Development of Green High School Chemistry Labs (2020)

Frederick B. Kilmer Research Award 1st Place (Sciences)

Ram L. Chugh North Country Research & Public Service Award 1st Place

We have developed a series of green experiments for the high school laboratory setting, some of which are already in use in schools around New York State. One of our experiments involves the reduction of cinnamaldehyde (from cinnamon) into 3-phenyl-1-propanol (which smells of hyacinth). This experiment is designed to demonstrate to students the drastic effect the simple reduction of unsaturated bonds can have on both the chemical and physical properties of an organic compound. Our main goal for perfecting this experiment is to find a reagent that is safe for high school students to use to reduce the cinnamaldehyde, as traditional reducing agents like lithium aluminum hydride are not safe for a classroom setting. This quest led us to use sodium hydroxymethanesulfinate, followed by sodium borohydride. The product has been tested using TLC, IR, GC-MS, and NMR, and shows promising results.