Advances in Teaching Physical Chemistry - American Chemical Society

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Chapter 4

Integrating Research and Education to Create a Dynamic Physical Chemistry Curriculum 1,2

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Arthur B. Ellis 1

Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin at Madison, 1101 University Avenue, Madison, WI 53706 The author is on detail to the National Science Foundation from the University of Wisconsin at Madison through June 2006 2

The physical chemistry curriculum can be continuously updated by incorporating results from cutting-edge research and technology into undergraduate classrooms and laboratories. Strategies that facilitate this integration of research and education are discussed and illustrated using examples drawn from nanoscale science and engineering. National Science Foundation programs that support such efforts are described.

A general objective for our educational enterprise should be to imbue it with the same vitality that we take for granted in our research enterprise. This can be accomplished by continuously taking the fruits of research and technology and moving them into the curriculum. As a foundation course for preparing the future technical workforce in the chemical sciences, physical chemistry is well positioned to provide leadership for creating such a dynamic coupling of research and education. The emerging multidisciplinary field of nanoscale science and engineering provides a compelling platform for developing new paradigms for a dynamic physical chemistry curriculum. The National Nanotechnology Initiative was launched in 2000 by President Clinton and followed in 2003 by the 21 Century Nanotechnology R & D Act that was signed into law by President Bush (/). Our planned federal investment of approximately four billion dollars over a four-year period is not unique. Similar st

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© 2008 American Chemical Society In Advances in Teaching Physical Chemistry; Ellison, M., et al.; ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2007.

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41 investments are being made worldwide and reflect a global awareness that nanotechnology holds tremendous promise as the basis for future technological developments. Much of the excitement over nanotechnology lies in the new science that is being discovered and the new tools that allow us to manipulate matter at the nanoscale, including individual atoms. A website has been established through a National Science Foundation-supported Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to help move these ideas into educational and outreach venues (2). A video laboratory manual is available on the website that provides step-by-step instructions in the form of videoclips. In the nanoscale regime, the role of defects becomes more pronounced, quantum effects can dominate systems, and transitions to bulk and ensembleaveraged properties can be investigated. These represent important concepts that can readily be incorporated into the physical chemistry curriculum. For example, nanoscale samples of gold represent a multitude of new allotropes of this element. A simple synthesis of gold nanoparticles is available for use as a physical chemistry laboratory experiment and illustrates the striking change in color for this element when only nanoscale clusters of gold atoms are present (J). Once prepared, these samples can be used to explore optical polarization effects. It is noteworthy that there are substantial synthetic challenges: given that the properties of gold nanoparticles depend markedly on their size and shape, we do not know yet how to create gold nanoparticles of arbitrary dimensions in high yield. More research is needed and these experiments might be extended to explore synthesis-structure-property relationships. Similar educational opportunities abound for carbon. The diamond and graphite allotropes of carbon have been mainstays of chemistry classes for generations of students and provide a contrast between a three-dimensional structure of great hardness and a two-dimensional structure with lubricant properties, respectively. We now have what can be regarded as zero- and onedimensional counterparts - buckyballs and carbon nanotubes, respectively - with their rich diversity of structural relatives and physicochemical properties (4). These materials are being employed in a variety of nanoscale devices because of their unusual chemical, mechanical and electrical properties. Interesting physicochemical properties of nanoscale materials are not restricted to chemical elements. It is easy to prepare nanoparticles of magnetite by combining ferrous and ferric chloride, ammonia, and water (5). Addition of a surfactant produces the visually striking ferrofluid: a magnet placed beneath a puddle of ferrofluid produces remarkable spikes. Technological applications of ferrofluids include making seals for high-speed computer disc drives. Quantum dots of CdSe can also be prepared in a physical chemistry laboratory (6). These dots emit colors across the visible spectrum based on their size and provide an engaging introduction to both nanobiotechnology and to the "particle in a box," a staple of the physical chemistry curriculum.

In Advances in Teaching Physical Chemistry; Ellison, M., et al.; ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2007.

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42 Light emitting diodes (LEDs) provide extant commercial examples of nanotechnology that can be introduced into the physical chemistry curriculum. LEDs are revolutionizing lighting and display technologies (7). The semiconductors comprising these devices can be grown virtually an atomic layer at a time to create particle-in-a-box quantum structures that produce light at high efficiency at wavelengths determined by the dimensions of the box. Another means for controlling the color of the light is to prepare solid solutions using the periodic table as a design tool. Tools that are emblematic of nanotechnology are the scanning probe microscopes (8). Their ability to image individual atoms and to position them has opened entirely new vistas in nanoscale science and engineering. Use of scanning probe microscopes to create nanoscale architecture like the "quantum corral" has directly revealed the wavelike behavior of matter at this scale (9). Many of these images are so striking that they provide "teachable moments," prompting students to ask how such an image could have been constructed. Important objectives of the National Science Foundation (NSF) are to promote the integration of research and education and to help prepare the future technical workforce. Nanotechnology has the potential to attract a diverse, talented group of students to technical careers in much the way that space exploration inspired students of an earlier generation to become scientists and engineers. The foundation has supported the movement of nanoscale science and engineering into the curriculum through awards made under its Nanoscale Science and Engineering Education (NSEE) initiative. Through the Nanotechnology in Undergraduate Education (NUE) program, which is part of the N S E E inititiave, NSF has supported the development of college courses in nanotechnology, new examples of nanotechnology that can be used in existing courses, acquisition of instrumentation and development of software for undergraduate exposure to nanotechnology. A complete listing of N U E awards for fiscal years 2003 through 2005 is available on the NSF website (10). One of the N U E awards has been to the A C S Exams Institute to support the development of standardized test questions that instructors can use i f they include nanotechnology in their college courses. Nanotechnology is a rapidly moving field. In thinking about how to couple the research and education enterprises more dynamically, one possible mechanism is graduate education. Some chemistry graduate students are writing papers and thesis chapters that describe new curricular materials based on current research. One graduate student, for example, who had published several original research papers on nanowires, developed a college laboratory experiment for growing nickel nanowires using inexpensive materials, assisted by an undergraduate. She published this work in the Journal of Chemical Education and included it in her thesis as one of the chapters (11, 12). This model could be generalized to allow many more interested students to participate in the creation of instructional materials based on their research interests.

In Advances in Teaching Physical Chemistry; Ellison, M., et al.; ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2007.

43 Ultimately, the integration of research and education is a community responsibility that can benefit from broad participation of faculty and co-workers at a variety of stages of professional development. With its broad and fundamental sweep, physical chemistry is an excellent platform for such an effort. The inclusion of examples from other disciplines and multidisciplinary fields like nanotechnology can enrich the physical chemistry curriculum and keep it perennially fresh and exciting for both instructors and students.

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Acknowledgments This material is based upon work by Arthur B . Ellis, conducted while serving at the National Science Foundation and supported by the National Science Foundation. Any opinion, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. Funding for the development of instructional materials that involved the author's participation was provided by the National Science Foundation through a Materials Research Science and Engineering Center on Nanostructured Materials and Interfaces (DMR-0079983).

References 1.

General information about the National Nanotechnology Initiative is available on the web at U R L http://www.nano.gov . 2. Educational resources for nanotechnology are available on the web at U R L http://www.mrsec.wisc.edu/nano. 3. U R L http://mrsec.wisc.edu/Edetc/nanolab/gold/index.html . 4. U R L http://mrsec.wisc.edu/Edetc/cineplex/nanotube/index.html . 5. U R L http://mrsec.wisc.edu/Edetc/nanolab/ffexp/index.html . 6. U R L http://mrsec.wisc.edu/Edetc/nanolab/CdSe/index.html . 7. Condren, S.M.; Lisensky, G.C.; Ellis, A . B . ; Nordell, K . J . ; Kuech, T.F.; Stockman, S. J. Chem. Ed. 2001, 78, 1033-1040. 8. Ellis, A . B . ; Geselbracht, M . J . ; Johnson, B.J.; Lisensky, G.C.; Robinson, W.R. Teaching General Chemistry. A Materials Science Companion; American Chemical Society: Washington, D.C., 1993; pp. 15-23. 9. U R L http://www.almaden.ibm.com/vis/stm/corral.html . 10. U R L www.nsf.gov and enter N U E into the search engine. 11. Bentley, A . K . ; Farhoud, M .; Ellis, A . B . ; Lisensky, G.C.; Nickel, A - M . L . ; Crone, W.C. J. Chem. Ed. 2005, 82, 765-768. 12. Bentley, A . K . Ph.D. thesis, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, 2005.

In Advances in Teaching Physical Chemistry; Ellison, M., et al.; ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2007.