In recent years, nanotechnology has been one of the major subjects of scientific and technological research. Currently, several applications of nanotechnologies are already available on the market. Particularly relevant are the fields of new materials and sensors, which have excellent potential future applications in the biomedical field. This…

Strategies for teaching NMR spectral interpretation in the undergraduate organic chemistry curriculum are often faculty-centered and can lead to student reliance on rote memorization and "guess and check" methods rather than critical-thinking skills for structure determination. This article describes a student-focused methodology for the…

This two-period undergraduate laboratory experiment involves the synthesis of a mixture of isomeric unknowns, isolation of the mixture by means of distillation, and characterization of the two products primarily by NMR spectroscopy (1D and 2D) supported with IR spectroscopy and GC-MS techniques. Subsequent calculation and examination of the…

An organic chemistry experiment is described that is based on recent research to elucidate a novel cation-pi interaction between tetraalkammonium cations and propargyl hydrazines. This nonbonded interaction is a key component of the mechanism of ammonium-catalyzed intramolecular cycloaddition of nitrogen to the terminal carbon of a C-C triple bond…

Innovative models of teaching through research have broken the long-held paradigm that core chemistry competencies must be taught with predictable, scripted experiments. We describe here five fundamentally different, course-based undergraduate research experiences that integrate faculty research projects, accomplish ACS accreditation objectives,…

Almost all commercial quadrupole ICP-MS instruments use collision/reaction cells to either attenuate spectral interferences or shift the analyte of interest to an interference-free "m/z" (e.g., by O addition). A laboratory practical was developed to introduce the students to the basic operating principles of ICP-MS using a hands-on…

Enzyme kinetics measurements are a standard component of undergraduate biochemistry laboratories. The combination of serine hydrolases and fluorogenic enzyme substrates provides a rapid, sensitive, and general method for measuring enzyme kinetics in an undergraduate biochemistry laboratory. In this method, the kinetic activity of multiple protein…

Electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) is a powerful tool for examining the charge of proteins in solution. The charge can be manipulated through choice of solvent and pH. Furthermore, solution-accessible, protonated lysine side chains can be specifically tagged with 18-crown-6 ether to form noncovalent adducts. Chemical derivatization…

The stretching modes of ML[subscript "x"] complexes have the same symmetry as the atomic orbitals on M that are used to form its s bonds. In the exercise suggested here, the atomic orbitals are used to derive the form of the stretching modes without the need for formal group theory. The analogy allows students to help understand many…

An activity supporting the PhET interactive simulation, Models of the Hydrogen Atom, has been designed and used in the laboratory portion of a general chemistry course. This article describes the framework used to successfully accomplish implementation on a large scale. The activity guides students through a comparison and analysis of the six…

In the group exercise described, students are guided through an inductive justification for the spin conservation selection rule ([delta]S = 0). Although the exercise only explicitly involves various states of helium, the conclusion is one of the most widely applicable selection rules for the interaction of light with matter, applying, in various…

The hydrogenation of alkenes by heterogeneous catalysts has been studied for 80 years. The foundational mechanism was proposed by Horiuti and Polanyi in 1934 and consists of three steps: (i) alkene adsorption on the surface of the hydrogenated metal catalyst, (ii) hydrogen migration to the beta-carbon of the alkene with formation of a delta-bond…

A concerted effort has been made to increase the opportunities for undergraduate students to address scientific problems employing the processes used by practicing chemists. As part of this effort, an infrared (IR) spectroscopy and molecular modeling experiment was developed for the first-year general chemistry laboratory course. In the…

A protein-ligand binding, guided-inquiry laboratory project with potential application across the advanced undergraduate curriculum is described. At the heart of the project are fluorescence and spectrophotometric assays utilizing biotin-4-fluorescein and streptavidin. The use of the same stock solutions for an assay that may be examined by two…

An experiment for the undergraduate chemistry laboratory in which students perform the aldol condensation on an unknown aldehyde and an unknown ketone is described. The experiment involves the use of techniques such as TLC, column chromatography, and recrystallization, and compounds are characterized by [to the first power]H NMR, GC-MS, and FTIR.…