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What is infrared spectroscopy? What happens when molecules absorb infrared radiation? What is absorption, transmittance, wavenumber and fingerprint region? All this and more covered in this comprehensive lesson with questions and answers! This is a Year 12 A level lesson for Edexcel International Unit 2 – WCH12, but it can also be used for all UK exam boards. All the slides in this lesson are fully animated and include answers to every mini plenary question and exam question. The breakdown of the slides (which are best opened on Microsoft PowerPoint) is as follows:

Slide 1 - Title and 5-minute starter. The starter is a grid of four questions entitled ‘last week, last lesson, today’s learning and future learning’. Use this generic slide for all of your lessons by simply changing the questions and the answers each time.
Slide 2 - Lesson objectives (see thumbnail image)
Slide 3 – The electromagnetic spectrum is displayed to students to help them understand what infrared radiation is
Slides 4 – 5: Explains the main features of infrared spectroscopy, namely, shining infrared radiation through a sample and seeing what gets through to a detector (in simple terms!). A diagram illustrating the process is on slide 5.
Slides 6 – 8: Unpicks the terms transmittance and absorbance, and what they mean in terms of infrared spectroscopy
Slides 9 – 10: Explains what happens to bonds when they absorb infrared radiation
Slide 11 – explains that the frequency of IR radiation that is absorbed is measured as the reciprocal of the wavelength
Slide 12 – information from the data booklet regarding infrared spectroscopy for students to peruse and ask you questions
Slide 13 – the infrared spectrum of propan-1-ol. Talk students through how the scale on the x-axis changes, the characteristic, broad O-H peak and anything else that you deem necessary
Slides 14 – 16: Breakdown of what the fingerprint region is and how this region is important in identifying compounds
Slides 17 – 24: A series of six worked examples to guide students through the process of identifying functional groups on infrared spectra and deducing possible structures. All working out animates on to the slides as you click
Slides 25 – 30: Exam questions with mark scheme answers (included with the purchase of this resource)

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