Teaching with microscale reactions

By Katherine Haxton2015-04-08T08:58:00

Katherine Haxton explores using microscale reactions in the teaching lab.

Like many chemists, I am fascinated by the visible changes that occur during chemical reactions, yet frustrated by how few reactions are done for the pure joy of seeing a change.

As a result, I was delighted when I attended a workshop on microscale chemistry led by Bob Worley. In a little over an hour, he took us from polymerisation reactions in Pasteur pipettes, through spirit burners crafted from jam jars, and onto reactions that could only be done safely in classrooms on tiny scales, such as generating small quantities of hydrogen and oxygen gases and detonating them.

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