An open-ended laboratory practical has been developed that challenges students to evaluate when different purification techniques are appropriate. In contrast to most lab practicals, the overall grade includes an evaluation of spectral analysis as well as writing skills. However, a significant portion of the grade lies in successful execution of a…

This experiment was developed as a means of incorporating instrumental analyses into an introductory chemistry laboratory. A two-component solid mixture of caffeine and ibuprofen is separated through a series of solution extractions and precipitation and their relative amounts measured. These compounds were chosen because the combination of…

Treatment of phenylacetic acid with 90% HNO[subscript 3] yields a product, I, whose observed melting point is 175-179 degrees C and whose equivalent weight is approximately 226 grams. Treatment of phenylacetic acid with 70% HNO[subscript 3] yields a product, II, whose observed melting point is 106-111 degrees C and whose equivalent weight is…

The iodochlorination of styrene, involving the addition of iodine monochloride to styrene, followed by the sodium methoxide-initiated dehydrohalogenation of the product results in a variable mixture of substituted styrenes by way of various substitution and elimination reaction mechanisms. As a result individual results are obtained for each…

A two-week laboratory experiment for students in advanced inorganic chemistry is described. Students prepare and characterize a cobalt(III) complex coordinated by a thioether ligand during the first week of the experiment and then study the kinetics of Co-S bond cleavage in basic solution during the second week. The synthetic portion of the…

Ruby is a crystalline material, which comes very expensive and is of great significance, as it helped in the creation of first laser. An experiment to determine the absorption and emission spectroscopy, in addition to the determination of the room-temperature lifetime of the substance is being described.

A biophysical-chemistry experiment, based on the reflectance spectroscopy for calculating the absorption and scattering coefficients of leaves is described. The results show that different plants species exhibit different values for both the coefficients because of their different pigment composition.

Few laboratory procedures describe the use of circular dichroism (CD) at the undergraduate level. To increase the number of laboratory exercises using CD, a thermal denaturation study of myoglobin using CD is described to assess protein stability. Values obtained from a more classic linear data analysis approach are consistent with data analyzed…

A force spectroscopy model experiment is presented using a low-cost tensile apparatus described earlier. Force-extension measurements of twisted rubber bands are obtained. They exhibit a complex nonlinear elastic behaviour that resembles atomic force spectroscopy investigations of molecules of titin, a muscle protein. The model experiments open up…

Quantitative analysis of carbohydrates is a fundamental analytical tool used in many aspects of biology and chemistry. We have adapted a technique developed by Mathews et al. using an inexpensive scanner and open-source image analysis software to quantify amylase activity using both the breakdown of starch and the appearance of glucose. Breakdown…

The experiment described here for advanced inorganic chemistry undergraduate students includes a solvolysis reaction of [CoCl(NH[subscript 3])[subscript 5]][superscript 2+] in nonaqueous (H[subscript 3]PO[subscript 4]) medium, followed by an alternative way of using ion-exchange chromatography based on the capability of changing the charges of the…

A novel experiment for the extraction of lycopene from tomato paste without the use of an organic solvent is described. The experiment employs polymer, green, and analytical chemistry. This environmentally friendly extraction is more efficient and requires less time than the traditional approach using an organic solvent. The extraction is…

An experiment is described involving the nitration of ortho or meta monosubstituted benzoic acids (XC[subscript 6]H[subscript 4]CO[subscript 2]H, X = Halogen, Me, OH, or OMe) and monochlorinated acetanilides with nitric acid to determine the regioselectivity of addition by [superscript 1]H NMR spectroscopy and molecular modeling. Students were…

This experiment describes the synthesis of gentisyl quinone isovalerate, or blattellaquinone, a sex pheromone of the German cockroach that was isolated and identified in 2005. The synthesis is appropriate for the second semester of a second-year organic chemistry laboratory course. It can be completed in two, three-hour laboratory periods and uses…

The formation constant of iron(III) complex with glycine (Gly) ligand in aqueous acidic medium (0.2 M HNO[subscript 3], I = 0.2 M at 28 plus or minus 1 degree C) was determined spectrophotometrically in which a competing color reaction between Fe(III) and SCN[superscript -] was used as an indicator reaction. Under the specified conditions Fe(III)…