Monitoring Ion Exchange Chromatography with Affordable Flame Emission Spectroscopy

Highlighting the interdisciplinary nature of research, we present a series of experiments for undergraduate lab courses that teach the principles of preparative ion exchange chromatography and flame emission spectroscopy. Through these inquiry-based experiments, the students learn about experimental...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of chemical education 2022-12, Vol.99 (12), p.4051-4056
Main Authors: Thurston, Jonathan R., Marshak, Michael P., Reber, David
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alkali metals
Analytical chemistry
Chemistry
Chromatography
Design of experiments
Education & Educational Research
Electrolytes
Emission analysis
Emission spectroscopy
Energy research
Experimental design
Higher education
Ion chromatography
Ion exchange
Materials science
Metal concentrations
Physical chemistry
Principles
Rechargeable batteries
Research design
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Highlighting the interdisciplinary nature of research, we present a series of experiments for undergraduate lab courses that teach the principles of preparative ion exchange chromatography and flame emission spectroscopy. Through these inquiry-based experiments, the students learn about experimental design and instrument limitations, naturally connecting general chemistry principles with analytical and physical chemistry and materials science. The goal is to devise experimental parameters that allow quantitative ion exchange on a small scale, and to monitor the exchange with optical spectroscopy. The small-footprint, inexpensive flame emission spectroscopy setup we developed can be used to accurately determine relative concentrations of alkali metal ions in a sample, while also being suitable for simpler experiments, which allow it to be employed in a variety of classes. In a demonstration for energy research, we then perform the presented experiments on redox flow battery electrolytes to investigate the influence of the cation choice on battery performance.
ISSN:0021-9584
1938-1328
DOI:10.1021/acs.jchemed.2c00455