Towards stimuli-reformable paperboard and flipped classroom in chemistry education : A study of how to create a paper with controllable mechanical properties and a study in how the flipped classroom is used in chemistry education

Sammanfattning: Today, paper and paperboard is an important part of the packaging industry, as well as natural part of our daily lives. The alternatives to paper and paperboard is often produced from nonrenewable sources such as petroleum and as demands on sustainability increase in the packaging sector, it gives paper a desirable advantage over plastics. To increase the use of paper, some of the limiting factors for paper needs to be overcome, such as its limited formability. One way to create a paper that can be formed in new ways is to imbibe the paper with an additive that makes its modulus changeable. This would make it possible to control the stiffness of the paper which would make it more formable. This have been the aim of this thesis. To create this formable paper four different approaches were used. Of these four, three included how paper can be treated with polyelectrolytes to be able to increase its modulus when stimuli are applied. The two first approaches were based on the layer-by-layer technique adsorbing alginate and cationic fibrils to form a layer that could be cross-linked, either on the surface of a film (the first approach) or in the network of fibres in a porous paper (the second approach). The last approach was to impregnate the papers with alginate. The results show that the first approach gave a too low adsorption of polyelectrolytes, why no difference could be detected. The second approach resulted in a higher adsorbed amount, but the effects were still too small. The third approach gave a paper which could, depending on the concentration of alginate, either increase or decrease its modulus when cross-linked. The last approach was to create a laminate, using unmodified fibers together with dialcohol cellulose fibres. This resulted in a paper that could be formed using heat and allowing the paper to cool down in the desirable form. In the curriculum for chemistry in Swedish high schools there is a paragraph that says that research in chemistry should be a part of the content the students learn. This is a challenge both to teachers and researchers. For teachers, to find research at an appropriate level and teach it in an understandable way. For researchers, to communicate the research so it is understandable for society. With this as a motivation, a second part of this thesis discuss the method flipped classroom in chemistry education at Swedish high schools. It was seen that from the teacher’s perspective, flipped classroom meant advantages that could be categorized into five categories. The categories that was found were Time to interact, Student responsibility, dialogue, laboratory work and understanding and using the language.