Is NileRed’s “plastic gloves to hot sauce” experiment appropriate for a high school project?
Hey!
A bit of background: I’m about to start my final year of high school in Sweden. At the end of our education, every student has to complete a “Gymnasiearbete,” which is essentially an independent project involving an experiment and a written report related to our program.
I’m in the Natural Science Program and I’m particularly interested in chemistry, so I’d like to synthesize something. I stumbled upon NileRed’s video where he converts DINP from plastic gloves into nordihydrocapsaicin (pure spice) and uses it to make a hot sauce.
My question is if something like this would be appropriate for a school setting. My school is generally willing to purchase required chemicals unless they are highly toxic or carcinogenic (in which case supervision would be required). I’m also unsure whether we have access to equipment like NMR, which would likely be necessary.
For reference, my level of education is roughly equivalent to British A-levels.
Would a project like this be realistic or appropriate, or is it too advanced/unsafe for a high school lab?
If it happens to be too advanced/unsafe, what could be an alternative experiment?