Contaminated stirrer bars could be ruining experiments that are sensitive to tiny amounts of metal catalysts
In your class
Download a one-slide summary of this article for use in your classroom (MS Powerpoint or pdf).
Magnetic stirrer bars are a useful tool in any chemistry lab. However, contaminated stirrer bars could be ruining experiments that are extremely sensitive to the presence of tiny amounts of metal catalysts.
A new investigation used spectroscopy to show the presence of metal nanoparticles – palladium, platinum, gold and others – on used stirrer surfaces. This leftover metal on a stirrer bar from one reaction could catalyse another experiment. The researchers behind the work recommend running control experiments with unused stirrer bars to solve the problem.
Read the full story in Chemistry World.
Downloads
Starter slide - catalytic stirrers
PowerPoint, Size 0.21 mbStarter slide - catalytic stirrers
PDF, Size 0.32 mb
References
E O Pentsak et al, ACS Catal., 2019, 9, 3070 (DOI: 10.1021/acscatal.9b00294)
No comments yet