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Conducting Polymer Gas Sensor Lab Module
Achievement/Results
A research project begun by MCTP Fellow Shabnam Virji (Prof. Kaner’s lab) to develop gas sensors using conducting polymer nanofibers became a major educational project when Prof. Sarah Tolbert suggested that this work would make an excellent addition to the MCTP training laboratory. With the help of UCLA graduate student Richard Blair, the team developed an experiment in which graduate students synthesize nanofibers of the conducting polymer polyaniline and use them to detect acids and bases. This experiment was then used in an undergraduate laboratory. With the help of MCTP Fellow Heather Shepherd (Prof. Garrell’s group) and others, the experiment was eventually made accessible to high school teachers who are trained by MCTP Fellows during 1-day workshops held at UCLA. Each teacher is given a kit containing enough materials and equipment to demonstrate this nanoscience experiment to all their high school science students. The complete experiment was published this past year in the Journal of Chemical Education with both a student?s and an instructor’s manual available via the web.
Address Goals
What began as a research project to develop a new type of gas sensor was turned into a teaching module. First introduced into our graduate MCTP training lab, the module enabled graduate students to learn techniques of conducting polymer synthesis, design of an electronic sensor and the ability to explore the response of their creation to different gases. After smoothing out the bugs the lab was then taught to undergraduates. Next kits were prepared containing already synthesized conducting polymers to enable high school teachers to bring this experiment back into their classrooms thus expanding the teaching to many hundreds and perhaps thousands of students.
