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I will be teaching our one semester Inorganic course (with lab) in the Spring for the first time. I am working on the lab syllabus and would love to know your must-do/favorite/fail proof (ha) experiments. I've gotten a few good ideas from those posted to the forums, but am interested in hearing about some of the classics on your syllabus as well. What experiment(s) do you do that students get the most out of? What experiment(s) do they enjoy the most? Thanks.
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optical resolution of [Co(en)3]3+ is a classic. It introduces a lot of good chemistry and the preps usually work.
I'm partial to the Mn(dppm)(P(OPh)3)(Br)(CO)2 experiment (search viper for manganses carbonyl. This has some classic substitution chemistry and a good review of IR stretching modes.
I really like the M(acac)3 experiment, I think there are links to it on this site as well. This one introduced Evans NMR for counting unpaired electrons, and you can do a crystal growing competition.
You could have each student make a different (arene)Cr(CO)3 complex and compare the CO stretching frequences with electron donating ability of the arene.
Every student's hands down favorite is making YBCO superconductor, but if you can't access 915 °C in a furnace, you're out of luck. This one is good for introducing non-stoichiometry.
I'd be happy to share my local modifications of these and other labs if you're interested.
Adam
Adam,
Thanks so much for the suggestions - they have been useful in my planning. I would love it if you would share your instructions for the YBCO and Mn(dppm)(P(OPh)3)(Br)(CO)2 experiments.
Amanda
Amanda, they're in the mail. The Mn experiment is on VIPEr...
https://www.ionicviper.org/lab-experiment/manganese-carbonyl-experiment
Adam
Adam,
Could you possibly send along to me also your local modifications. I have never actually taught any of those experiments other than the M(acac)3 experiment. Any help with modifications would be extremely helpful this coming winter since I am teaching it for the first time and we have 12 students in a lab not really equiped for an inorganic lab.
Thanks,
Nick