MexicoCity2001.html

Microscale Gas Chemistry
Presentations
Universidad Iberoamericana
Mexico City, Mexico
July 4 - 6, 2001

General Abstract for
20-hour Laboratory-Based Workshop

Bruce Mattson, Dept. of Chemistry, Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska 68178 USA
Susan Mattson, Underwood High School, Underwood, Iowa 51576 USA
(Workshop pictures below!)

A message for the participants of our gas workshop in Mexico City:
Sue and I really enjoyed working with you for three great days! We will never forget your eagerness and enthusiasm and your great warmth towards us. We hope you will make productive use of these techniques. If you have any questions or if I can help you obtain syringe caps or other items, please write to me (xenon@creighton.edu).
I am now working on sending you the books some of you have purchased. I need to order a few more from the publisher and will do so on July 17th. Also, there is some chance that I can have the books carried to Mexico City by a friend who will travel there in August. If that is so, I can get them to you without risk of losing them in the postal system. Somehow, you will have your books as soon as possible.
Best wishes and may God Bless you all!

-Bruce and Sue

Abstract:
Important concepts of the high school and college chemistry curriculum can be taught with gases. Environmental issues, reaction stoichiometry, intermolecular forces, catalysis, combustion, and molar mass are just a few examples. In this 20-hour workshop, participants will learn to safely and conveniently generate over a dozen gases for classroom and laboratory use with simple, inexpensive equipment such as 60-mL plastic syringes. Each gas can be used in a variety of experiments. Typically, a 60-mL sample of a gas is enough for several microscale experiments. Costs are low and the experiments are enjoyable and easy. Using plastic syringes allows students to visualize changes in gas volume and to manipulate gases in a quantitative way. In all, over 140 experiments have been developed for these gases. Many of the gases, including H2, CO2, O2, C2H2, NH3, N2, NO, NO2, HCl, CO, C2H4, CH4, and N2O are suited for microscale laboratory activities for high school and college level chemistry students. Detailed instructions for the safe generation of all gases as well as the experiments with these gases are provided for free on our website (http://mattson.creighton.edu/Microscale_Gas_Chemistry.html) and are also available in our two books.

The workshop will also include the preparation and experimentation with gases such as Cl2 that are easily prepared but best suited for classroom demonstrations rather than student activities. During this workshop participants will use a gas generation kit and will practice and master the techniques of gas-generation using syringes. Participants will then perform numerous experiments using gas-filled syringes.

Advanced techniques will be addressed in the latter part of the workshop. In particular, participants will work with a glass-encased hetereogenous palladium catalyst tube suitable for demonstrating gas phase reactions in the classroom or teaching laboratory. The catalyst tube can be used to demonstrate a wide variety of reactions including oxidation of hydrocarbons with air, oxidation of carbon monoxide with air, hydrogenation of ethene, oxidation of ammonia with oxygen, oxidation of methane with nitrogen dioxide, oxidation of methane and dinitrogen monoxide, the reaction between hydrogen and nitrogen monoxide, and others.

List of activities similar to those to be conducted in this workshop.

Our Gas Group at Iberoamericana! They were great!