Developing a safe and versatile chemiluminescence demonstration for studying reaction kinetics

Abbas Eghlimi, Hasan Jubaer, Adam Surmiak, Udo Bach

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleOtherpeer-review

10 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Although chemiluminescent reactions are generally used in demonstrations to pique students' interest in chemistry, they may serve as a great tool for studying reaction kinetics. In this paper, we briefly present an overview of the basics of chemiluminescent kinetics and introduce a safe and robust formulation for making chemiluminescent reactions using citrate-based solvents suitable for chemical studies. The rates of chemiluminescence reactions were quantified using open-source Arduino-development-board projects and ubiquitous photoresistor-based sensors. The simple and versatile formulation as well as the data logging proposed in this work provide instructors with an easy, interesting, and cost-effective tool for teaching reaction kinetics at room temperature. The experiment can be tuned to accommodate for time constraints and various levels of complexity in postprocessing. On the basis of the proposed formulation, a procedure for model demonstration has been described. The proposed methodology was supported by providing an example of data collected and postprocessed by first-year undergraduate students. This work will contribute to improving the pedagogical applications of chemiluminescent reactions.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)522-527
Number of pages6
JournalJournal of Chemical Education
Volume96
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 12 Mar 2019

Keywords

  • Chemical Engineering
  • Demonstrations
  • Esters
  • First-Year Undergraduate/General
  • Fluorescence Spectroscopy
  • Organic Chemistry
  • Public Understanding/Outreach
  • Second-Year Undergraduate

Cite this