Web-based flow chemistry experiment

01 June 2013 - Teaching

Here is a novel idea. Researchers from the Free University Amsterdam are running a website that allows students to remotely conduct an organic synthesis experiment (DOI). The experiment is based on flow chemistry in a microreactor. The reaction itself is an azo coupling of sulfanilic acid with dimethylaniline to form methyl orange.
Through a web interface the students can fiddle with temperatures and flow rates of the reagents through a labview platform and hit the start button. In the remote lab product leaving the reactor is monitored via UV-VIS. The microreactor setup limits the explosion risk and we are assured the application on a whole is idiot proof. Main objective for the students: optimise the reaction yield.

So if you are a middle school chemistry teacher and you are lacking laboratory resources or you simply do not trust your students with chemicals here is the website!