Organic Chemicals and Polymers

The title is video link (where available). PDF file is below the description.

  • Benedict’s Test – Use Benedict’s solution and dextrose to demonstrate Benedict’s test for aldehydes. Different sugars available upon request.
  • Disappearing Styrofoam Cup – Make a styrofoam (expanded polystyrene) cup disappear by placing it in a dish of acetone.
  • Miscibility and Immiscibility – Mix ethanol and colored water in one beaker and hexane and colored water in another to demonstrate miscibility and immiscibility due to differences in the intermolecular forces of alcohols as the size of the alkyl group increases. The demo can be repeated with octanol and water, to show that, as carbon chain length increases, polarity of alcohols decreases.
  • Nylon 6-10 – Demonstrate the polymerization of hexamethylenediamine with sebacoyl chloride to produce the polyamide Nylon 6-10.
  • Oxidation of Alcohols – Demonstrate the oxidation of ethanol with K2Cr2O7 on the overhead projector; the alcohol solution changes from orange to green to blue as the Cr(VI) is reduced; this reaction is the basis for the Breathalyzer test.
  • Polarizing Filters and Limonene – Place small beakers of (R)-(+)-limonene and (S)-(-)-limonene between two polaroid sheets on the overhead projector to show the equal but opposite rotation of plane-polarized light by these enantiomers; you can also show that a racemic mixture does not rotate polarized light.
  • Slime! – Make a cross-linked gel by mixing solutions of polyvinyl alcohol and borax; use this demo to relate concepts such as polymers and hydrogen-bonding to a commercial product students are familiar with.
  • Vapor Pressure – Evaporation – Show the effect of intermolecular forces on vapor pressure by letting three students make streaks of water, methanol, and acetone on the blackboard and then observing the relative rates of evaporation.