I'm here to show you a unique and innovative tool to help you teach
your students electrochemistry.
I know, electrochemistry is often a cringeworthy topic for students
and teachers alike.
But it is all around us.
From the control circuitry in our bodies to the rechargeable batteries in our
mobile devices, energy storage, solar cells, even blood glucose analyzers
for monitoring diabetes all involve some underlying electrochemistry.
But even on a more basic level, we, as chemistry educators want to arm our
students with all of the tools available at their disposal to measure chemical
reactions including those as fundamental as electron transfer reactions.
Cyclic voltammetry is a powerful and popular technique for measuring oxidation
and reduction reactions of molecular species.
And CV is great at measuring electron transfer initiated reactions like those
involved in catalysis.
Yes, your lemon battery connected to a voltage and current probe will give you
an instantaneous measure of that redox system.
However, it cannot drive the reaction away from equilibrium
like cyclic voltammetry can.
Driving the reaction away from equilibrium allows students to take control of the
reaction and determine how fast the reaction occurs by adjusting the current,
or to what extent the reaction occurs by adjusting the voltage.
These pivotal controls allow students to further engage with the electrochemical
reaction, and actually work towards understanding what is going on.
So with these powerful techniques available at our disposal,
why is it that most students only experience with electrochemistry is
balancing redox reactions?
Why do we seldom get hands-on experience with it?
One reason could be because electrochemical instrumentation,
historically, has been very difficult to use and completely neglected practical
applications for undergraduate students.
Well, the Go Direct Cyclic Voltammetry System has solved all of those issues.
It is a simple design, includes free experiments,
and free software.
It was developed in collaboration with Pine Research and is a great tool to teach
electrochemical techniques such as cyclic voltammetry, bulk electrolysis,
and open circuit potentiometry.
Let me show you just how simple it is to use.
This is your Go Direct Cyclic Voltammetry System.
It uses basic scintillation vials to hold your solution, and uses disposable
screen-printed electrodes as your three-electrode cell.
These include a working electrode, reference electrode,
and a counter electrode.
You simply insert one of these electrodes into the CV system, and add it to your
solution, and put it into the stand.
It connects via Bluetooth or USB to your mobile device, computer, or a Chromebook.
All you need is the free instrumental analysis software.
I'm going to go ahead and take a voltammogram right now just
to show you how easy it is.
These current potential curves are the electrochemical equivalent
of an absorbance wavelength measurement from a spectrophotometric dataset.
And just like spectra, these voltammograms have the
potential to yield quantitative, qualitative, thermodynamic,
and kinetic data about your electrochemical system.
To help you more easily incorporate electrochemistry and the cyclic
voltammetry system into your course, we have developed five free labs that
include easy to acquire chemicals and topics that are appropriate
for undergraduate students such as determining the amount of
acetaminophen in a commercial sample, exploring Faraday's Law
through electrolysis, and the ever loved
reduction of ferrocyanide.
With electrochemistry becoming increasingly important in today's
modern world, it's more important than ever to teach our students these topics.
And the Go Direct Cyclic Voltammetry System, with everything that is included,
will help you do that with minimal investment in time and money.
For more information, go to our website or email chemistry@vernier.com.