Natural User Interfaces (NUI) are now widely used in electronic devices such as smartphones, tablets and gaming consoles. We have tried to apply this technology in the teaching of chemistry in middle school and high school. A virtual chemical laboratory was developed in which students can simulate the performance of laboratory activities similar to those that they perform in a real laboratory. Kinect sensor was used for the detection and analysis of the student's hand movements, which is an example of NUI. The studies conducted found the effectiveness of educational virtual laboratory. The extent to which the use of a teaching aid increased the students' progress in learning chemistry was examined.The results indicate that the use of NUI creates opportunities to both enhance and improve the quality of the chemistry education. Working in a virtual laboratory using the Kinect interface results in greater emotional involvement and an increased sense of self-efficacy in the laboratory work among students. As a consequence, students are getting higher marks and are more interested in the subject of chemistry.

The rapid development of information and communication technologies has enabled the development of interfaces, which allow the recognition of the gestures and movements of the user. These interfaces, due to their affordable prices, are available to a wide range of users. They are called natural user interfaces (NUI). NUI are commonly used in game consoles and electronic devices, such as smartphones and tablets. We used the Kinect sensor from Microsoft in our studies to identify the movements and gestures of the user. This interface was used by us in teaching Chemistry in a Middle School and High School by developing a virtual chemical laboratory, which is based on a system of hand movements. We have analyzed the gestures and movements of the virtual chemical laboratory user to determine how they raise the effectiveness in chemical education. The results show how much better students work with a virtual laboratory, when studied by us in chemical areas, that concerned remembering information, understanding information, applying their experience in situations familiar to them from school and in solving chemical problems.

The aim of this paper is the presentation of the current state-of-the-art about the determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and their oxidized forms originating from Suspended Particulate Matter (SPM) samples. The influence of SPM on health is twofold. SPM, as composed of small particles, is dangerous for the respiratory system. Additionally, SPM is a carrier of many hazardous compounds, particularly PAHs. Recently, several researches focus on the derivatives of PAHs, particularly nitro-, oxy- and hydroxy-PAHs, which are more dangerous than the parent PAHs. Both gas and high-performance liquid chromatography with various detection techniques are used to analyze both PAHs and their oxidized forms. Due to the appearance of these compounds in the environment, at a very low level, an analyte concentration step has to be applied prior to analysis. If GC and HPLC techniques are chiefly used as analytical tools for these analyses, the spectrum of analyte concentration procedures is very broad. Many analyte concentration techniques are proposed: from classic liquid-solid extractions, including Soxhlet technique, pressurized liquid extraction (ASE) or microwave oven (MWE) and sonic supported extraction to SPE techniques applications. However, one should remember that PAH determination methods are tools for solving the main problem, i.e., the evaluation the health hazard connected to the presence of SPM in air. Thus, the main drawback of several papers found in this review, i.e., the lack of information concerning limit of detection (LOD) of these methods makes their applicability very limited.

This paper deals with the adsorption of heavy metal ions (Cu2+ and Zn2+) on the carbonaceous materials obtained by chemical activation and ammoxidation of Polish brown coal. The effects of phase contact time, initial metal ion concentration, solution pH, and temperature, as well as the presence of competitive ions in solution, on the adsorption capacity of activated carbons were examined. It has been shown that the sample modified by introduction of nitrogen functional groups into carbon structure exhibits a greater ability to uptake heavy metals than unmodified activated carbon. It has also been found that the adsorption capacity increases with the increasing initial concentration of the solution and the phase contact time. The maximum adsorption was found at pH = 8.0 for Cu(II) and pH = 6.0 for Zn(II). For all samples, better fit to the experimental data was obtained with a Langmuir isotherm than a Freundlich one. A better fit of the kinetic data was achieved using the pseudo-second order model.

The waste materials left after supercritical extraction of hop cones and marigold flowers were tested as precursors of activated bio-carbons. Adsorbents were produced by means of the physical (also called thermal) activation method using CO2 as the gasifying agent. All the activated bio-carbons were tested for the removal of NO2 and H2S from the gas phase under dry and wet conditions. The effects of the type of precursor and the activation procedure on the porous structure development, the acid-base properties of the surface, as well as the sorption capacities of the materials produced were also checked. The final products were bio-carbons of medium developed surface area with a basic surface nature, characterized by their high effectiveness in removal of gas pollutants of acidic character, especially nitrogen dioxide (sorption capacities in the range from 12.5 to 102.6 mg/g). It was proved that the toxic gas removal efficiency depends considerably on the sorption conditions and the activation procedure. All materials showed greater effectiveness in gas removal when the process of adsorption was carried out in the presence of steam.