Collision theory and mechanisms – linking it together

November 1, 2017

I’ve just started teaching the kinetics topic to my students and so far we have focussed on the collision theory. Have you heard of this? The collision theory explains to us what happens during chemical reactions in terms of the collision of particles. In order for a...

Optical isomerism

September 22, 2017

Optical isomers are hard to conceptualise. They are molecules with the same molecular formula and structural formula. They look exactly the same both on paper and in the real world. However, they only exist in pairs, it is only possible to get two optical isomers of...

Gas Volumes

August 21, 2017

I have written this blog post with all you new first year IB students in mind. If you have started the course recently (or about to start the course very soon) it is likely that the first or second topic that you study will be ‘Stoichiometric relationships’, which is...

Limiting reagents

August 11, 2017

Limiting reagents is a concept that is easy to understand in one context… but tricky to understand in another. Before I expand on this statement, what do I mean by limiting reagents? Well, unless you have some super precise mass balances, when carrying out a...

Synthesis of Aspirin

July 5, 2017

Aspirin has been with us for long time – the first documented reports of its use occurred over 2000 years ago. That said, the aspirin may not be in the form that you instantly think of (ie, a tablet) but it has been used all the same. Aspirin is an analgesic,...

PRE IB: Practical work – good practice

June 10, 2017

This blog was written by Dave Allen, an experienced IB Chemistry teacher. To read more Chemistry blogs for students and teachers, click here. This is the fourth and final blog post on pre-IB Chemistry. I do hope you have found the mini-series interesting and helpful,...