This paper reports a laboratorial internship included in the Portuguese Science and Technology promotion program "Internships for Young People in Laboratories (Ciência Viva no Laboratório)", which provided high school students an opportunity to approach the reality of scientific and technological research in a higher education…

A novel procedure is described where students use COMU [(1-cyano-2-ethoxy-2-oxoethylidenaminooxy)dimethylamino-morpholino-carbenium hexafluorophosphate], as a nonhazardous partner, in the one-pot coupling of a carboxylic acid and amine producing N,N-diethyl-3-methylbenzamide (DEET). Fundamental principles of carbonyl reactivity are understood,…

Although vacuum technology is essential to many aspects of modern physical and analytical chemistry, vacuum experiments are rarely the focus of undergraduate laboratories. We describe an experiment that introduces students to vacuum science and mass spectrometry. The students first assemble a vacuum system, including a mass spectrometer. While…

We present an adaptation to an experiment previously published in this "Journal". The experiment was designed to determine the heat capacity ratios of gases by measuring the speed of sound using a modified Kundt's tube. The experiment yielded excellent results for all of the gases and gas mixtures measured. Although elegant in its simplicity, it…

Described is a program in which students learn about spectroscopy and instrumentation to solve a chemical forensic mystery. Infrared and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, refractometry, and chromatographic techniques were used. An example of a mystery case is included. (KR)