The Figure is Fig 4 of the paper in Microbe; it is also shown at the Geobacter site.
This page was originally developed to provide supplementary materials for an introductory course in chemistry. Links to the home page for that course, to the home page for this site, and contact information are at bottom of page.
| Most of the sections below are listed in the order they first become relevant in my Intro Chem class. Chapter references are to the Intro Chem textbook by Cracolice & Peters, 2/e, 2004. Some items are intended as general; these are at the end of the list. | |
|
Lab activities; demos; videos (entire course) + New 9/27/08
Nature of chemistry (Ch 1; general) Names of elements 101-111 -- and the others (Ch 2, 5, 6) Esperanto, German. Units; dimensional analysis (Ch 3) + New 10/1/08, 4/5/09 Metric prefixes (Ch 3) Density (Ch 3) New section 9/9/08 Element #122 (Ch 5) New section 5/2/08 Elements #113 and 115 (Ch 5) Elements #114, 116, 118 (and 112) (Ch 5) Atomic force microscopy and electron microscopy (AFM, EM) (Ch 5, 10) + New 8/19/08 Periodic table (Ch 5) Chinese, Spanish -- and ~200 others. + New 8/3/08, 11/18/08 Nuclei; Isotopes; Atomic weights (Ch 5) Nucleosynthesis; astrochemistry; nuclear energy; radioactivity (Ch 5, 10, 21) A chemistry clock (Ch 5) Ionic bonding (Ch 6, 11) Moles; National Mole Day (Ch 7) |
Reactions; Balancing equations (Ch 8)
Orbitals (Ch 10) Lewis structures; VSEPR (Ch 11, 12) Gasses (Ch 4, 13) + New 6/3/08 Water (Ch 15) Mercury (Ch 10, 11, 15) Solids (Ch 15) New section 8/17/08 Solutions (Ch 16, 17) Acids, bases; buffers (Ch 18) Redox reactions; fuel cells (Ch 19) Activation energy (Ch 20) Free software from the Journal of Chemical Education Dry-erase markers Thimerosal Lighting: halogen lamps, etc General |
| Bottom of page; return links and contact information | |
| Links to external sites will open in a new window. To return to this page, close the new window. | |
| You may find links of interest on my other pages of Internet Resources, either for other specific courses or the chem-miscellaneous, miscellaneous, or introductory pages. All of these are available from the List of pages of Internet resources. | |
Some of these sites provide activities that you can do on your own; optional. Others are collections of lab information, including useful videos.
The idea of "kitchen" labs is that you do not need access to specialized lab supplies.
Doing any of these is entirely optional. Those who have had no experience in a lab might enjoy trying even one or two, just for the general experience.
I would appreciate feedback, on any specific lab activities that you find good or bad, and any other such resources you come across.
The Anytime Anywhere Chemistry Experience (AACE) is a project of Drs Jimmy Reeves (Univ North Carolina, Wilmington) and Doris Kimbrough (Univ Colorado, Denver). http://www.uncw.edu/chem/Courses/Reeves/OnLineLabs/. Some experiments include computer simulations as well as "kitchen" activities.
The GSU Chemistry Prelab Tutorials, from Drs Brian P Koehler & Jessica N Orvis at Georgia Southern Univ. http://cost.georgiasouthern.edu/chemistry/prelabs/index.html. This site has "pre-lab" exercises, and includes some excellent material about lab techniques. For more about this, see their article in J Chem Educ 80:608, 6/03.
The Science House: Countertop Chemistry, from NC State Univ. http://www.science-house.org/learn/CountertopChem/index.html.
Commercial site. Chemistry LabPaqs, from Hands-On Labs, Inc. . This site sells kits designed to be the lab component of college chemistry courses. I have no experience with them, but I think they are well regarded by chemistry educators. Cost is about $150. http://www.labpaq.com/product-overview/chemistry-overview-page. (Formerly At Home Science.)
Delights of Chemistry, from Mike Hoyland at Univ Leeds. This site contains videos of demos, with some emphasis on showing exciting or delightful demos. Procedures are given for many, but the main point of listing this is just to see the videos posted here. (Most would not be safe for home demo.) The Barking Dogs demo is one of my favorites. http://www.chem.leeds.ac.uk/delights/
New September 27, 2008. Chemistry Experiment Simulations and Conceptual Computer Animations, from Tom Greenbowe and the Chemical Education Research Group, Department of Chemistry, Iowa State University. http://www.chem.iastate.edu/group/Greenbowe/sections/projectfolder/simDownload/index4.html. Materials cover a wide range of basic chem topics. They are provided here as zip files. Download the file of interest, then unzip it and run it on your own computer.
Chemistry animations and movies on the World Wide Web. Links to chemistry animations around the web, from Gabor Lente, University of Debrecen (Hungary). http://www.klte.hu/~lenteg/animate.html. Also includes some information about making animations; choose "Animation resources". I list another of Lente's pages under Library Matters: More sources of journals online.
Also see Misc Chem Internet Resources - Lab tools. That section is about specific laboratory techniques.
Beyond the Molecular Frontier: Challenges for Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. What do chemists do? A report on the future of chemistry, from the National Research Council, 2003. http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=10633. For a short summary -- a good place to start -- see their link to a "PDF Brief" file, under "Download Free".
News release from IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) on their final agreement on names for elements 101-109. The announcement is: IUPAC Adopts Final Recommendations for Names of Transfermium Elements, August 1997. http://old.iupac.org/news/archives/1997/august97.html
In August 2003 element 110 was officially named darmstadtium, Ds, after the city of its birth. The announcement is: Element 110 is named darmstadtium. http://old.iupac.org/news/archives/2003/naming110.html.
In November 2004 element 111 was officially named roentgenium, Rg, after Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen, who discovered X-rays (in 1895, a century before the first report of element #111). The announcement is: Element 111 is named roentgenium. http://old.iupac.org/news/archives/2004/naming111.html.
All of the element names noted above are shown on the periodic table that I post on my Download page. All of these names are also shown in the third edition of the Cracolice textbook.
Etimologio de la nomoj de kemiaj elementoj. Etymology of the names of the chemical elements -- written in Esperanto, and also available in German. From Dr. Reinhard Foessmeier, a German mathematician at the Akademio Internacia de la Sciencoj (AIS) in San Marino. http://www.ais-sanmarino.org/scio/elemetim.html. This site is also listed under Miscellaneous Chem Internet Resources.
If you would prefer something like that in English, try...
* History of the Origin of the Chemical Elements and Their Discoverers, by Norman E Holden, National Nuclear Data Center, Brookhaven National Lab: http://www.nndc.bnl.gov/content/elements.html
* Elementymology & Elements Multidict, by Peter van der Krogt, Univ Utrecht. http://www.vanderkrogt.net/elements/. Includes history of the discovery of each element, as well as information about the name. The site author says "I am not a chemist, but a (map) historian much interested in the origin of names. ... I tried to do some new etymological research on the element names, and find the original articles where the discoverer of a new element announced his find and explained the naming."
An excellent presentation of unit conversions: http://oakroadsystems.com/math/convert.htm. On this page, Stan Brown emphasizes the importance of "a well-chosen form of 1". He includes many examples, of increasing complexity, and a few practice problems.
A "self-help" worksheet on dimensional analysis that I wrote a few years ago. It contains brief explanations, but extensive sets of practice problems. See the Chemistry practice problems page.
Why isn't 0° F the lowest possible temperature for a salt/ice/water mixture?. http://antoine.frostburg.edu/chem/senese/101/solutions/faq/zero-fahrenheit.shtml. An elaboration of the story of how the zero point for the Fahrenheit temperature scale was set. This is part of Fred Senese's site, which is listed below as a General resource.
Temperature extremes. http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/3448/temperatureextremespe2.jpg. How cold is cold? This page may give you some ideas -- or may not.
Have you wondered about the stories -- real or imagined -- behind the names of the units? Read the story of Claude Emile Jean-Baptiste Litre (1716-1778) -- and his daughter Millie: http://www.student.math.uwaterloo.ca/~stat231/stat231_01_02/w02/section3/fi1.2.pdf.
The kilogram is the only unit that is still defined by a specific physical object, in this case a bar stored in Paris and declared to be the official kilogram. Physicists would love to develop a definition of the kilogram that is more fundamental, but it is proving to be a difficult task. One possibility is to declare a value for Avogadro's number (Ch 7); that would fix the magnitude of the mass unit. The following items are on this story; #1-2 are from the same people. A major thrust of the argument here is that we should go ahead and make the change, even though not all the underlying questions have been answered yet. #1 is perhaps more readable for the general audience, whereas #2 has more depth. #1 refers to #2. #3 is an enjoyable essay, more from the chemists' side.
* 1.
I Mills, An update on the kilogram. Chemistry International [online news magazine of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC)] Vol 27 #5. 9/05. http://old.iupac.org/publications/ci/2005/2705/3_mills.html.
* 2.
I M Mills et al, Redefinition of the kilogram: a decision whose time has come. Metrologia 42:71-80, 4/05. Free online at http://www.iop.org/EJ/toc/0026-1394/42/2; scroll down to the article on p 71.
* 3.
R F Fox & T P Hill, An exact value for Avogadro's number. Amer Sci 95:104, 3/07. Free online at http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/pub/2007/2/an-exact-value-for-avogadros-number.
New October 1, 2008. The following article, which has free online access, is listed in the Ch 3 handout: K Jensen et al, An atomic-resolution nanomechanical mass sensor. Nature Nanotechnology 3:533, 9/08. There has been considerable work in recent years on developing nano-balances: balances capable of weighing single atoms or molecules by mechanical means. This one uses the principle that the resonant frequency of an object depends on its mass. It operates at room temperature, and uses carbon nanotubes. A potential use of such balances is weighing individual protein molecules, under gentle conditions. Regardless of use, this is fun! The paper is available at Zettl's UC Berkeley web site: http://www.physics.berkeley.edu/research/zettl/pdf/345.NatNaotech-Jensen.pdf.
New April 5, 2009. With all the emphasis on using units based on powers of ten, why don't we do that for time? Well, people have thought about it. The Wikipedia page on Metric time gives a nice overview. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_time.
Also see the next section.
A complete list of metric prefixes, from yotta to yocto -- with examples of their use, is at my web site.
New section September 9, 2008.
The following article, which has free online access, is listed in the Ch 3 handout: B C Stoel & T M Borman, A comparison of wood density between classical Cremonese and modern violins. PLoS ONE 3(7):e2554. 7/08. Ch 3 defines and describes density. But why is it important? This article suggests that variations in density through a piece of wood, due to climatic variation, is important to the quality of violins. They use "CAT" scans (at a New York hospital) to measure the density at various spots on the violins, which range from a 1715 Stradivarius to some 21st century violins made by one of the authors. The article is freely available at http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0002554.
New section May 2, 2008.
April 2008 brings a claim of discovering element #122. In nature. The periodic table would place #122 under thorium; the claim is that they have found a small amount of this element in a sample of Th. The technical issues are complex -- and controversial.
There is a Wikipedia page for element #122, which is provisionally named unbibium based on its digits: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unbibium. This page links to the paper making the claim, which so far has not yet been published, and to some discussions of it at various sites. Again, both the paper and the criticisms are quite technical. Most of us will just sit back and watch as this story plays out. I suspect that those maintaining the Wikipedia page will keep up informed.
I have not yet added #122 to my periodic table.
In February 2004 two new elements were announced, from the lab in Dubna, Russia, in collaboration with Lawrence Livermore Lab. They made #115 by direct bombardment, and observed #113 among the decay products. The elements were actually made in July and August, 2003.
Here are two of the news stories for this announcement:
* Livermore Scientists Team With Russia To Discover Elements 113 and 115. https://publicaffairs.llnl.gov/news/news_releases/2004/NR-04-02-01.html. Announcement from Lawrence Livermore, February 2, 2004.
* Transactinides: New superheavy elements created -- High-energy experiments produce a few atoms of elements 113 and 115. http://pubs.acs.org/cen/topstory/8206/8206notw1.html. From C&EN, February 9, 2004; includes a link to the published article announcing the elements.
These sites are also listed on the page Science on the Internet: an introduction.
I have updated the periodic table that I post on my Download page to show these new elements.
Also see the next section, immediately below, for information about the making of other heavy elements.
Also see the previous section, immediately above, for information about the making of elements #115 and 113, announced February 2004.
October 2006 brought the announcement of element 118, from Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL) and the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR), in Dubna, Russia. The press release from LLNL, Livermore scientists team with Russia to discover element 118, is at https://publicaffairs.llnl.gov/news/news_releases/2006/NR-06-10-03.html. That press release has some visuals you may find interesting, and it also links to the published article.
I have updated the periodic table that I post on my Download page to show this new element.
If the announcement of 118 sounds familiar, read on...
1999 was an interesting year for new elements -- and Berkeley was part of the story.
January brought a "rumor" that a single atom of element #114 had been detected by a team of scientists at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, in Dubna, Russia. (The event itself was in December, 1998.) Interestingly, the new atom lasted for about 30 seconds, thus perhaps supporting the idea that we are beginning to get into a region of more stable isotopes.
Then in June Lawrence Berkeley Lab (LBL) reported they had made elements #118 and 116. However, LBL has retracted that claim. Further work -- at LBL and elsewhere -- did not support the initial claim; it is likely that the original report was fraudulent. Information about all this is at: http://enews.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/elements-116-118.html. The figures include a diagram showing all known isotopes for the "superheavy" elements.
Why do we say "#118 and 116" -- in that order? Well, according to the original report, they directly made #118. It decayed by a series of α (alpha) emissions. The first decay product was #116, also a new element.
In July, the Russian group officially reported their work on #114: Oganessian et al, Nature 400:242, 7/15/99. The article contains some interesting graphs showing stability of known isotopes of super-heavy elements -- and some theoretical predictions. There is an accompanying news item on p 209; this may serve as a good starting point to learn about this new burst of work.
For information about element #112 and the lab that made it, see two entries in Section 1 (Chemistry) on the page Science on the Internet: an introduction.
The Web-elements site at the University of Sheffield, a major web periodic table and elements resource, is usually up-to-date on new elements. http://www.webelements.com
The general theme in this section is methods to observe atoms. Of course, the methods can also be used to observe larger things. Most of the section is about AFM.
In class we show an example of how AFM can be used to observe atoms. The following sites show many examples of AFM. They show atoms and many other things, covering a broad range from biology to engineering. Look around, and enjoy both the science and the art.
http://www.almaden.ibm.com/vis/stm/gallery.html. The STM Image Gallery at IBM in San Jose. (STM = scanning tunneling microscopy, one variation of AFM.) This site includes the IBM logo, written with xenon atoms, and the carbon monoxide man. (These are the Figs shown in Cracolice, pp 272-3.) I suggest that you start with the "Atomilism" section of the gallery. Or... try the "Catalogue."
http://www.veeco.com/library/nanotheater/. The NanoTheater, from Veeco, a manufacturer of AFM instruments. This page is also listed for the DNA section of page for Internet Resources for Molecular Biology.
http://www.ifr.ac.uk/spm/ is from the Institute of Food Research. Not surprisingly, the site shows biological materials, many associated with foods. There are polysaccharides, biofilms, and cells.
Principle of scanning probe microscopy. A discussion of how scanning probe microscopy works. Fairly technical but readable and well illustrated. http://www.physics.leidenuniv.nl/sections/cm/ip/group/Principle_of_SPM.htm. From Joost Frenken, Interface Physics Group, Univ Leiden.
A paper published in March 2007 showed how one can even identify which atom one is "seeing" with an AFM. The general idea is that the precise details of the forces observed should depend on the specifics of the atom and of the probing tip. The problem is that AFM tips are neither well-defined nor reproducible. So what they do is to normalize the results: with a specific tip under specific conditions and looking at a specific group of atoms, they show that atoms of different elements give distinct results. A news story about this paper, Microscope discerns atoms of different elements, is at http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn11272. (The paper is: Y Sugimoto et al, Chemical identification of individual surface atoms by atomic force microscopy. Nature 446:64, 3/1/07. There is an accompanying news story on p 34.)
New August 19, 2008. Electron microscopic (EM) observation of atoms. Seeing individual atoms for light elements by EM is difficult simply due to the weak signal. Alex Zettl's lab at UC Berkeley has reported seeing individual atoms of carbon and hydrogen. The trick was using graphene as the support material. Graphene is a sheet of graphite one atom thick -- a strong but almost transparent support material. A news story about this work: Seeing the smallest atom - Graphene helps a team use a transmission electron microscope to image individual hydrogen atoms. August 16, 2008. http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/34178/title/Seeing_the_smallest_atom. The paper itself, which is listed in the Ch 5 handout, is J C Meyer et al, Imaging and dynamics of light atoms and molecules on graphene. Nature 454:319, 7/17/08. It is posted at Zettl's web site: http://www.physics.berkeley.edu/research/zettl/pdf/344.Nat.454-Meyer.pdf.
The periodic table I use for class is available on my Download page. This PT corresponds to the PT in the current Intro Chem textbook, with the following modifications:
* It includes the names of the elements. I think this is particularly useful for new chem students.
* I have updated it to show new names and new elements; see Names and the sections that include Elements #113 and 115 and Element #118. #118 was announced in October 2006. (I have not yet included element 122, for which a discovery claim was made, April 2008. See section Element #122.)
Major periodic table sites, with extensive data about the elements:
* The Web-elements site, from Mark Winter, University of Sheffield: http://www.webelements.com. This PT is also listed on my Science on the Internet: An Introduction page. (Mark Winter also brings us the Orbitron, listed in the section Orbitals.)
* Royal Society of Chemical (England): http://www.rsc.org/chemsoc/visualelements/. Slow to load, but worth exploring for the visuals. Recommended by an Intro Chem student.
New November 18, 2008. Biochemical periodic table . The elements are classified and color-coded by their role in biology. Clicking on a element returns information about the biological properties. http://umbbd.msi.umn.edu/periodic/index.html. This page is part of the Biocatalysis/Biodegradation Database site at the University of Minnesota, which is listed on my page Science on the Internet: an introduction. Another page from the site, a nice list of Useful Internet Resources for Microbial Biotechnology, is listed on my page Internet resources: Biology - Miscellaneous, under Microbiology: other.
New August 3, 2008. The periodic table of videos. A periodic table for the YouTube generation. Click on any element to bring up a brief video presentation about the element. The videos are by Dr Martyn Poliakoff, University of Nottingham. http://www.periodicvideos.com/.
An Earth Scientist's Periodic Table of the Elements and Their Ions, from L. Bruce Railsback, Department of Geology, University of Georgia. A special PT organized around the ions that are relevant to mineralogy. If you are interested in minerals, this may be very useful. In any case, it is artistically interesting, and fun. http://www.gly.uga.edu/railsback/PT.html. Also in Chinese, Spanish.
It's elemental: The periodic table. A collection of 89 essays, covering all the elements, originally published in the 80th anniversary issue of C&EN (Chemical & Engineering News; Sept 2003), the news magazine from the American Chemical Society. The entire collection is now available online. http://pubs.acs.org/cen/80th/elements.html.
A searchable periodic table. Choose a property, and ask for all elements with values between limits that you specify. For example, you might ask for all elements with boiling points between 500 and 1000 K. Simple and fast; a model for how web pages should be. http://www.stolaf.edu/people/hansonr/ptable/. From Bob Hanson & Melanie Casavant, St Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota.
Periodic Tables of the Elements in Two Hundred Languages. http://www.jergym.hiedu.cz/~canovm/vyhledav/chemici2.html.
For Periodic Table history, including pictures of some of Mendeleev's earliest versions...
* Chemical Heritage Foundation: http://www.chemheritage.org/classroom/chemach/periodic/meyer-mendeleev.html.
* Classic Chemistry, from Carmen Giunta at Le Moyne College, Syracuse, NY: http://web.lemoyne.edu/~giunta/EA/MENDELEEVann.HTML.
* Royal Society of Chemistry: http://www.rsc.org/education/teachers/learnnet/periodictable/pre16/develop/mendeleev.htm.
Periodic Table of Comic Books. http://www.uky.edu/Projects/Chemcomics/. Fun (but slow). From J P Selegue & F J Holler, Chemistry, University of Kentucky. (This is also listed on the page Internet resources: Chemistry - Miscellaneous. Humor section.)
Table of Condiments That Periodically Go Bad. http://web.mit.edu/dryfoo/www/Info/condiments.html. From MIT.
To hear Tom Lehrer sing his song The Elements: http://school.discoveryeducation.com/lessonplans/activities/sciencehits/. Scroll down the page to find the link to the song. (The text of the song is available from many sites. Search Google on Lehrer elements.) And for an animated version of that song, see http://www.privatehand.com/flash/elements.html.
The Periodic Table Mysteries, by Camille Minichino. Camille Minichino is a San Francisco area physicist (Lawrence Livermore National Lab) -- who also writes mystery novels. Her book "The hydrogen murder" was published in 1997, "The helium murder" in 1998. Most recently, "The oxygen murder" was published in 2006. Some of these are set in the San Francisco area. Some of these books are available in the Berkeley Public Library. See her web site, http://www.minichino.com, for more information. (Recommendation? No, I haven't seen them. But I thought it was a fun story worth passing on. A teacher on the Chemed-L list said that she enjoyed the books, and shared them with her classes.) I have also listed Minichino's books on my page of Books: Suggestions for general reading.
If you really cannot be without a periodic table, check out: http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/gear/8a2f/?cpg=39T.
One of the questions inevitably raised by our simple model of the atom is what holds the nucleus together -- with all its positive charges. The answer is "the strong nuclear force" -- a topic well beyond our course. Three scientists responsible for developing our understanding of this force, in the early 1970s, received the 2004 Nobel Prize in physics for their work. For an introduction to the strong nuclear force, see the Nobel site http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2004/public.html, or an article in the Caltech alumni magazine Engineering & Science http://pr.caltech.edu/periodicals/EandS/articles/LXVII3/quark.html.
In August 2005, IUPAC issued revised values for the atomic weights of 16 elements. Why? Mainly due to improved analysis of isotopic abundances. Panic not... None of the revisions affect anything before the fifth digit, and some have no effect before the ninth digit. http://old.iupac.org/news/archives/2005/atomic-weights_revised05.html.
The Table of Isotopes, at Lawrence Berkeley Lab, contains extensive information about all known isotopes for all the elements. Start at http://ie.lbl.gov/education/isotopes.htm.
Astrochymist, from David Woon, University of Illinois. http://www.astrochymist.org/. The chemistry of "out there" -- planets, stars, comets and interstellar space. Suggest that you start with the Astromolecule of the Month and the Astrochemistry FAQ. Much of the site is incomplete, but there is enough already to make this a fun and informative site.
A section on Nucleosynthesis of The Elements, from Mark Leach, Meta-Synthesis, Salford, England. http://www.meta-synthesis.com/webbook/32_n-synth/nucleosynthesis.html. Nucleosynthesis is the process of making nuclei -- thus of making atoms. This happens in stars -- and especially in exploding stars.
FusEdWeb: Fusion Energy Educational Web Site. http://fusedweb.llnl.gov/. From Lawrence Livermore.
Low Dose Radiation. Are the effects of low doses of radiation -- those actually most commonly encountered -- predictable by extrapolating from high doses? It's not at all clear, and this site has lots of information on this murky subject. http://lowdose.tricity.wsu.edu/index.htm. From DOE and Washington Sate Univ.
University of Michigan Health Physics Web Site. http://www.umich.edu/~radinfo/. "An internet resource for radiation, nuclear, and health physics topics." Sections include... "Current Topics: Contains information regarding cellular phones, food irradiation, and depleted uranium. Introduction (to Radiation): Provides an introduction to radiation, terminology and its part in human lives. Organizations and Societies: A listing of radiology and health physics societies. Professional Resources: Provides information, company information and other resources for the health physics professional. Educational Resources: A source of information for students interested in the nuclear and health physics related fields."
The ChemTime clock. Available at Dr Bassam Shakhashiri's "Science is Fun" web page http://scifun.chem.wisc.edu. Look for the clock (in right hand column, at last check), and click on its label for more information.
Movie: Formation of ionic bonds. http://www.eclipse.net/~pankuch/My_Newest_Site/My_Pages/Animations.html. Choose the movie called "Bond Formation". The animated cartoon shows how a barium atom and two fluorine atoms form the ionic compound barium fluoride. One of the sequences shows the "electron clouds" of the atoms, illustrating an idea introduced in Ch 10. The movie is from Dr. Brian Pankuch, Union County College, NJ. It requires the Shockwave plug-in. Attempting to run it without Shockwave will guide you to obtaining and installing the plug-in. Other movies, on other Ch 11 topics, are also available from this page. These include movies on electronegativity and on atom vs ion size. I think the bonding movie listed here is the most useful as a movie, but look around, and tell me if you find others useful. (I will have some of them with me in class.)
Ionic liquids. A common rule of thumb is that ionic compounds are solids -- under "ordinary" conditions. The common salt NaCl serves as a good example. We can even explain this rule of thumb, as being due to the network nature of ionic solids. Section 11.2 of the Cracolice book (2/e) discusses this. It also notes that if one heats an ionic solid to its melting point, one obtains an ionic liquid; the "catch" is that the melting point of NaCl is 801 °C, and the melting points of other simple inorganic salts are also very high. However, there are some compounds that are ionic, but liquid at room temperature. The reason is simple enough: they contain large (covalent) ions, so that the ions in the crystal lattice are further apart, thus weakening the strength of the ionic bonding and lowering the melting point. These "room temperature ionic liquids" (RTIL) have become practical only since the 1990s, but they are now attracting considerable attention, because of their novel properties. The Wikipedia page is a good introduction to ionic liquids, and some of their possible uses: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionic_liquid. My interest in ionic liquids was rekindled by M Jayakumar ("Jai"), at the Indira Gandhi Center for Atomic Research (IGCAR) in India. He is exploring the use of ionic liquids in recovering noble metals from used nuclear fuel rods; in this case, the hope is that the use of a non-aqueous polar solvent will simplify the chemical behavior of metals infamous for their complexity. Not only does Jai work with these ionic liquids, but he and his IGCAR colleagues help maintain this Wikipedia page.
National Mole Day starts at 6:02 in the morning, on 10/23. http://www.moleday.org/. Recent Mole Day themes include: 2009, Molar Express; 2008, Mole of Fortune; 2007, Remember the Alamole; 2006, Mole Madness; 2005, Moles-go-round; 2004, Pi a la Mole; 2003, Rock 'n' Mole; 2002, Molar Reflections; "2001 - A Molar Odyssey". More at the Mole Day web site, which is maintained by The Moleman.
Online resources for balancing equations typically deal only with "step 2" of the balancing procedure, as described in the Ch 8 handout. That is, given the correct formulas, the resource will deal with determining the balancing coefficients. This may be useful, but emphasize that it does not deal with finding the correct formulas.
The most important thing for you to learn in this chapter is the concept of the balanced equation, which we will be using in subsequent chapters. You need to be able to develop equations, with proper chemical formulas, balance them, and know how the balanced equations can be used.
An online exercise for practice balancing equations: http://education.jlab.org/elementbalancing/index.html. From S F Gagnon, Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. The program presents you an equation, and asks you to insert the balancing coefficients. Instant feedback as to whether you are right or not, but it does not offer any help if you are stuck. If this happens, write down the equation and ask me about it (e-mail or in class). This program may be good practice for some people.
The folks at ION have an equation balancing program online. You type in an unbalanced equation, with all the correct formulas, and the program returns the balancing coefficients. You might want to play with this for fun, perhaps to check yourself on some of the homework. The balancing program is useful with complex equations, which may be hard to balance by hand. The "Equation Balancer" is at http://www.nitrogenorder.org, under Utilities.
The ION site (above) also has some information about chemical reactions, and some include short videos; choose "Experiments". For example, there is a nice video of a double replacement reaction, showing formation of a precipitate. The ION site is also listed below under Other general chemistry courses.
Physiology of Respiration. http://historyofscience.free.fr/Lavoisier-Friends/a_chap4_lavoisier.html. This page describes how Lavoisier made the connection between ordinary combustion and burning our food. From Jean Pierre Poirier author of "Lavoisier, Chemist, Biologist, Economist" (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996). I have also listed this page under Internet Resources for Organic and Biochemistry: Metabolism, and I have listed the larger Lavoisier site under Miscellaneous Chemistry Internet Resources: History.
Atomic Orbitals. http://www.orbitals.com/orb/index.html. After browsing the introductory explanations, see the Grand Orbital Table for some great pictures. From David Manthey, an engineer.
The Orbitron: a gallery of orbitals on the WWW. http://winter.group.shef.ac.uk/orbitron/. At the simplest level, there are lots of pictures of orbitals. For those who want more, there is much more. (If you have problems with this site, see section "Your browser" linked near bottom of main page.) From Mark Winter, University of Sheffield. (Mark Winter also brings us Web-elements, listed in the section Periodic table.)
The following site has some good tutorials, with good visuals, on several topics from these chapters. The topics include: Lewis structures, VSEPR, bond and molecule polarity, intermolecular forces. http://cost.georgiasouthern.edu/chemistry/general/molecule/. From Brenda Wojciechowski and Paul Cerpovicz at Georgia Southern University.
A presentation of the nature of gases, helpfully broken down into levels of detail. For intro chem, levels 1, 2 and 4 will be particularly helpful. http://www.chem1.com/acad/webtext/gas/. From Steve Lower, Simon Fraser University. This is part of a broader site, which is listed below under Other general chemistry courses.
A nice tutorial on the gas laws, with good animations: http://www.chemistry.ohio-state.edu/betha/ -- and then choose Gas Laws. There are some other things at the site; let me know if you find some useful.
The following site provides an animation of an ideal gas, with adjustable parameters. If nothing else, enjoy the hypnotic effect of watching the gas particles bounce around. There are also exercises, if you want to explore further. http://intro.chem.okstate.edu/1314F00/Laboratory/GLP.htm.
New June 3, 2008. STP = standard temperature and pressure. The term is used as a reference point for gases. Unfortunately, there is not agreement on what the standard T and standard P are. Our textbook uses T = 0° C and P = 1 atm; I am happy to stay with that reference point. However, other values are used. Most are fairly close, so the practical implications usually are small. Wikipedia has a page on this confusion. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_conditions_for_temperature_and_pressure.
Why is water blue? http://www.dartmouth.edu/~etrnsfer/water.htm. Discusses in both general and technical terms how the weak blue color of water is related to its structure, including the hydrogen bonding in liquid water. Interestingly, they predict and show that water with the heavy isotope of H, 2H (deuterium), is much less blue. From Charles Braun and Sergei Smirnov at Dartmouth. A delightful page, based on an article originally published in J Chem Educ (70:612, August 1993), but now enhanced with color figures. This page is also listed on my page of Internet resources for Introduction to Organic and Biochemistry under Spectroscopy.
Snowflakes and snow crystals. http://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcrystals/. "Your online guide to snowflakes, snow crystals, and other ice phenomena." From Kenneth G. Libbrecht, Caltech. Also known as http://SnowCrystals.com.
Origin of water on Earth. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_the_world's_oceans.
Floating water bridge. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5PCUP6cGw4&feature=related. A movie to accompany a paper listed in the chapter handout for water, by Fuchs et al, 2007. The work describes formation of a bridge of liquid water between two beakers -- by the application of high voltage.
Why is mercury a liquid? A good introductory-level discussion. http://antoine.frostburg.edu/chem/senese/101/periodic/faq/why-is-mercury-liquid.shtml. The article introduces the idea of relativistic effects on electrons. It includes discussion of the electron sea model for metallic bonding, and comparison with the neighboring elements gold and thallium, in terms of electron configuration. This is part of Fred Senese's site, which is listed below as a General resource.
C T Driscoll et al, Mercury contamination in forest and freshwater ecosystems in the northeastern United States. BioScience 57:17-28, 1/07. A good overview of the mercury hazard issues. Although the focus of the analysis here is regional, much of the overview and discussion is general. Free online at http://www.bioone.org/perlserv/?request=get-abstract&doi=10.1641%2FB570106.
New section, August 17, 2008.
New, August 17, 2008. Glass Museum On Line. http://www.glass.co.nz/index.htm. Scroll down the page -- quite a ways -- to the list "Glass Museum Articles on Glass", at the left. Lots of fascinating material, on both art and technology. For example, try Gold Ruby Glass from Gibraltar. From Angela M. Bowey in New Zealand.
Researchers, including a group from UC Berkeley, have explored the tricks that the anthrax bacteria use to get the iron they need for growth. They found that these bacteria make two chemicals designed to steal iron from their host; such chemicals are generically called siderophores. One of these is attacked by the human immune system; however, the other -- the more novel one -- evades it, and actually succeeds in supplying iron to the bacteria. They suggest that this novel siderophore might be a good target for anti-anthrax drugs, or simply a marker for detection of this pathogen. The work was featured in the student newspaper: Researchers Find Possible Way to Block Anthrax, http://www.dailycal.org/article/22576/_i_science_technology_i_br_researchers_find_possib. For more about this work, see my Biotechnology in the News (BITN) "Other topics" page under anthrax.
A cartoon illustrating what molarity means. http://www.markrosengarten.com/Cartoons/5molarsolution.jpg. This is part of a set of cartoons from Mark Rosengarten, Washingtonville (NY) High School; you can access the list at: http://www.markrosengarten.com/Cartoons/.
The common solubility rules -- in verse. http://www.geocities.com/gummychild/achemistrysong.htm.
Buffers - A guide for the preparation and use of buffers in biological systems. From Calbiochem. http://www.emdbiosciences.com/html/CBC/booklets.htm; choose the Buffers item. Basic theory, but with a strong emphasis on practical information.
Electrochemical energy storage and conversion. Steve Lower offered this page of his when someone asked about the difference between a fuel cell and a battery. http://www.chem1.com/acad/webtext/elchem/ec6.html. This is part of a broader section on "All about electrochemistry", which is part of his Chem 1 textbook materials, listed below under Other general chemistry courses.
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Electricigenic bacteria -- bacteria that can couple their electron transport directly to an external electrode, and thus can serve as the basis of a microbial fuel cell. One of the examples most studied is the genus Geobacter. http://www.geobacter.org. From Derek Lovley, Univ Massachusetts. Also see: D Lovley, Microbial energizers: Fuel cells that keep on going. Microbe 1:323, 7/06. Microbe, the news magazine of the American Society for Microbiology, is free online; this item is at http://www.asm.org/microbe/index.asp?bid=43711 (HTML) or http://www.asm.org/ASM/files/ccLibraryFiles/Filename/000000002405/znw00706000323.pdf (PDF).
The Figure is Fig 4 of the paper in Microbe; it is also shown at the Geobacter site. |
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Microbial fuel cells. A new site broadly on that same topic: http://microbialfuelcell.org/. Explanatory material, and links.
Shakespeare and Thermodynamics: Dam the Second Law! The Human Importance of Activation Energies, by Frank L Lambert, Professor Emeritus (Chemistry), Occidental College, Los Angeles. A delightful "essay", intended for non-scientists, on the role of activation energy in determining how fast things happen. The examples are drawn from common chemistry, as well as biochemistry. Some parts may be a bit philosophical, but ignore those parts if you wish. Worth a look! http://www.shakespeare2ndlaw.com
The Journal of Chemical Education has released much of their older chemistry software, which runs under MS-DOS, for free download. Access is for subscribers. Those using the library computers at UC Berkeley can access this site, because the University has an institutional subscription. Others should check their local university for access. If you have any problems with access, let me know. The software may have an older look and feel, but the instructional quality is sound. Much is above the level of the Intro Chem course, but some may find it useful or interesting. Look over the list, which links to good explanations, and maybe try some. Let me know of your experiences, pro and con. http://jchemed.chem.wisc.edu/JCESoft/Programs/DOS.html
This topic came up in class, when a student asked about the odor and toxicity of dry erase markers.
There are various brands and types of dry erase markers. The one marker that I checked -- a black marker, from Sanford -- has a low odor, suggesting that it uses an alcohol as the solvent. Particularly note that dry erase markers are different from other common marking pens -- probably less toxic. The "art and hobby materials" page listed below introduces some of the types of markers.
The following link leads to an MSDS (material safety data sheet) for a particular Sanford marker. It has a good overview of the safety of this marker. But also note that some details of composition are not shown. http://c1155.camd.lsu.edu/MSDS/msds_search.aspx. Search on "dry erase marker" -- or just on "erase".
For more about MSDSs: Safety, MSDS section of Internet resources: Chemistry - Miscellaneous.
The following link is to a page that generally discusses the safety of art and hobby materials. Browse down, and there is some mention of markers. http://www.watoxics.org/homes-and-gardens/art-and-hobby/. From the Washington Toxics Coalition.
The label for the marker I checked says that it is nontoxic and conforms to ASTM D4236: Standard Practice for Labeling Art Materials for Chronic Health Hazards. The following link gives you the abstract for that "standard", which I think night be interesting to read. (The complete standard is not freely available on the web; you can order it from this link -- for $36.) http://webstore.ansi.org/RecordDetail.aspx?sku=ASTM%20D4236-94(2005)
This topic came up in class, when a student asked about the problem of mercury in vaccines, especially in the flu vaccine.
I have posted two items on this.
* My thimerosal page shows the structure of thimerosal and some related compounds, including aspirin.
* I have a short note about thimerosal on BITN - Miscellaneous; section on vaccines. It includes a link to an FDA site. This FDA page should not necessarily be considered a final answer; however, it is well organized, and should serve to at least outline the issues, thus serving as a good starting point for a broader consideration of the compound. Let me know of questions.
A particular question that came up was about the behavior of methyl mercury vs ethyl mercury. My bottom line is that this is not very clear. Although there is some evidence that the ethyl mercury may be less toxic, the evidence seems very limited. There are two factors to consider in making this comparison. One is chemical/physical behavior. Both are non-polar, and thus relatively soluble in fat (Ch 16). Offhand, I would not want to predict any difference between them on this point. The second issue is their precise biological action. I don't know of any detailed work on this; as already noted, the evidence that the ethyl mercury may be less toxic is weak, and I have not seen any detailed analysis or explanation of it.
This topic is also listed under Introduction to Organic and Biochemistry Internet Resources: Alcohols, ethers, sulfur compounds.
One Intro Chem class had considerable class discussion on how lights work. As part of that, students contributed some web sites. Thanks to all for their contributions!
The following site, from Richard Rusk, is about how halogen lamps work. If you look around, you will find it is part of a much broader site on lighting (see the "Table of Contents" link at the bottom of his page). http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/rbf/CVonline/LOCAL_COPIES/RUSK/HalogenCycle.html
The Berkeley Lamp -- a table lamp developed as part of work on energy efficient lighting at Lawrence Berkeley Lab. http://lighting.lbl.gov
Below are links to materials for some other courses that cover similar material, at one level or another. Sometimes you may find it useful to explore another view. If you had multiple books available, you might browse those on a particular topic. An alternative is to look at some on-line materials.
Please let me know of experiences with these -- good or bad. Remember that different authors will present things differently; sometimes that is helpful, but sometimes it is confusion. Further, any of them -- or us -- may have errors in our presentations. So if you find something that seems confusing, or even wrong, let me know. And if you discover another set of posted materials that you think would be helpful, please let me know.
An Introduction to Chemistry. A web version of a published book, at about the level of this course. From Mark Bishop, Monterey Peninsula College. http://preparatorychemistry.com/Bishop_Home.htm.
http://www.nitrogenorder.org. From the International Order of Nitrogen (ION), by Conrad Shultz and friends, who were students at Crescent Valley High School in Corvallis, OR, when they started this site. They have continued the site as they moved on to college; new topics are added from time to time. The site was originally described as a chemistry site by high school students for high school students; the young authors may have an advantage in presenting what they have recently learned. They do a good job, both in style and content, and the level is generally suitable for intro chem. Topics include dimensional analysis, stoichiometry, gases, and nuclear chemistry. In each case, their page takes a broad view of the topic, integrating it with considerable background perspective. One of their utility programs is listed above, under Balancing equations.
ChemTeam - A Tutorial for High School Chemistry. "The ChemTeam provides study resources in all standard topics for students in high school and Advanced Placement chemistry." http://chemteam.info/ChemTeamIndex.html. From John L Park.
General Chemistry Online!, from Fred Senese, Frostburg State University, Maryland. http://antoine.frostburg.edu/chem/senese/101/index.shtml. Sections of this are listed above, under Units; dimensional analysis and Mercury.
Chem1 virtual textbook - a reference text for General Chemistry, from Steve Lower, Simon Fraser University. http://www.chem1.com/acad/webtext/virtualtextbook.html. Sections of this are listed above, under Gasses and Redox reactions.
Chemistry Software and Science Teaching Resources, from Ray Le Couteur. http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/RayLec/chemres.htm.
The Chemistry Hypermedia project, from Virginia Tech. http://www.files.chem.vt.edu/chem-ed/.
General Chemistry Case Studies (from Kennesaw State Univ, Georgia) develops 12 stories of applied chemistry. Their header says "The chemistry of how things work. Decisions - good and bad - that bring chemistry into our lives." Each case study analyzes the development of a product, and includes economic and safety issues, as well as the underlying chemistry. The complete set of cases: Alcohol, Chemistry and You; Gatorade; NutraSweet; Silicones; Nuclear Chemistry and the Community; Cisplatin and Cancer; Refrigerants for the 21st Century; Olestra; Drug Pathways and Chemical Concepts; Fuels and Society a. Chemistry and History of Automotive Fuels; Fuels and Society b. Sixty Years of Tetraethyllead; Fuels and Society c. How Lead was Finally Removed from Gasoline. http://chemcases.com.
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Last update: April 23, 2009