The Alembic VOLUME 38, NUMBER 3 NOVEMBER 2011 NOTE YOUR PREFERENCE! It is much more cost effective to send your Alembic by Email than by Snailmail. On page 7, please check your preference for how you wish to continue to receive your Alembic. 2011 ACS - CWS Mini-Directory Chair Robin Tanke Department of Chemistry Univ. Wisc. - Stevens Point Stevens Point, WI 54481 Phone: (715) 346-4325 E-mail: [email protected]Chair-Elect Dale Pillsbury 796N Pripps Road Park Falls, WI 54552 Phone: (715) 583-4426 E-mail: [email protected]Immediate Past Chair Stephen Leiterman 307 5th Street Mosinee, WI 54455 Phone: (715) 693-3998 E-mail: [email protected]Secretary - Treasurer Tipton Randall Phone: (715) 720-1969 E-mail: [email protected]Councilor C. Marvin Lang Phone (715) 346-3609 Email: [email protected]Alternate Councilor James Brummer Phone: (715) 346-2888 E-mail: [email protected]Newsletter Editor Dale Pillsbury 796N Pripps Road Park Falls, WI 54552 Phone: (715) 583-4426 E-mail: [email protected]November 2011 CWS ACS Meeting “ Renewable Raw Materials & the Wisconsin Institute for Sustainable Technology ” Speaker: Dr. Paul Fowler, Executive Director, Wisconsin Institute for Sustainable Technology University of Wisconsin — Stevens Point, WI Where: Aldo Leopold Science Building, Rm 127 UW-Wood County, Marshfield, WI 54449 When: Wednesday, November 16, 2011 at 7:30 PM Pre-meeting social (5:00 pm) and dinner (6:00 pm) will be held at West 14th restaurant, 108 W 9th St., Marshfield, WI. Contact Cristina Altobelli for reservations at 715-346-2888 See page 2 for directions to West 14th and the UW-Wood County campus. See page 3 for Dr. Fowler’s biography & abstract. The Chair’s Corne r – A Very Good Month Continued on page 2 First of all, I want to thank Dr. Amanda Hakemian, Assistant Professor, UW Wood County) for agreeing to organize the Chemistry Olympiad for the Cen- tral Wisconsin Section. Second, I want to thank Jason D’Acchioli and Steve Leiterman for a wonderful meeting at the Pinewood Supper Club. Jason got us thinking about poetry, art, and chiral molecules. Steve provided the environment to make for an enjoyable dinner and talk. We also thank Marv Lang for the use of his projector. Third, I’m looking for more volunteers. We need to have elections for officers in a few weeks. We will have elections for Chair-Elect, Secretary-Treasurer, Coun- cilor and Alternate Councilor. If you would like to run for any of these positions please let me know by the November 16 th meeting. I am especially interested to know if someone would be willing to serve as chair-elect. I am happy to answer any questions about the position. Currently, Tip Randall is willing to run for the office of Secretary-Treasurer and Marv Lang for the office of Councilor. NCW at the Boys and Girls Club was a great way to boost support for science education and research. See the photos included in this issue of the Alembic. All in all it was a very successful event!
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VOLUME 38, NUMBER 3 NOVEMBER 2011 The … - 3 November...pants placed clear nail polish on black Tyvek to observe interfer-ence colors. Finally, there was the always-popular slime
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
1. From the junction of WI 13 and Business 13 (aka South Central Ave) in Marshfield, go south until you come to 9th St.
Turn right onto 9th St. The West 14th restaurant is at 108 W 9th on your left, only a short way west from Business 13.
2. From West 14th go back to Business 13 (S. Central Ave) and turn left going north on S. Central Ave until you
come to 5th Street. Turn left (west) on 5th street. The street bends to the left after 6 blocks (0.5 miles).
3. Continue on West 5th Street for 11 more blocks (0.9) miles until you come to 2000 West 5th Street.
4. The campus is on your left; turn left at main entrance by the large U of W - Wood County sign.
5. On your left, you will see a parking lot between the A. G. Felker Student Center and the Aldo Leopold
Science Building.
Directions to West 14th & the Aldo Leopold Science Building
Our next meeting will be in Marshfield on Wednesday November 16, 2011. Paul Fowler, director of the Wisconsin In-
stitute for Sustainable Technology (WIST), will tell us about the institutes mission and offerings. WIST recently re-
leased its annual report which is available on-line at http://issuu.com/wistsolutions/docs/annualreportfec10-3-11?
mode=window&backgroundColor=%23222222. I hope to see you in Marshfield and that you enjoy the poem by our
student, Chris Shaw, on page 5. Robin
I was thrilled when Amanda Hakemian said she would be interested in becoming our section’s coordinator for the
Chemistry Olympiad at our last meeting. Since the outgoing coordinator, Paul Hladky, newly appointed chair of the Ste-
vens Point Chemistry department, was also at the meeting, he could spell out he coordinator’s duties in more detail. The
presence of both of these people must have been fated. What a boon for our section’s students!
This month we will hear from Dr. Paul Fowler, Executive Director of WIST (Wisconsin Institute for Sustainable Tech-
nology), and an abstract of his talk and his biography appear on page 3. There is a photo spread of the Portage Country
Boys and Girls Club celebration of National Chemistry Week starting directly below and continued on page 4. This is
followed by a poem from Stevens Point senior, Chrisopher Shaw. Then I give some analytical chemistry history featur-
ing Arnold Beckman and finally you are asked to make your choice of a method to receive your future issues of the
Alembic.
The Editor ’s Desk
Dale
National Chemistry Week — A Fun Learning Experience for All
It started with UW Chemistry Professor Robin Tanke applying for and receiving an ACS sponsored Bridging the Gap
Nano-Grant for Celebrating the International Year of Chemistry. Robin was assisted by Dr. Michael Zach in setting up
one of the demonstrations for a presentation at the Boys and Girls Club of Portage County on October 19. Nine members
of the Stevens Point ACS student affiliate chapter acted as demonstrators at the event and 20 boys and girls, as well as 4-
5 teachers and parents attended. The participants saw the effect of very cold temperatures on normally elastic materials.
They learned about the difference between white light and specific light emitting diodes (LEDs) while wearing their dif-
fraction glasses. In an activity, they found that some LED colors cause glow-in-the-dark paper to glow while other LED
colors did not. They were also shown a sample of small particles of different sizes and their ability to luminesce. Later, in
an activity they extracted chlorophyll from spinach and checked
for luminescence. In a demonstration, gold nanoparticles were
prepared and there was a discussion about using them to color
the glass in stained glass windows. In another activity, partici-
pants placed clear nail polish on black Tyvek to observe interfer-
ence colors. Finally, there was the always-popular slime making
activity and some participants added extracted chlorophyll to
their slime to make it glow-in-the-dark. From the photos below it
is clear a good time was had by all!
NCW photos continued on page 4
Here Drew demonstrates the effect on elasticity of a racquet ball after it has been chilled with liquid nitro-gen. Red circles show where part of the now very ine-lastic ball have scattered around the floor after it was dropped. You can just hear the young man in the left of the picture exclaiming “Wow” !
* G. Hansen created the first recording double beam spectrophotometer in 1912, based on earlier drawings by P. P. Koch (Optical Spectroscopy in Chemistry and Life Sciences. W. Schmidt Copyright c 2005 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim ISBN 3-527-29911-4). The General Electric, Cenco and Coleman companies each sold spectrophotometers in the 1930s. However, these instruments were restricted to the visible range and were difficult to use and/or expensive, e.g. the GE Hardy Spectrophotometer cost $6,400 in 1943.
Too Bad Indy – You Were Born Too Early
( Or Perhaps Arnold Beckman was Born Too Late )
Beckman continued on page 7
Page 6
Volume 38, number 3 The Alembic November 2011
Page 7
ELECTRONIC VERSUS SNAILMAIL DELIVERY OF THE ALEMBIC
I understand that effective February 2012, The Alembic is transitioning to electronic
delivery for as many of the membership as it can. This will allow the Central Wisconsin
Section to more effectively use its limit financial resources
Count me in!. I want to receive the Alembic electronically. My email address is
I prefer to receive the Alembic by conventional US Postal Service mailing (snailmail).
My address is as given on the back of this page.
Please cut this page off and mail your preference to:
The Chemistry Department
University of Wisconsin — Stevens Point
Stevens Point, WI 54481
produced IR spectra point by point for a large number of inorganic as well as organic compounds in 1903. Prior to the
1940s, a small number of homemade IR spectrometers were employed by a few companies as analytical tools and IR
was researched by academics, who also built their own equipment. However, at the start of WWII, the Allies were in dire
need of a substitute for natural rubber after the Japanese invaded Southeast Asia. Polymerized butadiene looked promis-
ing and butadiene was available in the gas stream produced during petroleum refining. However, the refinery gas stream
contained a large number of components and an accurate and rapid analysis of the stream composition was critical to
successfully producing sufficient high-purity butadiene to meet the demand for synthetic rubber. The US Office of the
Rubber Reserve prompted three chemical companies: American Cyanamid, Dow Chemical and Shell Development to
each come up with a design for an IR spectrometer. Yes, that's right, the chemical companies were called on to design
the instrument – that's how new the idea of chemical instrumentation was, how few instrument manufacturing companies
there were and how chemical manufacturing corporations at that time spent their research dollars, i.e., being at the fore-
front of chemical research and analysis in their areas of expertise. Shell's R. Robert Brattain came up with the winning
design for an IR spectrometer which utilized Beckman's amplified signal circuitry. The Brattain design was turned over
to Beckman's NTL company for production and thus the Beckman IR-1 was created. IR was not only used to solve the
synthetic rubber manufacturing problem, it was also used to solve the structure of the new wonder drug,
penicillin. The American chemist, R. B. Woodward, and the equally famous British chemist, Sir Robert
Robertson, each came up with a structure, but it was Woodward's use of IR to support his proposed
thiazolidine-β-lactam structure which was found to be correct as shown by Dorothy Crowfoot's team of
x-ray crystallographers in the UK in February of 1945.
American Cyanamid, one of the companies asked to come up with an IR spectrometer design for butadiene analysis, was
among the first companies to use IR spectroscopy in the 1930s, and again, the Cyanamid employees built the equipment.
During WWII, Cyanamid partnered up with the Perkin-Elmer Corporation, which had been formed by two amateur as-
tronomers in 1937 as an optical design and consulting company. Because the US Office of the Rubber Reserve had
picked the Shell design leading to the Beckman IR-1, sales of the Beckman instrument were restricted until well after
WWII ended and it was never a commercial success. However, the Cyanamid/Perkin-Elmer collaboration was not under
such tight government control and Perkin-Elmer was able to market its products more freely, so it is not surprising the
P-E Model 21 became the first commercially successful double-beam IR spectrometer in 1950.
penicillin
Volume 38, number 3 The Alembic November 2011
Dale
The Alembic (November 2011)
Newsletter of the Central Wisconsin Section, ACS
c/o Chemistry Department (#605516)
University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point
Stevens Point, WI 54481
Member Address Label
Page 8
Central Wisconsin Section, ACS Meetings and Programs - 2011-2012
Date (Day) Location Speaker/Event Host
Nov 16, 2011 Marshfield Paul Fowler ( WIST, UW-SP ) Dana Haagenson
Feb 13, 2012 Wisconsin Rapids Dr. Jeff Bryan Dave Thiel
March 2012 LignoTech, Rothschild LignoTech Tour Tony Young / Jerry Gargulak
April 18, 2012 Stevens Point Willam Carroll OxyChem ( A CS ) TBA
May 2012 Eau Claire Awards Banquet Dave Lewis
Mark the above dates and locations on your calendar; plan now to attend and participate in the Section’s various meetings and activities. Future issues of the Alembic will give exact lo-cations and arrangements for these meetings. Of further interest are the following national and regional events:
Spring National Meeting, San Diego, CA - March 25-29, 2012
Chemists Celebrate Earth Day (CCED ) - April 22, 2012