Saturday, June 29, 2019

Hydrolysis of Proteins

Lots of foods contain protein. When you eat them the proteins undergo hydrolysis reactions to break them down into their constituent amino acids.
AUS-e-TUTE has just added a new tutorial, game, test and exam to help you understand this.
AUS-e-TUTE Members should log-in to use these new resources (listed under Biochemical Reactions).
Non-members can currently access a "free-to-view" tutorial at
https://www.ausetute.com.au/hydrolysisprot.html

Monday, June 24, 2019

Hydrolysis of Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates like disaccharides and polysaccharides can be broken down into monosaccharides.
In the lab we use acid hydrolysis, but in your body you use enzymes to do this.
AUS-e-TUTE has just added a new tutorial, game, test and exam to help you understand these chemical reactions. Members should log-in to access these new resources (under Biochemical reactions).
If you are not an AUS-e-TUTE member you can access a "free-to-view" tutorial at https://www.ausetute.com.au/hydrolysiscarbs.html

Thursday, June 20, 2019

Precipitation Titrations

Have you ever tried to determine the chloride concentration in a water sample using gravimetric analysis? It's pretty tricky! There must be a better way .....
There is .... precipitation titrations (also known as argentimetric titrations or argentometric titrations).
AUS-e-TUTE has just added a new tutorial, game, test, exam and practical activity on this topic for members.
If you are not a member, you can access a "free-to-view" tutorial at
 https://www.ausetute.com.au/pptitration.html

Thursday, June 13, 2019

Precipitation Conductometric Titrations

If you have an aqueous salt solution it conducts electricity because of all the ions in the solution. If you add a different aqueous salt solution to this it is possible that a precipitate will form, effectively removing some of the ions in solution so it should be possible to monitor changes in the electrical conductivity of a solution during a precipitation reaction to determine the equivalence point of the reaction. This is known as a precipitation conductometric titration (or as a conductometric precipitation titration) and AUS-e-TUTE has just added a new tutorial, game, test and exam to help our members understand this!
If you are not an AUS-e-TUTE Member, you can currently access a "free-to-view" tutorial on this topic at https://www.ausetute.com.au/conductpptn.html

Sunday, June 9, 2019

Conductometric Titrations

Trying to titrate a weak acid with a weak base using an acid-base indicator is .... annoying!
The end point of the titration is extremely difficult to guage.
If only there was a better way ....
There is!
Let us introduce you to acid-base conductometric titrations in AUS-e-TUTE's new tutorial, game, test and exam resources. AUS-e-TUTE Members should log-in to use these new resources.
Non-members can currently access the "free-to-view" tutorial at https://www.ausetute.com.au/conductab.html

Wednesday, June 5, 2019

Colorimetry

I was sitting with some friends drinking tea in glasses.
I noticed some people like "weak" tea and others like their tea "strong".
Technically "weak" tea isn't "weak" at all ... it's really a more dilute solution of tea, while "strong" tea is a more concentrated solution of tea.
But what I noticed most is that "weak" tea is less of a brown colour than "strong" tea, so it ought to be possible to guess the concentration of "tea" in a glass of tea by looking at its colour.
However, I wouldn't have to guess the concentration if I had a colorimeter because a colorimeter would measure the absorbance of each tea solution.
It may seem like a lot of hard work for very little reward ... "I'll like a 0.341 absorbance glass of tea please..." .... but colorimetry is useful tool for measuring the concentration of coloured solutions as you will find out in AUS-e-TUTE's new set of colorimetry resources.
AUS-e-TUTE Members should log-in to use the colorimetry resources listed under "Spectroscopy" and the subheading "Absorption Spectroscopy".
Non-members can access a "free-to-view" tutorial at https://www.ausetute.com.au/colorimetry.html