Current Chemistry Investigators (CCI): Development and Evaluation of a Scientist in a Classroom Electrochemistry Workshop.

Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, school students suffered from a reduction in opportunities to connect with higher education institutions, meet scientific role models in person, discuss scientific career options, and carry out hands-on practical laboratory activities. Current Chemistry Investigators (CCI) is a successful electrochemistry-based STEM career intervention program, developed and evaluated through a co-creation process with teachers and students. The goals of CCI are 2-fold: first, to provide school students with career advice through tangible scientific role models and, second, to provide real-world context for the fundamentals of electrochemistry through hands-on activities. Herein, the development of a novel electro-analytical workshop from concept through to delivery with over a thousand students having taken part to date is reported. Students are tasked with solving why a battery malfunctioned through quantitative and qualitative analyses of an electrolyte using conductivity meters. Student feedback is also gathered anonymously through the use of a classroom response system (also known as "clickers"). Together with feedback from teachers, a robust evaluation is presented to measure the impact of providing tangible scientific role models and the usefulness of the workshop.

Partially oxidised boron nitride as a 2D nanomaterial for nanofiltration applications.

Boron nitride (BN) based 2D nanomaterials are an emerging class of materials for the development of new membranes for nanofiltration applications. Here, we report the preparation, characterisation and testing of highly promising nanofiltration membranes produced from partially oxidised BN (BNOx) 2D nanosheets. In our work, the partial oxidation of BN was successfully achieved by heating the bulk h-BN powder in air at 1000 °C, resulting in BNOx product. The characterisation of the sample showed the presence of B-OH groups corresponding to the partial oxidisation of the BN. The BNOx material was then exfoliated in water and used to produce membranes, using vacuum filtration. These membranes were characterised using electron microscopy, BET and mercury porosimetry techniques. The membranes have also been tested in water purification and removal of several typical water-soluble dyes, demonstrating outstanding retention values close to 100%. We believe that this research opens up new opportunities for further production, as well as chemical functionalisation and modification of membranes for nanofiltration and separation technologies.