The concept of "Education for Sustainable Development", ESD, has been introduced in a period where chemistry education is undergoing a major change, both in emphasis and methods of teaching. Studying an everyday problem, with an important socio-economic impact in the laboratory is a part of this approach. Presently, the students in many…

This experiment targets undergraduate students in an analytical or organic instructional context. Using a simple extraction, this protocol allows students to quantify and qualify monoterpenes in essential oils from citrus fruit peels. The procedures involve cooling down the peels by immersing them into icy water. After a few minutes, the chilled…

The binding constant and stoichiometry ratio for the formation of iron(II)-(1,10-phenanthroline) or iron(II)-o-phenanthroline complexes has been determined by a combination of a low-cost analytical method using a smartphone and a molecular modeling method as a laboratory experiment designed for analytical and physical chemistry courses. Intensity…

A conventional Fourier-transform NMR spectrometer with a triple-axis gradient probe can function as a MRI imager. In this experiment students gain hands-on experience with MRI while they learn about important principles underlying the practice of NMR, such as gradients, multi-dimensional spectroscopy, and relaxation. Students image a biological…

A simplified theoretical explanation of dispersion in dielectric materials has been given and experiments have been carried out on two liquids, namely, distilled water and sunflower oil. The appendix contains a detailed description of the construction of a homemade spectrometer and hollow prism and an assessment of its suitability for the above…

A laboratory experiment is presented for the upper-level undergraduate physical chemistry curriculum in which the ternary phase diagram of water, 1-propanol and n-heptane is measured using proton nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. The experiment builds upon basic concepts of NMR spectral analysis, typically taught in the undergraduate…

A simple low-cost experiment has been developed for the measurement of the binary diffusion coefficients of liquid substances. The experiment is suitable for demonstrating molecular diffusion to small or large undergraduate classes in chemistry or chemical engineering. Students use a cell phone camera in conjunction with open-source image…

An experiment has been developed in which the hydrogen-atom abstraction and the coupling of propionitrile, using Fenton's reagent, are investigated. Students learn about the regiochemistry of radical formation, the stereochemistry of product formation, and the interpretation of GC-MS data, in a safe reaction that can be easily completed in one…

The use of silver in commercial products has proliferated in recent years owing to its antibacterial properties. Food containers impregnated with micro-sized silver promise long food life, but there is some concern because silver can leach out of the plastic and into the stored food. This laboratory experiment gives students the opportunity to…

The role analytical instrumentation performs in the surveillance and control of the quality of water resources is reviewed. Commonly performed analyses may range from simple tests for physical parameters to more highly sophisticated radiological or spectrophotometric methods. This publication explores many of these types of water quality analyses…

Analytical methods are reviewed for: alkali and alkaline earth metals; transition metals; precious metals; group 12, 13, 14, and 15 metals, nonmetals; radionuclides; multiple metals; anions; gases; chromatography; mass spectroscopy; photometry; sampling; volatile compounds; surfactants; detergents; pesticides; herbicides; and fungicides. (MVL)

This manual of laboratory experiments in water chemistry serves a dual function of illustrating fundamental chemical principles of dilute aqueous systems and of providing the student with some familiarity with the chemical measurements commonly used in water and wastewater analysis. Experiments are grouped in categories on the basis of similar…

In recent years, the use of boron-containing reagents in palladium-assisted C-C coupling reactions (the Suzuki reaction) has gained prominence due to the vast array of reagents commercially available. Consequently, the generation of carbon-carbon bonds, namely of functionalized biphenyl systems, is at present considered the backbone of organic…

Suzuki couplings are powerful chemical reactions commonly employed in academic and industrial research settings to generate functionalized biaryls. We have developed and implemented a discovery-based, microscale experiment for the undergraduate organic chemistry laboratory that explores green Suzuki coupling using water as the primary solvent.…

A flame emission spectrometer was built in-house for the purpose of introducing this analytical technique to students at the high school level. The aqueous sample is sprayed through a homemade nebulizer into the air inlet of a consumer-grade propane camping burner. The resulting flame is analyzed by a commercial array spectrometer for the visible…