Answer 1:
Hello dear teacher. It looks like your list
consists of diatomic species, so I'll keep my
suggestions to compounds only containing two
atoms. GaN is definitely an interesting
semiconducting material, as any student at UCSB
will tell you. Any of the acids are used a lot in
laboratory settings, and for this class exercise,
can be used to reinforce fundamental chemistry
concepts involved in chemical reactions. Other
interesting and relevant materials in the list
include ZnS2 (zinc selenide),
SiO2 (silica), Li2S (lithium
sulfide), iron oxide (rust), lead selenide, and
NO2 (nitrogen dioxide). |
Answer 2:
I have taken your list and divided it into two
groups. The first group I'd deem most interesting.
I have added a number of suggestions of my own.
Some of the compounds are most interesting when
contrasted with each other, I have listed such
compounds together.
Aluminum chloride AlCl₃
Gallium nitride GaN
Nitrogen triiodide NI₃
Dinitrogen monoxide N₂O
Nitrogen monoxide NO
Dinitrogen tetroxide N₂O₄ /nitrogen dioxide
NO2
(exist in equilibrium with each other)
Diphosphorus pentoxide P₂O₅
Cesium chloride CsCl , sodium chloride NaCl
Silicon dioxide SiO₂
Carbon dioxide CO₂ , Carbon monoxide CO
Dihydrogen monoxide (most call it water!)H₂O , and
hydrogen peroxide H2O2
hydrogen chloride HCl (hydrochloric acid is the
solution of HCl in water)
Sulfur dioxide SO₂, Sulfur trioxide SO₃
Tetraphosphorus trisulfide P₄S₃
Iron(III) oxide Fe₂O₃
lithium nitride Li3N
methane CH4
silver iodide AgI
titanium chloride TiCl4
Diarsenic pentoxide As₂O₅
Vanadium(V) oxide V₂O₅
Lead(II) selenide PbSe
Potassium phosphide K₃P
Xenon trioxide XeO₃
Sulfur hexafluoride SF₆, also SF4
Carbon tetrabromide CBr₄ , Carbon tetrachloride CCl₄ |
Answer 3:
It's great to hear that middle school students
are getting exposure to cutting edge new
materials. I'm sure all the listed compounds are
useful and interesting, but since my familiarity
with most of the compounds listed is limited, I
will try to add a little perspective from the
electronic inorganic materials side of materials
science.
1) CO2, CO, NO2
Carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide are both very
interesting and particularly relevant, given the
increasing awareness of climate change (which is a
huge topic in and of itself- carbon capture and
sequestration. This can also be related to
NO2, another gas in car exhaust, and
the technology behind catalytic converters. There
is also interesting combustion chemistry that can
easily be related to current issues.
2) H2O
Don't let its ubiquity fool you, water is a really
interesting material that's still studied today.
From a materials science perspective, water is a
compound rich in physics. For example, I work with
computational methods, and water is one of the
most difficult compounds to simulate accurately.
This has to do with the fact it has hydrogen
bonding, which even today we do not completely
understand how to model. This also happens to be a
reason why water has several peculiar properties,
such has a slight volume expansion upon freezing
(it's why glacier's float!). There are also at
least nine different phases of ice to my
knowledge.
3) GaN
GaN is definitely the star of this year from the
Nobel prize in Physics. Making better devices
using GaN is still an active area of research
(including at UCSB), and there is a lot of rich
semiconductor physics that will help in
understanding how electronic devices (e.g.,
transistors, LEDs) work. It's an important
material for achieving efficient blue lighting
(which is also used to achieve white lighting).
There is also very interesting reading on the
importance and impact that lighting technology has
on not only our lives but also those in developing
countries.
4) V2O5
Vanadium pentoxide happens to be in a family of
compounds related to my own research. It has
several applications, including in batteries,
catalysis for producing sulfuric acid, and thermal
imaging. V2O5 also happens
to be electrochromic, which means it changes color
when injected with extra electrons. Many
interesting optical and electrical properties to
be understood still!
5) 2D materials
Quite abuzz in the materials community today are
2D materials, like graphene or MoS2
(molybdenum disulfide). A few more are listed on
Wikipedia. Much has been researched on how to make
electronic devices with 2D materials. This was
spurred by the isolation of graphene, which has
remarkable electronic and mechanical properties.
Other common applications of 2D materials include
lubrication. Graphene is a great example of how
crystal structure can affect material properties
(e.g., versus its other carbon counterparts-
diamond, graphite, C60).
6) Perovskites
Also a popular set materials are those with
perovskite structure. The perovskite structure is
a crystal structure with ABO3
composition, where A and B are metals (B is
typically a transition metal). Perovskites have
gotten significant attention recently due to the
amount of rich physics that can be found. A hot
topic right now is perovskite solar cells, which
are cheap and easy to manufacture with a fairly
good efficiencies. You might also find interesting
that it is possible to combine two insulating
compounds and get out a structure that exhibits
electrical conductivity at the interface! This
happens with several perovskite combinations, the
most well-known being lanthanum aluminate
(LaAlO3) and strontium titanate
(SrTiO3).
Hope this helps you with your list!
Best,
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