This article reports about a lesson series that focuses on engaging students in sustainability, plastics, and life cycle assessment (LCA). The purpose of the lesson series is to give students insights into sustainability in the context of plastics and to foster awareness of and insights into the benefits of the LCA method. The lesson series…

In recent years, the food industry has been undergoing major changes driven by new social and environmental demands. Nowadays, biodegradable packaging is perceived as the most feasible alternative for food packaging. Great efforts are being devoted to the development of new materials from agro-industrial wastes and byproducts that are opening new…

Traditional physical chemistry conceptions of reaction mechanism are formulated in terms of stationary points of an Arrhenius-style "energy profile" that differs sharply (in purpose and form) from the corresponding Robinson-style "arrow-pushing" mechanistic conceptions of organic chemistry. We show here how these diverse…

A slightly modified version of Lotka's mechanism that gives rise to sustained oscillations is shown to mimic observations of electrochemical oscillations reported during the dissolution of iron from iron electrodes in acidic media. The presentation of the modified mechanism includes only familiar chemical species and, in comparison to other…

Chemical safety is a discipline that cuts across all other chemical disciplines and also impacts other laboratory sciences. It is an essential part of chemistry and continues to evolve with the science it supports. This paper provides a short background about ACS's growing involvement with chemical safety education that stems from support from ACS…

The acid-catalyzed dehydration of regioisomeric methylcyclohexanols is a classic organic chemistry experiment featured in a variety of laboratory textbooks and literature. The mechanistic details of this reaction have received an inconsistent and occasionally inaccurate treatment, wherein the reaction has been described as a mix of E1, E2-like,…

Gaussian-2-Blender is an open-source application programming interface (API) written in Python that allows for the conversion of Gaussian input files to 3D objects of different formats. This new tool was developed in response to the shortcomings of available programs to import Gaussian calculations into augmented reality (AR) or virtual reality…

This study sought to use simple, less costly, robust equipment and constructivist pedagogies, that promote and foster learning, to enable an intact class of 81 teacher trainees in a teaching programme to form their own authentic concepts through fun-filled, engaging social interactions. Data were collected by means of two-tier diagnostic…

A simple hands-on model for illustrating the concept of isotope dilution analysis (IDA) has been devised. The model consists of two sets of beads of different sizes, with one set representing atoms of the analyte and the other set representing solvent water molecules. Phase separation is mimicked by sieving the beads, and the results are detected…

Chemical energy storage and use is a critical part of a sustainable world. In this laboratory experiment, students construct and use an inexpensive hydrogen fuel cell to power a calculator or a clock. The reusable cells are prepared from plastic syringes and a nickel mesh that is coated with a palladium metal catalyst by electroless deposition.…

To deliver state-of-the-art battery knowledge to undergraduates, we designed a feasible experiment to prepare flexible packaging batteries, aiming to reproduce industrial flexible packaging batteries in general chemistry laboratories. In our procedure, the materials involved are inexpensive, safe, and easy to use. No organic solvents or toxic…

A single latent fingerprint consists of ~50 µg of matter for which the anionic content often provides a differentiating characteristic between individuals. This forensic-themed, analytical chemistry experiment exploits this difference and has students employ ion-exchange chromatography to quantitatively analyze the anionic content of both…

Recently, various studies related to the photophysical properties of various nanoscale and subnanoscale particles have been actively carried out in the chemical and biological fields. However, the terminology of these nanoparticles has not been clearly defined, which causes confusion among research groups and students. This article aims to clarify…

Concepts related to molecular structure are often challenging for students to visualize and comprehend. Augmented reality has emerged as a promising solution to this problem, providing students with opportunities to manipulate and visualize chemical molecular structures to improve their understanding. Furthermore, collaborative learning…

Education researchers are deeply interested in understanding the way students organize their knowledge. Card sort tasks, which require students to group concepts, are one mechanism to infer a student's organizational strategy. However, the limited resolution of card sort tasks means they necessarily miss some of the nuance in a student's strategy.…