Sol–Gel Synthesis of a Biotemplated Inorganic Photocatalyst: A Simple Experiment for Introducing Undergraduate Students to Materials Chemistry

Abstract

As part of a laboratory course, undergraduate students were asked to use baker's yeast cells as biotemplate in preparing TiO 2 powders and to test the photocatalytic activity of the resulting materials. This laboratory experience, selected because of the important environmental implications of soft chemistry and photocatalysis, provides an opportunity to teach valuable laboratory skills and to introduce students to the synthesis, isolation, and characterization of inorganic materials. This laboratory activity is adaptable to a range of educational levels and to various instrumental techniques.

Promoting Systems Thinking Using Project- and Problem-Based Learning

“…PBL has been used in biochemistry classes , to link metabolic pathways to inherited diseases and to link food chemistry to chemical reactions. Sol–gel chemistry has been used to prepare inorganic materials templated on biological templates showing students the interlink between chemistry and biology…”

Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production over CdS Nanomaterials: An Interdisciplinary Experiment for Introducing Undergraduate Students to Photocatalysis and Analytical Chemistry

“…9, 18 Boffa et al prepared sol−gel-derived TiO 2 powders for the photodegradation of toluidine blue in solution using UV−vis light, thus effectively introducing undergraduate students to materials chemistry. 15 Pitcher et al described a simple demonstration of photocatalysis using the photodegradation of 2,6-dicholorophenolindophenol sodium salt (DCIP) over the commercially available TiO 2 . 16 Stefanov et al developed a relatively cheap and readily available 3D-printed gas-phase photocatalytic equipment for online monitoring of air-pollutant photodegradation, demonstrating the advanced scientific topics for chemical-engineering students.…”

“…The concept and study of photocatalysis have also received increasing emphasis in undergraduate chemistry courses recently. Many teaching experiments and reactors about heterogeneous photocatalytic degradation and oxidation of pollutants have been reported, which help students to understand the basic chemistry, concepts, and extensive applications of semiconductors and photocatalysis. − For instance, Tatarko et al and Chen et al designed a cheap photocatalytic reactor and a simple parallel photochemical reactor for the remediation of the azo dye Congo Red and methylene blue in water for undergraduate students, respectively. , Boffa et al prepared sol–gel-derived TiO 2 powders for the photodegradation of toluidine blue in solution using UV–vis light, thus effectively introducing undergraduate students to materials chemistry . Pitcher et al described a simple demonstration of photocatalysis using the photodegradation of 2,6-dicholorophenolindophenol sodium salt (DCIP) over the commercially available TiO 2 .…”

A Multiweek Upper-Division Inorganic Laboratory Based on Metallacrowns

“…To achieve this goal, students are required to synthesize a metallacrown, conduct a literature search, develop characterization parameters based on departmental resources, interpret experimental results and compare them to the primary literature, analyze the crystallographic structures of the compounds, and finally present an oral seminar detailing their results and analysis. Student inorganic synthetic lab experiments have been reported, − but to the best of our knowledge, this is the first report utilizing metallacrowns for an undergraduate experiment.…”