Evolution of Tools in Undergraduate Electrochemistry Education - The Power of the Spreadsheet

Abstract

Understanding of at least the rudiments of electrochemistry is a critical component in undergraduate education in chemistry and engineering. Yet, the curriculum often impresses that the most critical component is to differential the anode from the cathode, the oxidation from the reduction.Even in upper level undergraduate and introductory graduate level classes, the students are not provided tools that allow them to pose and to think about electrochemistry questions. Typical electrochemistry curriculum relies on strong algebra skills and being able to remember OIL RIG and Red Cat. This does not capitalize on the contemporary student’s most common skills: facile web searching and spreadsheet manipulation.To provide students with perhaps more effective tools to apprehend electrochemical concepts, spreadsheets and Wolfram widgets replaced the traditional algebraically intense curriculum. Analytical Chemistry I is a lecture course on equilibrium and electrochemistry taught to 50 to 70 upper level undergraduate chemistry and engineering majors at the University of Iowa. Heavy reliance on spreadsheet tools first displaced the intensely algebraic curriculum in Fall 2020.Students undertook development of eight spreadsheets: fractional concentration plots and titrations for acid/bases and redox, potential axes, activity calculations, and voltammetry under Nernstian conditions by steady state rotating disk, potential step to an arbitrary potential, linear sweep, cyclic voltammetry. Systematic treatment of equilibria and explicit finite difference equations underlay the spreadsheets. Students developed each first new spreadsheet directed with written instruction and video. Students then used the spreadsheets to complete homework assignments and two exams. There was no final, but there was a final project where the students used the spreadsheet tools to evaluate a question of their own choosing. The final written report included implementation of their spreadsheets. Projects typically included equilibria and redox species. Final projects covered a range of subjects. I learned the difference in milk and dark chocolate, how catfish find lunch, why ramen noodles cook quickly, how novocaine works, the nuances of polydentate ligands on metals in CO2 reduction, and how hemoglobin carries O2 and CO2. Some wrote murder mysteries or next year’s final. The spreadsheet materials gave the students new skills and tools in understanding electrochemistry.In this presentation, several of the spreadsheets will illustrate how students developed and used the spreadsheet tools to tackle modeling complex electrochemical systems. A cyclic voltammetry spreadsheet is shown for Nernstian kinetics. Figure 1