A tool for rethinking undergraduate organic chemistry laboratory curriculum

The “Wisconside Photoreactor Platform” 3-D printed device provides a way for undergraduate students to replicate photocatalyst chemical reactions in a lab environment.

A new manuscript from collaborators in the UW–Madison Department of Chemistry represents a very significant contribution to the undergraduate organic chemistry laboratory curriculum. A reviewer characterized this as “one of the highest quality manuscripts that I have reviewed in the past decade” and along with being published in the Journal of Chemical Education, this paper was selected to be featured as an ACS Editors’ Choice.

Authors with passion and expertise for education and research

The stars of this story are the first and last authors. Philip Lampkin is a PhD student in the Gellman group, and he collaborated closely with Dr. Nick Hill, who is the Director of our Undergraduate Organic Chemistry Laboratory Program. Hill’s efforts have enhanced the education of thousands of UW-Madison undergraduates over many years. Lampkin excels both in experimental research and as an educator (he recently won a Campus-Wide TA Award). The second author, Angie Xu, was an undergraduate who played a major role in this effort. (Xu joined Teach for America after her graduation from UW-Madison.)

The study of light as a method for inducing chemical reactions

Organic chemists have studied the ability of light to induce reactions for over a century, but this field has been expanded dramatically in the past 15-20 years through the use of photocatalytic strategies. (UW professor Tehshik Yoon has played a pioneering role in this field.) The JCE paper shows how modern photochemical methods and concepts can be incorporated into the undergraduate laboratory. This contribution should be very impactful in terms of pedagogy because enormous numbers of undergraduates take an organic chemistry laboratory course in the US each year.

The challenges to learning (and teaching) about light as a catalyst

The paper has its roots in the frustrations Lampkin felt during the general prohibition of laboratory work at the start of the pandemic. Lampkin’s pursuit of photocatalysis research led him to recognize that reproducibility in this field can be problematic because equipment is not standardized. He bought a 3D printer and began working at home to develop what became the Wisconsin Protoreactor Platform (WPP), a versatile open-source resource that has been adopted in many academic and industrial laboratories.

Expanding a resource for broader application

The publication introducing the WPP caused Hill to initiate a collaboration to harness Lampkin’s innovation for undergraduate education. The resulting contribution illustrates a synergy between cutting-edge academic research, as pursued by doctoral students, and undergraduate education efforts led by committed colleagues such as Hill. This synergy is uniquely possible at a large university with strengths in both domains, such as UW-Madison.

Details about this study:

“Energy Transfer Photocatalytic (E)–>(Z) Isomerization of 2-Nitrocinnamaldehyde Using an Inexpensive, 3-D Printed Photoreactor Monitored by 1H NMR Spectroscopy and Computational Modeling”