Experiments in General Chemistry, 4th Edition

Experiments in General Chemistry is a laboratory manual written for first-year students at National Taiwan University. The first edition was published in 2009. It gathers the teaching experiences from the faculty and teaching assistances of the general chemistry education team over the years.

The contents cover qualitative and quantitative analytical chemistry, kinetics, thermodynamics, electrochemistry, organic chemistry and novel materials synthesis, with a total of 18 experiments. The core concept is focused on identifying and applying chemical principles, training basic experimental skills, practicing integrated experiments, and building up the safety and environmental awareness. Besides, novel materials chemistry, such as high-temperature superconductors, conducting polymers, and gold nanoparticles, are introduced to increase the students’ learning interests.

General chemistry laboratory is the first chemistry experiment course for students from different disciplines. Most of them are not familiar with how to do these hands-on activities. In this edition, we use photos along with experimental steps, and QR codes link to demonstration videos web pages to help students’ understandings. On the other hand, we strengthen the theoretical background, revise the experiment procedures to be safer, reduce the amount of chemicals, and emphasize the importance of the green chemistry to make the new edition more sustainable and diverse.