The use of tetrafluoroethylene (TFE) in academic institutions beyond a few millimoles has often been inhibited by the compound's inherent danger and general lack of commercial availability. On the other hand, TFE is prepared industrially on a rather large scale by a number of major fluorochemical companies via the pyrolysis of chlorodifluoromethane at high temperatures, yielding TFE and HCl. For a few years at The University of Alabama and Clemson University, we have been preparing TFE on a 100 +-gram scale by the pyrolysis under dynamic vacuum of pentafluoropropionate salts, which can be obtained from the neutralization of pentafluoropropionic acid with a M(OH) n (where M = Li, Na, K, and Cs for n = 1 and Mg, Ca, and Ba for n = 2). Additionally, potassium pentafluoropropionate can be prepared from the reaction of potassium trimethylsilanolate and ethyl pentafluoropropionate. The pentafluoropropionate salts and their

No abstract

We devised a half-day laboratory exercise for a group of 10th grade homeschooled students enrolled in an honors-level high school general chemistry course organized by a collective of homeschooling families associated with local Christian churches. Anecdotal evidence suggested that the students met the learning objectives of the exercise. The influence of the exercise on the students' perception of laboratory experimentation was assessed quantitatively by means of a brief pre-and postencounter Likert-scale survey.

No abstract