Surface Area to Volume Ratio of Nanoparticles

This lab is designed to help students understand how nanoparticles may be more effective catalysts by investigating how the surface area-to-volume ratio of a substance is affected as its shape changes. This lab is meant to complement a chemistry unit on catalysts. Nanosized materials have a significant portion of their atoms on the surface. Understanding how catalysts work involves studying chemical reactions at the molecular and atomic scale. For this reason, catalysis can be considered one of the earliest forms of nanoscale science. Part 2 is an inquiry-based lab that should be used immediately after doing the Surface Area-to-Volume Ratio of Nanoparticles lab, using the same clay samples as before. Students will design a new shape of a particle which will have the highest surface are inrelation to volume.