Abstract
Nanoscience and technology research offer exciting avenues to modernize undergraduate-level General Chemistry curricula. In particular, spherical nucleic acid (SNA) nanoconjugates, which behave as "programmable atom equivalents"(PAEs) in the context of colloidal crystals, are one system that one can use to reinforce foundational concepts in chemistry including matter and atoms, the Periodic Table, Lewis dot structures and the octet rule, valency and valence-shell electron-pair repulsion (VSEPR) theory, and Pauling's rules, ultimately leading to enriching discussions centered on materials chemistry and biochemistry with key implications in medicine, optics, catalysis, and other areas. These lessons connect historical and modern concepts in chemistry, relate course content to current professional and popular science topics, inspire critical and creative thinking, and spur some students to continue their science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and attain careers in STEM fields. Ultimately, and perhaps most importantly, these lessons may expand the pool of young students interested in chemistry by making connections to a broader group of contemporary concepts and technologies that impact their lives and enhance their view of the field. Herein, a way of teaching aspects of General Chemistry in the context of modern nanoscience concepts is introduced to instructors and curricula developers at research institutions, primarily undergraduate institutions, and community colleges worldwide.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 3090-3099 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | Journal of Chemical Education |
| Volume | 98 |
| Issue number | 10 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Oct 12 2021 |
Funding
We thank Dr. Jingshan Du, Dr. Sasha B. Ebrahimi, Prof. W. Paige Hall, Prof. Haixin Lin, Prof. Paul S. Weiss, Prof. Julia Wiester, and Wenjie Zhou for their feedback regarding this manuscript. We thank Wenjie Zhou for help with the figures. We acknowledge the NUChem Videos team (Max Distler, Felicia Ko, and Hasan Munshi) for helping produce and develop the featured video. We also thank the teaching assistants that have worked with Prof. Mirkin, especially Dr. Matthew N. O’Brien. R.J.D. appreciates the financial support of the Ryan Fellowship. This material is based upon work supported by the following awards: National Science Foundation grants CHE-1709888, DBI-2032180, DMR-2104353; Air Force Office of Scientific Research awards FA9550-17-1-0348, FA9550-16-1-0150, and FA9550-18-1-0493; and Air Force Research Laboratory agreement FA8650-15-2-5518. The U.S. Government is authorized to reproduce and distribute reprints for Governmental purposes notwithstanding any copyright notation thereon. The views and conclusions contained herein are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies or endorsements, either expressed or implied, of Air Force Research Laboratory or the U.S. Government. Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health awards U54CA199091, R01CA208783, and P50CA221747. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. This material is also based upon work supported by the Polsky Urologic Cancer Institute of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Sherman Fairchild Foundation, Inc., Toyota Research Institute, Inc., Edward Bachrach, and Kairos Ventures. This work was supported as part of the Center for Bio-Inspired Energy Science, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences award DE-SC0000989.
Keywords
- Analogies/Transfer
- Colloids
- First-Year Undergraduate/General
- Inorganic Chemistry
- Materials Science
- Nanotechnology
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Education
- General Chemistry