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Passion and Perspectives for Swiss Chemical Manufacturing: A Perspective on Chemistry and Society on the Occasion of the 75th Anniversary of CHIMIA
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Distance Teaching in Chemistry: Opportunities and Limitations
Get PDFRemote teaching in the tertiary education sector is a relatively common practice, and the implementation of digital solutions in chemistry teaching offers many new opportunities and tools. A survey was conducted after 3 months of emergency remote teaching linked to the COVID-19 pandemic
and showed that half of the students estimated it was difficult to study remotely, and reported they had to invest more time compared to classroom teaching, which led to a drop in motivation. Professors also noted that the time necessary to invest in order to produce digital teaching content
was enormous. Massive open online laboratories (MOOLs) and process simulators are interesting tools, but practical lab work and related know-how cannot fully be replaced by digital techniques. Finally, it appeared that the professor–student interaction is very important in the distance-learning
process, and that a high level of pedagogical (inter)activity is mandatory to maintain motivation and better quality of teaching and learning
Sulfa-drugs as Topic for Secondary School Chemistry – Effects, Side Effects and Structural Causes
Get PDFThe topic \u27Sulfa-Drugs in secondary school chemistry\u27 has been developed in cooperation of three high schools (Kantonsschulen). Three essential aspects are covered that ideally complement each other: 1. The synthesis of sulfamethoxazole – an antibiotic \u27without side effects\u27 –
as a practical course in a school laboratory; 2. An introduction to the topic \u27drug design\u27 with the question of structure, effect and side effects of sulfonamides; 3. A detailed answer to the question of how side effects can be avoided by the design of drugs using molecular modelling. Teaching
materials on all topics can be downloaded free of charge from Swisseduc. ch (see box). The article discusses various possible approaches in high school chemistry along the lines of a well-established teaching unit on sulfonamides
Evaluation of the Chemistry Knowledge of Students Entering the ETH Zurich with a Moodle Quiz
Get PDFThe basic chemistry knowledge of first-year students in the disciplines Chemistry, Biology, Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Health Sciences and Technology has been evaluated within the first three weeks of the Fall semester with a Moodle-based quiz at ETH Zurich.
It consists of 37 small problems testing the knowledge that ETH students entering the lecture courses General Chemistry 1 (Inorganic Chemistry) (AC1) and Organic Chemistry 1 (OC1) should ideally have. An initial set of questions was developed by Bernhard Jaun (ETH Zurich) in
2007, it was combined with questions from an evaluation created in 2015 by Markus Müller (secondary school II teacher). The results of a total of 925 students who took part in the 2016 and 2017 evaluations are presented. It was found that 80% of the students of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering
and Interdisciplinary Natural Sciences (AC1 course) and 70% of the students of Biology, Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Health Sciences and Technology (OC1 course) scored ?60%. Students who took the focus course (Schwerpunktfach) Biology and Chemistry at the SEK II level (Swiss
school system) performed on average 13–18% better and with a smaller standard deviation than other students. No significant differences were observed with regard to gender or the region in which the qualification for university entrance was obtained
A Personal Account on Industrial Collaborations in the Field of C–H Activation
Get PDFIn recent years, transition-metal-catalyzed C–H functionalization has emerged as a potentially greener alternative to classic cross-couplings and as a powerful tool to access complex functional molecules with improved step-economy. This short account relates our experience of industrial collaborations in C(sp3)–H bond activation, which were key to the development of this topic in our group. The synthesis of the antianginal drug Ivabradine led us to develop a general approach to benzocyclobutenes, which were further employed in pericyclic reactions. A follow-up study led us to discover a new method to construct arylcyclopropanes via double C–H activation and the coupling of two alkyl groups. Finally, targeting the herbicide Indaziflam contributed to develop C(sp3)–H activation as a powerful tool to access a variety of relevant indane motifs. We hope that these successful stories will help to stimulate further fruitful Industry-Academia collaborations in the field of synthetic chemistry
Excited-state Dynamics of Radical Ions in Liquids
Get PDFThomas Bally has acquired international recognition for his work on the photochemistry of reactive intermediates, which include radical ions. Here, we present a brief overview of our investigations of the excited-state dynamics of radical ions in liquids at room temperature, which are still poorly documented. A better understanding of these dynamics is most relevant, as open-shell ions in the excited state are being increasingly used in redox photochemistry and have been proposed to play a key role in highly exergonic photoinduced electron transfer reactions.
 
Insights from Operando and Identical Location (IL) Techniques on the Activation of Electrocatalysts for the Conversion of CO₂: A Mini-Review
Get PDFIn this mini-review we compare two prototypical metal foam electrocatalysts applied to the transformation of CO2 into value-added products (e.g. alcohols on Cu foams, formate on Bi foams). A substantial improvement in the catalyst performance is typically achieved through thermal annealing in air of the as-deposited foam materials, followed by the electro-reduction of the pre-formed oxidic precursors prior or during the actual CO2 electrolysis. Utilizing highly insightful and sensitive complementary operando analytical techniques (XAS, XRD, and Raman spectroscopy) we demonstrate that this catalyst pre-activation process is entirely accomplished in case of the oxidized Cu foams prior to the formation of hydrocarbons and alcohols from the CO2. The actually active catalyst is therefore the metallic Cu derived from the precursor by means of its oxide electroreduction. Conversely, in their oxidic form, the Cu-based foam catalysts are completely inactive towards the CO2 reduction reaction (denoted ec-CO2RR). Oxidized Bi foams can be regarded as an excellent counter example to the above-mentioned Cu case as both metallic and the thermally derived oxidic Bi foams are highly active towards ec-CO2RR (formate production). Indeed, operando Raman spectroscopy reveals that CO2 electrolysis occurs upon its embedment into the oxidic Bi2O3 foam precursor, which itself undergoes partial transformation into an active sub-carbonate phase. The potential-dependent transition of sub-carbonate/oxides into the corresponding metallic Bi foam dictates the characteristic changes of the ec-CO2RR pathway. Identical location (IL) microscopic inspection of the catalyst materials, e.g. by means of scanning electron microscopy, demonstrates substantial morphological alterations on the nm length scale on the material surface as consequence of the sub-carbonate formation and the potential-driven oxide reduction into the metallic Bi foam. The foam morphology on a mesoscopic length scale (macroporosity) remains, by contrast, fully unaffected by these phase transitions
Our Exciting Journey to ACT-451840
Get PDFWe describe our work resulting in the selection of ACT-451840 (38) as a novel antimalarial drug with a novel mode of action. The compound was broadly characterized in vitro as well as in vivo in rat PK experiments as well as two different mouse malaria models. In the P.berghei infected mouse model cure could be achieved at oral doses of 300 mg / kg over 3 consecutive days. ACT-451840 was clinically investigated up to an experimental human malaria infection model, where therapeutic effects could be shown