ABSTRACT
Laboratory instruction has been an integral part of science-based courses in institutes of higher education since the seventeenth century. However, up until the start of the twentieth century, it was conducted almost entirely in demonstration format by the lecturer.1,2 Today, individual laboratory work for students is commonplace, and the concept of laboratory-based learning has become rmly entrenched in the teaching of science.3 Looking at a standard organic chemistry laboratory manual, a range of reactions are covered, but these represent only a few of the many possibilities. In addition, the equipment used in undergraduate organic chemistry laboratories has not changed signicantly in the last 40 years. This is very different from
6.1 Introduction ................................................................................................... 149 6.2 Motivation for Incorporation of Microwave Heating as a Tool in the
Undergraduate Laboratory ............................................................................ 150 6.3 Examples of Published Teaching Materials Incorporating Microwave
Heating into the Undergraduate Laboratory ................................................. 152 6.3.1 Solvent-Free Reactions ..................................................................... 152 6.3.2 Reactions Performed in Greener Solvents ........................................ 159 6.3.3 Metal-Catalyzed Reactions ............................................................... 163 6.3.4 Additional Reports in the Literature ................................................. 165 6.3.5 Beyond Organic Chemistry .............................................................. 168
6.3.5.1 Analytical Chemistry ......................................................... 168 6.3.5.2 Inorganic and Organometallic Chemistry .......................... 169 6.3.5.3 Materials Chemistry ........................................................... 170
6.4 Concluding Remarks ..................................................................................... 170 References .............................................................................................................. 172
industrial facilities and most academic research laboratories, where state-of-the-art equipment is often found. One class of reactions of which students often do not gain experience is those that require extended heating. This is because they often cannot be tted into an average laboratory period of approximately 3 h. This rules out a number of synthetic transformations, in particular, many metal-catalyzed reactions. Using microwave heating as a tool, these time constraints can often be overcome. Also, if a reaction is complete within a few minutes of heating, students may be able to repeat an experiment in the case of a mistake being made in preparing the reaction mixture or, more excitingly, they may be able to perform additional selfdesigned experiments based around the general reaction being investigated in the lab period. In this chapter, the use of microwave heating as a tool to facilitate student learning and broaden their laboratory experience will be discussed. Particular attention will be paid to the organic chemistry curriculum, the broad range of reactions that can be performed, and the incorporation of green chemistry principles.
