Developing Smartphone Methods for Chemical Kinetics Experiments
Experiments measuring the rates of chemical reactions (chemical kinetics) offer excellent opportunities for students to acquire, analyze, and interpret quantitative data. Unfortunately, such experiments usually require expensive equipment such as spectrophotometers, which puts them out of reach for most high school students. In this project, the student researcher will develop methods for acquiring kinetics data using the ubiquitous smartphone cameras, and will develop sample experiments that can be used by beginning chemistry students.
The research in the group centers around the study of chemical reaction mechanisms, a key component of which relies on kinetic measurements. Beginning students often can only get a very limited experience of such studies because of the need for expensive instrumentation, but cell phone cameras are both very powerful and widely available. Being able to use them for scientific measurements would be a real contribution to making scientific measurements accessible to a wide audience.