Chemistry of Pollutants

Researchers from the School of Chemistry marked National Chemistry Week with an outreach event for local school children on the chemistry of our environment.

The “Chemistry of Pollutants - Understanding our Environment” event was held in the National Museum Wales on 24th November with over 700 people attending. It was sponsored by the Royal Society of Chemistry as part of a 12-month project aimed at taking curriculum-enhancing hands-on activities into local schools.

Activities for school children featured smartphone spectroscopy to demonstrate elemental emission bands, hands-on chromatography and porous structures, pedal-powered water splitting for hydrogen generation and exploring the mechanism of cloud formation.

The event was developed and organised by Dr Joseph Beames and Dr Emma Richards in partnership with Dr Jana Horak (Head of Mineralogy & Petrology, National Museum Cardiff).  Several undergraduate and postgraduate students, led by Alexander Tansell (3rd year PhD student), took part in the event demonstrating the activities and interacting with visitors.