Abstract:

The effect of intermolecular forces has been explored in a number of chemistry experiments. The common topics include melting and boiling points, vapor pressure and enthalpy of vaporization, surface tension, viscosity, solubility and acid ionization. Important applications of intermolecular forces are in various chromatographic separations.
Hydrogen bonding, which is one kind of these forces, has many applications in all areas of chemistry. Chemistry students need to be able to analyze situations where hydrogen bonding can occur in order to understand reaction mechanisms, many physical properties, solubility, molecular interactions, and some spectroscopic information.
There are many excellent laboratory experiments, activities and demonstrations especially for hydrogen bonding, presented in a lot of papers. In this study we present a demonstration on hydrogen bonding during the polymerization of collagen in the jelly. The students can observe through the microscope how the gelatin grains interact with water and how these grains are connected together due to the hydrogen bonding in order to produce the polymer. Video presentations demonstrate the existence of these intermolecular forces.
The above demonstration can be illustrated to 11th and 12th grade high school students. At that level the students are introduced in basic concepts about the hydrogen bonding and the other forms of intermolecular forces. They are also taught about the structure of the proteins and the nature of peptidic bonds in biology course.

Keywords:

Demonstrations, Hydrogen Bonding, Polymerisation, Proteins, Peptides.