Abstract

Polymer synthesis has a limited inclusion in most organic chemistry lecture curricula, so emphasizing the concepts of polymer chemistry in a laboratory setting gives students hands-on experience in new content and broadens the scope of the class. The details and outcomes of a robust and well-developed laboratory procedure for the synthesis of a crosslinked epoxy network polymer are described. This experiment has been a part of a first-semester, introductory undergraduate organic chemistry laboratory curriculum for more than two decades and has positively impacted over eight hundred students. The experiment had the unique aspect that students cured the resin in a round, seven-centimeter mold, forming a hardened epoxy disk. This disk, or medallion, was decorated in two different ways: first, a design was etched into the mold before curing to form a permanent imprint; second, the final epoxy medallion was decorated, post-cure, with colored permanent markers and glitter glue. After this laboratory experiment, students took home a durable ornament as a memento of their first-semester organic chemistry laboratory course.