chemed 2013 diy chemistry

There is just so much in this Prezi. Cool chemistry abounds.

Heck, I'm willing to set aside my utter and total distaste for Prezis. It's that cool.

Let's start with the key chains. Cutting of the top off of the 2L bottles seems easy enough. Then there's heating and reshaping the bottle tops with - I assume - boiling water and pliers.It seems a lot like the toothbrush bracelet project over on the MatSciWit blog. Could be fun to play around with.

Next up is the amateur inflation of preforms. I've done that using a process developed by Summit Country Day's Ed Escudaro. It takes a 2L cap fitted with a bicycle tire valve stem, a tire pump, and a source of heat. Ed's method uses an MRE heater wrapped around the preform and held in place with rubber bands.

Carving a can s pretty straight forward. I think they're using acid to get rid of the exposed aluminum. That's not too far removed from something we do in the material science course.

The hydrophobic toys are really cool. That looks like something we could certainly make in the classroom. The use of soot as a hydrophobic coating is fascinating, and I love the idea of using it to guide the water drop along.

The PET bottle molecules, though, is the project that I desperately want to try. Those huge molecular models look outstanding, and I'm thinking that the project doesn't look all that difficult to make. Yes, getting the angles correct is going to be a little tough as is getting my hands on a pop rivet tool, but I'm guessing both of those are achievable hurdles.

I just wish each project came with a little more explanation of what's going on. There is an associated pdf, but not nearly everything is on there, and I can find a video of him performing the bottle top/keychain experiment.