INNOVATIVE CHEMISTRY EDUCATION AND RESEARCH

Chemistry teaching and chemistry research are usually written about separately. This volume puts them side by side, on the argument that the same habits — careful synthesis, honest characterisation, and attention to what a material costs the world around it — belong in the teaching laboratory and the research group alike. Twelve units gather original work and review across four areas. Materials for energy-efficient building make up the largest group: sunlight scattering in porous PVDF-HFP films for passive radiative cooling, and cobalt-, nickel- and calcium carbonate-modified wall care putty composites, characterised by FTIR, UV–Vis–NIR, TG-DTG, DSC and electron microscopy, and tested for surface temperature, thermal storage and durability. A second group turns to nanomaterials and catalysis: iron oxide nanoparticles prepared by ultrasonic-assisted sol–gel autocombustion, characterised by XRD, FESEM, FTIR and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, and assessed for photocatalytic dye degradation. A third addresses environment and health: the release of potentially toxic metals from Nigerian clays and traditional clay pottery under acidic, neutral and alkaline conditions; soil organic carbon and available nitrogen in farmland; and atmospheric particulate matter, its composition, sources, health effects and control. The remaining units set out the principles of green chemistry and its innovations in solvents, catalysis, renewable feedstocks and energy-efficient synthesis; amino acids as biomolecular building blocks and their part in lifespan regulation; and the structure, properties, recycling and applications of high-density polyethylene. Tables, spectra, micrographs and field temperature measurements accompany the text throughout. The book is intended for undergraduate and postgraduate students of chemistry and materials science, for teachers designing laboratory and curriculum work, and for researchers working on functional coatings, nanomaterials and environmental chemistry.