Federation of Asian Chemical Societies (FACS)

  Last updated on 19 Nov., 2003      

Report on Low-cost Instrumentation and Microscale Chemistry Project Activities in 2001-2003

Winghong Chan
Director of LCI/MC

BACKGROUND
 
For the last decade, Prof. Krishna Sane of Delhi University have done an excellent job in organizing hands-on workshops on "Low Cost Instrumentation" project with the FACS. Recently, Prof. Sane would like to devote more of his time to the Sub project Low Cost Publication. I was invited to be the successor to pick up his pioneer works in promoting low cost instrumentation in this region. On the other hand, the emergence of the microscale chemistry in innovating chemistry laboratory teaching has been a fascinating move in the recent two decades. The advantages of microscale chemistry are evident in terms of safety, cost-effectiveness and convenience. After twenty years of development, the use of microscale chemistry is gaining momentum worldwide and is now an integral part of chemistry courses in many parts of the world. Sponsored by the UNESCO, "International Symposium on Microscale Chemistry" was organized by us on 13-15 December, 2001. Over 100 participants from eleven countries took part in the event. We believe by integrating the development of low cost instrumentation and microscale chemistry would be a novel way in innovating the chemistry laboratory teaching, especially in this part of the world.

As a new initiative under the auspices of the FACS, I have assumed the directorship for the Subgroup "Low-cost Instrumentation and Microscale Chemistry" (LCI-MC) since April, 2002.

ACTIVITIES

(1) Development of Low Cost Instrumentation

Using commercial available LEDs as the light sources, we have designed and developed a low cost 4-channel photometer covering all visible light region. To simplify the analysis of airborne substances (i.e. NOx, formaldehyde etc.), we developed a novel passive air-sampler. The high efficiency of the sampler enables us to collect sufficient amount of air sample for analyses within half an hour. A number of laboratory activities have been developed based on the use of these two pieces of instruments.

(2) International Workshop on Low-cost Instrumentation-microscale Chemistry

With the objective to share our experiences in innovating laboratory teaching by LCI-MC, a two-day International Workshop was held on 4-6 December 2002 at the Hong Kong Baptist University. Prof. Krishna Sane and Prof. Christer Gruvberg, the director of the Swedish Microscale Chemistry Center served as the keynote speakers in the event. Participants from six countries/region were provided with hands-on experience in conducting laboratory activities in environmental chemistry by LCI and MC. To give you some flavors of the Workshop, the titles of the activities are given below:

As the feedbacks from the participants on the Workshop were quite encouraging, similar workshops will be organized in the future.

Back to FACS Newsletter TOC(2003/2)