Record Number of Awards Won at Cambridge University Chemistry Competition

The C3L6 Chemistry competition is a national “mini-Chemistry Olympiad”, run by Cambridge University, aimed at Year 12 pupils. This year, 45 Wykehamists were among the 12,968 candidates to sit the exam just before the end of term. 

Wykehamists have enjoyed a good deal of success in C3L6 in the last five years, but this year’s results were particularly remarkable, with no less than five pupils winning the top Roentgenium award, a prize only given to the top 0.54% of candidates.

As Roentgenium winners, they will be invited to a summer camp at St. Catherine’s College, Cambridge, just before the end of the summer holidays where Professor Peter Wothers will put them through their paces and introduce them to some university-level practical techniques.

In the exam, the pupils found themselves answering questions on the Chemistry of arsenic and arsenic(III) oxide in particular. The rest of the paper focussed on perfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAs), such as PTFE which is better known to most as Teflon™, many of which have excellent water-repelling and non-stick properties.

Starting from the simple molecule butane, candidates were asked to use conformational analysis, usually an undergraduate-level concept, to understand the geometry of the PTFE helix and its resultant properties.

In total, Wykehamists won 5 Roentgenium, 19 Gold, 13 Silver and 5 Copper medals. The total of 24 Roentgenium and Gold awards is the best haul of top awards the school has ever achieved in a single year.

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