This article describes a laboratory activity appropriate for the college freshman studying general chemistry and general physics concurrently. The activity described is intended to unify for the student the topics of IR spectroscopy and Hooke's Law. This is accomplished by first working with springs and masses and then by acquiring and comparing the IR spectra of chloroform and chloroform-d. Using the IR bands assigned to C-H and C-D stretching, students are requried to calculate periods of oscillation and bond force constants. The activity is intended to help students make the connection between physics and chemistry.
More Information
Citation
Burke, Jeffrey T. J. Chem. Educ.1997 74 1213.
Keywords
Instrumental Methods, IR Spectroscopy, Laboratory Instruction, and Molecular Modeling/Dynamics
Our Secondary School editors work hard to distill all the JCE materials to produce a fraction of particular interest to high school teachers. We call it CLIC.
In recent years we have worked hard to better match our advertisers with our readers. When shopping for chemistry education materials, visit our advertisers' WWW sites first.
Take JCE along on your outreach missions. Copies of the Journal, guest access to JCE Online, our publications catalog, and more are available for your participants.