Imagine being locked in a chemical lab with 4 "bombs" that will detonate within 60 min unless you neutralize them. You now must use your brain, chemical knowledge, intuition, and need a bit of luck to neutralize the bombs and escape unharmed... This is the concept behind "chemical escape", an activity for high-school students, which brings the extremely popular genre of "escape rooms" into the chemistry classroom; it engages students in learning, increases motivation, and bridges the gap between classroom chemistry and the real world, as well as allows for teamwork and peer learning. A mobile escape room was designed and built in Israel; it consisted of lab-based activities and was suitable for high schools. To date, the activity has been introduced to more than 350 chemistry teachers who then implemented it to over 1500 students. An evaluation questionnaire was developed on the basis of students' statements of their experience of the escape room (bottom-up); the results indicate that the students were highly engaged and motivated during the activity, and there was an appreciation for teachers' efforts to run the escape room, an increased feeling of efficacy, and effective teamwork. In this paper we provide a detailed description of all the puzzles and an explanation of how to operate it in a school lab.
Antigen monolayers assembled onto Au-electrodes or Au-electrodes
associated with quartz crystals act as
active interfaces for the amperometric or microgravimetric analysis of
the complementary antibody and provide the
grounds for the development of electrochemical and piezoelectric
immunosensors. The antigen monolayer of Nε-2,4-dinitrophenyl-l-lysine is assembled on an electrode.
The anti-dinitrophenyl antibody,
anti-DNP-Ab, is sensed
by the antigen monolayer, and the formation of the antigen−antibody
complex at the monolayer interface is probed
by the insulation of the electrode toward a redox probe in the
electrolyte solution. The formation of the antibody−antigen complex is amplified by the application of the
anti-antibody or the use of a ferrocene-functionalized
redox-enzyme, glucose oxidase, as redox probe. A 3,5-dinitrosalicylic
acid antigen monolayer bound to Au-electrodes
associated with a quartz crystal is used as active interface for the
microgravimetric, quartz-crystal-microbalance
analysis of the anti-DNP-Ab. Photoisomerizable antigen
monolayer electrodes provide the basis for tailoring
reversible
immunosensors. The dinitrospiropyran monolayer, SP-state, is
assembled on Au-electrodes or quartz crystals. The
monolayer exhibits reversible photoisomerizable features, and
irradiation of the SP-monolayer, 360 < λ < 380 nm,
yields the protonated merocyanine monolayer, MRH+-state.
Further irradiation of the MRH+-monolayer
electrode,
λ > 495 nm, restores the SP-monolayer electrode. The
SP-monolayer acts as antigen for anti-DNP-Ab, whereas
the
MRH+-monolayer lacks antigen properties for
anti-DNP-Ab. This enables the amperometric or
piezoelectric
transduction of the formation of the antigen−anti-DNP-Ab
complex at the SP-monolayer interface. By photoisomerization of the monolayer to the MRH+-state, the Ab is
washed-off from the sensing interface. Subsequent
light-induced isomerization of the monolayer to the SP-state
regenerates the electrochemically or piezoelectrically
active sensing interfaces.
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