My Notes
Categories
This is a flipped classroom activity that is intended for use in a college-level first semester/first quarter general chemistry course, and aims to provide a real-world context for thermochemistry concepts by focusing on the problem of producing hydrogen fuel in a sustainable manner. Current industrial production of hydrogen relies on extracting hydrogen from hydrocarbon molecules. Producing hydrogen in this manner brings about the obvious problem of relying of fossil fuels for a “sustainable” fuel. In this activity students will become familiar with the advantages and disadvantages of using water as a source for hydrogen, learn how steam reforming of ethanol is being used as a hydrogen source, and will use enthalpy calculations to compare the thermochemical properties of these different reactions.
Acknowledgement: This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1504989. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
a) using standard heats of formation to calculate the enthalpy for reactions;
b) comparing the enthalpies of different reactions and evaluating which reactions are more spontaneous from a thermochemical standpoint;
c) evaluate different reactions used to produce hydrogen fuel for use in fuel cell vehicles based on the enthalpy of the reactions;
d) gaining appreciation for research that aims to develop methods of producing sustainable fuel sources and why researchers and/or policy makers would be interested in developing sustainable fuel sources.
Suggested technology:
1) online test/quiz function in course management system
2) in-class response system (clickers)
See attached instructor notes.
Evaluation
2) Performance on the in-class activity (clicker scores or hand-graded worksheet)