Demonstrations Page 8 - Paper Demonstrations

Scroll down to view photographs and short descriptions of some of the demonstrations in the list below.

WARNING – Use at your own risk! We cannot guarantee the accuracy or the safety of these activities.  Some of these activities are far more dangerous than others. The contributors and Bradley University do not assume any responsibility for these activities or their results.  If you have questions, corrections, or comments please do not hesitate to contact Dean Campbell (campbell@bumail.bradley.edu) at Bradley University.

Ferrofluid Demonstrations
Refrigerator Magnet Demonstrations
Polydimethysiloxane Demonstrations
LEGO® Brick Chemistry and Nanotechnology Demonstrations
Folded Chiral Paper Structures
Under development. Patterns containing brief instructions on construction and use of these folded paper structures can be downloaded as PDF files from the Internet at: http://bradley.bradley.edu/~campbell/chiralpapersprings.pdf. You are welcome to contact Dean Campbell (campbell@bumail.bradley.edu) to give him feedback on use of this template.

Chemical Cootie Catchers
Patterns containing brief instructions on construction and use of these folded paper structures can be downloaded as PDF files from the Internet at: http://bradley.bradley.edu/~campbell/chemcootiecatchers.html.
 
D. J. Campbell, K. C. Campbell, K. M. Campbell, "Chemical ‘Fortune Tellers’ or ‘Cootie-Catchers’", Chem13 News, March, 2011, 8-9.
Chemical Paper Snowflake Cutouts
 
This paper describes the use of flat paper cutouts with six-fold symmetry for modeling layers of atoms within solid structures. Stacking the cutouts in specific ways illustrates how the layers of the atoms are stacked in the solids. Additionally, these cutouts can be used to demonstrate types of deformation in metals, atomic force microscopy, and carbon nanostructures. These paper lattices can be used on an overhead projector for demonstration to an entire class, or they can be constructed and studied on individual bases by students.

K. F. Robinson, P. N. Nguyen, N. Applegren, D. J. Campbell, “Illustrating Close-Packed and Graphite Structures with Paper Snowflake Cutouts” The Chemical Educator, 2007, 12,163-166.

Poisson's Ratio Cutouts

Flat, flexible lattices can be used to illustrate Poisson’s ratios of materials. These lattices can be produced from ordinary sheets of paper.

D. J. Campbell, M. K. Querns, "Using Paper Cutouts to Illustrate Poisson's Ratio."  J. Chem. Educ., 2002, 79, 76.
Graphite Cleavage to Graphene Demonstrated with a Deck of Cards
"When a pencil makes a mark on paper, tiny sheets of clay and graphite are rubbed from the pencil “lead” onto the paper fibers.  Recently, scientists have repeatedly split stacked layers of graphite apart (like cutting a deck of cards) to isolate single-atom sheets of graphite.  These single sheets, called graphene, have thicknesses of only a third of a nanometer  – much thinner than the smallest piece of pencil dust." See: http://www.nano.utexas.edu/resources/nano-at-home/.

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Last updated 2/2/12

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