Substituting vitamin C for thiosulfate: Greening a kinetics lab

CHED 367

Amy M. Alexander, amalexander@ualr.edu and Robert E. Belford, rebelford@ualr.edu. Department of Chemistry, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, 2801 S. University, Little Rock, AR 72204
Minimization of risk is an essential component of a university program and there are two fundamental approaches, reduced exposure through personal protective equipment and safety engineering, or the reduction and elimination of hazardous and toxic substances from the laboratory procedures. The latter is often called the green chemistry approach and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock is currently reevaluating the freshman laboratory program to develop and incorporate greener alternatives. Sodium thiosulfate has been used to determine initial rates in a second semester kinetics lab and this work will report on an alternative procedure using vitamin C.