

There is a dearth of base-stable reference electrodes that are suitable for use by students in a teaching laboratory or undergraduate research context. To remedy this, we have developed a technique to produce reference electrodes suitable for alkaline environments. By utilizing components of a commercially available alkaline-type battery, an…

This activity allows students to visualize the electrolysis of water in a microfluidic device in under 1 min. Instructional materials are provided to demonstrate how the activity meets West Virginia content standards and objectives. Electrolysis of water is a standard chemistry experiment, but the typical laboratory apparatus (e.g., Hoffman cell)…

A 45 MHz benchtop NMR spectrometer is used to identify the structures and determine the amount of 1-bromoethylbenzene and 1,1-dibromoethylbenzene produced from free-radical bromination of ethylbenzene. The experiment is designed for nonchemistry majors, specifically B.S. Biology students, in a predominantly undergraduate institution with…

An undergraduate kinetic experiment of the thermal decomposition of solids by microscopic observation and thermal analysis was developed by investigating a suitable reaction, applicable techniques of thermal analysis and microscopic observation, and a reliable kinetic calculation method. The thermal decomposition of sodium hydrogen carbonate is…

A model scanning probe microscope, designed using similar principles of operation to research instruments, is described. Proximity sensing is done using a capacitance probe, and a mechanical linkage is used to scan this probe across surfaces. The signal is transduced as an audio tone using a heterodyne detection circuit analogous to that used in…

This paper describes the development of a simple handmade conductivity measurement apparatus based on a Kohlrausch bridge with inexpensive materials. We have examined the reliability of this apparatus with standard solutions and then measured juices of vegetables and fruits as well as a sports drink. Comparisons to total alkali content as…

An innovative and inexpensive optical microscopy experiment for a quantitative analysis or an instrumental analysis chemistry course is described. The students have hands-on experience with a dark field microscope and investigate the wavelength dependence of localized surface plasmon resonance in gold and silver nanoparticles. Students also…

An update to the thermochromic cobalt(II) chloride equilibrium demonstration is described. Filter paper that has been saturated with aqueous cobalt(II) chloride is heated for seconds in a microwave oven, producing a color change. The resulting pink and blue map is used to colorfully demonstrate Le Châtelier's principle and to illuminate the…

The design and construction of an apparatus to measure the optical birefringence of a liquid crystal is described. The instrument also includes temperature control and monitoring circuitry to allow for the measurement of the nematic-to-isotropic phase transition temperature. An important feature of this design is that the students are able to…

Herein, we describe the design and testing of two different home-built atomic layer deposition (ALD) systems for the growth of thin films with sub-monolayer control over film thickness. The first reactor is a horizontally aligned hot-walled reactor with a vacuum purging system. The second reactor is a vertically aligned cold-walled reactor with a…

Experiments are described for the reliable small-scale glovebox preparation of CpMo(CO)[subscript 3](CH[subscript 3]) and acetyl derivatives thereof through phosphine-induced migratory insertion. The robust syntheses introduce students to a variety of organometallic reaction mechanisms and glovebox techniques, and they are easily carried out…