Mian Jiang
University of Houston Downtown, USA
Title: Embedding petrochemical/nuclear components into analytical curricula: the chemical STEM bridging
Biography
Biography: Mian Jiang
Abstract
Petrochemical components were recently incorporated into our curricular efforts. The main driving force lies at the societal relevance of a sustainable analytical chemistry curriculum. Crude oil exploration, processing, and production of basic, intermediate, and final petrochemicals, all bear the natures of material and characterization studies. They are in line with the University’s high-impact education mission and one of the local economic focuses (as the world’s energy capital). Despite of the natural match or extension between analytical sciences and petro-industry, few reports in this curricular incorporation were published thus far. We started with the incorporation of petrochemical experiments into undergraduate research and STEM workshops. These directly address a wide spectrum of petroleum/petrochemical industry and study. The experiments, designed and tailored to reflect material science and characterization means, included the crude oil viscosity measurement (addressing the up-stream exploration sector), corrosion quantitation (for the mid-stream pipeline or transportation), and preliminary polymer production and characterization (for down-stream end-user products). These ideas were also tested in the existing analytical chemistry classes for teaching effectiveness. Initial responses were positive, with the rising enrollments and motivation to learn. Some students showed interests to deepen these practice into Problem-based learning (PBL) after regular labs. Our current activities concentrate on the embedding of non-aqueous (petroleum liquid) titration for chemical analysis, and characterization of hydrocarbon-bearing rocks and carcinogen petrochemicals (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene, BTEX) in instrumental analysis. Our efforts in updating analytical curriculum are preliminary and forward-looking. They have the potential to improve learning in both material and characterization studies, and may expand into other chemistry disciplines or interdisciplinary fields.