Bruce M. Mattson, PhD

Professor, Inorganic Chemistry

Dr. Mattson heads the Department of Chemistry's Center for Microscale Gas Chemistry.

Mattson is currently interested in developing establishing safe and convenient methods for generating and manipulating small samples of gases for experiments and study. Along with undergraduate students perforning the research, the Center develops classroom demonstrations and laboratory activities suitable for use at a variety of levels ranging from the middle school and high school levels up through university-level freshmen chemistry students and chemistry majors taking descriptive inorganic chemistry. The results of this work have been published in a series of articles in Chem13 News and in two books. All together over 150 experiments have been devised for the a variety of gases including CO2, H2, O2, N2, NH3, NOx, C2H2, H2S, SO2, Cl2, HCl, CO, C2H4, CH4, and N20.

Selected publications:
Books:
"Classroom Demonstration Aids That You Can Build!" Mattson, B. M., Kubovy, M. A., Hepburn, J., Lannan, J., Flinn Scientific, 1997.

"The Chemistry of Gases, A Microscale Approach," Mattson, B. M., Anderson, M. P., Schwennsen, Cece, Flinn Scientific, 1999.

"Microscale Gas Chemistry," Educational Innovations, 2006, ISBN #0-9701077-0-6.

Invited book chapter, “Microscale Gas Chemistry,” Mattson, B., Microscale Chemistry Experimentation for All Ages, Peter Schwarz, Muhamad Hugerat, and Mordechai Livneh, editors; published by Arab Academic College for Education in Israel, Haifa, Israel, pages 267 – 285, 2006.

Recent Publications:
“Incomplete Combustion of Hydrogen: Trapping the Hydroxyl Radical,” Mattson, B.; Hoette, T.; accepted for publication in the Journal of Chemical Education; will appear in 2007.

“Demonstrating the Paramagnetism of  Liquid Oxygen with a Neodymium Magnet,” Mattson, B.; accepted for publication in the Journal of Chemical Education; will appear in 2007.

“Microscale Gas Chemistry, Part 28. Mini-Ozone generator: 800 nanomole/minute,” Bruce Mattson,Janel Michels, Stephanie Gallegos, Jorge G. Ibanez, Alejandro Alatorre-Ordaz, Rodrigo Mayen-Mondragon, M. T. Moran-Moran, accepted for publication in Chem13 News, 344; pp 6 – 11; January 2007.

“Microscale Environmental Chemistry Part 5. Production of ClO2, an environmentally-friendly oxidizer and disinfectant;” Ibanez, Jorge G.; Navarro-Monsivais, Carlos; Terrazas-Moreno, Sebastian; Mena-Brito, Rodrigo; Pedraza-Segura, Lorena; Mattson, Bruce; Anderson, Michael P.; Fujita, Jiro; Hoette, Trisha, Chem. Educator 2006, 11, 174-177.

“Propanol to Propane.  An advanced laboratory experiment using two gas-phase heterogeneous catalysts;” Mattson, B.; Hulce, M.; Cheng, W. Greimann, W.; Hoette, T.; and Menzel, P.; Journal of Chemical Education, 2006, 83, 421 – 424.

Microscale Gas Chemistry, 4th Edition, (book), Mattson, B. M., Anderson, M. P.; and Mattson, S. E.; published by Educational Innovations, 2006.

“Microscale Gas Chemistry”; Mattson, B.; invited publication, Educación Química.16(4), October, 2005, 514 – 528.

“Laboratory Experiments on the Electrochemical Remediation of the Environment, Part 7. Microscale Production of Ozone”; Ibanez, J. G.; Alatorre-Ordaz, A.; Mayen-Mondragon, R.; Moran-Moran, M. T.; Bruce Mattson, Scot Eskestrand; Journal of Chemical Education 2005, 82, 1546-1548.

“Microscale Gas Chemistry, Part 27. Barometric Pressure without a Barometer”, Mattson, B.; and Snipp, R.; Eskestrand. S.: Chem13 News, 326, 12 - 14, Jan, 2005.

“Microscale Gas Chemistry, Part 26. Carbonated Beverages — Priestley’s Soda-water”, Mattson, B.; Saunders, E.; Sconzo, P.; Chem13 News, 324, 6-11, November,2004.

“Microscale Gas Chemistry, Part 25. Mystery Gas”, Mattson, B.; and Pottebaum, D.; tentatively: Chem13 News, 318, February, 2004, 10 - 11.

“Microscale Gas Chemistry, Part 24. Percent Composition of Calcium Carbonate in Tums‚. A chemistry laboratory experiment.”, Mattson, B.; and Saunders, E., Chem13 News, 313, September, 2003.

“Demonstrating Heterogeneous Gas Phase Catalysis with the Gas Reaction Catalyst Tube,” Mattson, B., Fujita, J., Catahan, R., Cheng, C., Greimann, J., Hoette, T., Khandhar, P., Mattson, A., Rajani, A., Sullivan, P., Perkins, R", Journal of Chemical Education, 2003, 80, 768 - 773.

“Microscale Gas Chemistry, Part 23. Improved Chlorine Preparation”, Mattson, B.; Eskestrand, S.; and Mordechai Livneh, M., Chem13 News, 312, May, 2003.

“Microscale Gas Chemistry, Part 22. Ziploc‚ Bags for Temporary Gas Storage and Transfer”; Bruce Mattson, B.; and Meyer, A., Chem13 News, 311, April, 2003.

“Microscale Gas Chemistry, Part 21. The Limiting Reagent. A chemistry laboratory experiment,” Mattson, B., Eskestrand, S., Meyer, A., Chem13 News, 305, October, 2002.

“Microscale Gas Chemistry, Part 20. Reversible Oxidation of Metallic Copper. A laboratory experiment in a pipette.” Mattson, B., Saunders, E., DiSapio, C., Hamilton, R., Chem13 News, 304, September, 2002.

“Microscale Gas Chemistry, Part 19. Formation of Elemental Iron. A laboratory experiment in a pipette,” Mattson, B., Saunders, E., Chem13 News, 303, May, 2002.

"Celebrating Chemistry and Art: Bicentennial of a Famous Caricature," Kauffman, G. B., Mattson. B., Swanson, R. P., Chem13 News, 299, January, 2002.

“Microscale Gas Chemistry, Part 18. Experiments with Nitrous Oxide,” Mattson, B., Sullivan, P., Fujita, J., Pound, K., Cheng, W., Eskestrand, S., Obendrauf, V., Chem13 News, 299, January, 2002.

“Microscale Gas Chemistry, Part 17. Molar Mass of Gas Determination. A chemistry laboratory experiment;” Mattson, B. M., Greimann, J., Dedhia, R., Saunders, E., Chem13 News, 295, September, 2001.