• Question: What was the latest chemistry experiment you did with the undergraduates?

    Asked by SJ to Jess on 4 Mar 2016.
    • Photo: Jessica Groppi

      Jessica Groppi answered on 4 Mar 2016:

      Hi SJ,

      thanks for your question!

      During the last chemistry experiment, the students were given a mixture of two unknown compounds and they had to separate them according to the solubility in different solvents. When they obtained the pure compounds, they had to find out the structure of the molecules that composed them by doing a lot of chemical tests and measurements with instruments.

      I think it was one of the most difficult (and long) experiments for them, but it was also interesting and it’s a very important skill for a chemist to know how to understand what’s in a random sample.

      Jess.

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