Despite the fact that chemistry research and the modern chemical enterprise is highly interdisciplinary, much of the undergraduate chemistry curriculum continues to be disciplinary-specific, which does not adequately prepare our students for the unique challenges and opportunities of a highly interdisciplinary world. To address this issue, we have developed a highly interdisciplinary laboratory experiment for the senior undergraduate students in the teaching laboratory, which includes the synthesis of cyclodextrin-containing metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), their characterization, and applications of the MOFs for environmental remediation efforts. This experiment includes synthesis, materials characterization, spectroscopic analyses, environmental chemistry, and an introduction to complex computational methods. Our implementation of this experiment over two years in the laboratory indicates that the majority of students appreciate this interdisciplinary work and expect that this experiment teaches them skills, techniques, and approaches that they expect to use in their future chemistry education and careers.<br/>

A highly interdisciplinary cyclodextrin-MOF experiment for the senior undergraduate chemistry laboratory

256th National Meeting (2018)

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