Here we present a new undergraduate laboratory that will introduce the concepts of time-resolved spectroscopy and provide insight into the natural time scales on which chemical dynamics occur through direct measurement. A quantitative treatment of the acquired data will provide a deeper understanding of the role of quantum mechanics and various…

Stars are point-source emitters that are the closest to the definition of a blackbody in comparison to all other similar sources of radiation found in nature. Existing libraries on stellar spectra are thus a valuable resource that can be used to introduce the laws of thermal radiation in a classroom setting. In this article we briefly describe…

In 1972 Christian B. Anfinsen received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for "…his work on ribonuclease, especially concerning the connection between the amino acid sequence and the biologically active conformation." The understanding of this principle is crucial for physical biochemistry students, since protein folding studies, bio-computing…

Although experimental design is important in many fields and industries, most undergraduate students do not get exposure to this in a standard lab curriculum. This work describes a student-designed, multiple-week, flexible chemistry experiment with environmental applications that include factorial experimental design and analysis of variance…

An advanced undergraduate organic chemistry laboratory experiment involving a rhodium-catalyzed intermolecular hydrocarbon C-H oxidation reaction is described. In the initial phase of this lab, students conduct a C-H amination reaction of ethylbenzene and isolate a benzylic amine product. In the second part of the lab, competition experiments are…

An undergraduate organic chemistry laboratory that provides an introduction to various spectroscopic techniques is reported. Whereas organic spectroscopy is most often learned and practiced in the context of reaction analyses, this laboratory experiment allows students to become comfortable with [superscript 1]H NMR, [superscript 13]C NMR, and IR…

A unique demonstration with ball-rolling mechanisms has been developed to illustrate the basic principles of mass analyzers as components of mass spectrometers. Three ball-rolling mechanisms mimicking the currently used mass analyzers (i.e., a quadrupole mass filter, a magnetic sector, and a time-of- flight) have been constructed. Each mechanism…

A simple diffraction experiment was designed using banana stem as natural grating. Coherent beams of lasers with wavelengths of 632.8 nm and 532 nm that pass through banana stem produce periodic diffraction patterns on a screen. The diffraction experiments were able to measure the distances between the slit of the banana stem, i.e. d = (28.76 ±…

Computational approaches toward simulating chemical systems and evaluating experimental data has gathered great momentum in recent years. The onset of more powerful computers and advanced software has been instrumental to this end. This manuscript presents a hands-on activity which trains students in basic coding skills within the Matlab…

Promoting students' ability to engage in discipline-specific practices is a central goal of chemistry education. Yet if instruction is to meaningfully foster such ability, we must first understand students' reasoning during these practices. By characterizing constraints on chemistry students' reasoning, we can design instruction that targets this…

Here, students determine the total phenolic content in beers using the Folin-Ciocalteu assay. The Folin-Ciocalteu reagent is a yellow complex, in an alkaline medium; it reacts with phenols and non-phenolic reducing substances to form a blue complex. Quantitative analysis was carried out using absorbance measured at 765 nm (standard method) and…

Pigments, dyes, and transition-metal compounds are made in courses across the undergraduate chemistry curriculum, but student characterization of these compounds' most striking features, their colors, seldom goes beyond verbal descriptions. Affordable, hand-held, fiber-optic reflectance spectrophotometers make it possible to advance students'…

Smartphone technology has the potential to make heritage science accessible to museums, individual collectors, and educators. Infrared reflectography (IRR) is a nondestructive analysis method used by museums to gain information about the provenance, history, and aging of artworks. This paper introduces a highly accessible, inexpensive apparatus…

Using virtual reality (VR) in educational settings is becoming increasingly popular. The feasibility of replacing an instrumentation-based organic chemistry lab with a VR experience has been evaluated. A VR laboratory experience was designed to teach students how to use an infrared spectrometer and elucidate an unknown structure from the resulting…

This laboratory experiment employs an innovative approach to introduce undergraduates to liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) by developing a method based on multiple reaction monitoring (MRM). During this qualitative investigation, students operated a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer in the MS scan and product ion scan…