Submitted by Maggie Geselbracht / Reed College on Fri, 02/08/2008 - 01:20
My Notes
Categories
Prerequisites
General Chemistry
Corequisites
Physical Chemistry: Quantum Mechanics
Course Level
Second year
Topics Covered
Molecular structure
Periodic trends
Subdiscipline
Atomic Structure and Periodicity
f-block Chemistry
Description

This recent article discusses a series of isostructural complexes across the lanthanides using a multidentate ligand.  In these structures, the lanthanides are all eight-coordinate, bonded to all oxygen donors.  Copious structural data is presented that provides excellent experimental verification of the lanthanide contraction.  

Related activities
One hour lanthanides overview
F-elements Lecture Material
Web Resources
JACS, 129, 11153-11160 (2007).
Evaluation
Evaluation Results

I have not used this yet in class, but it would seem to be an excellent paper, destined to be a classic in the field. Alternatively, the paper could form the basis for a good problem set question.

Creative Commons License
Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share Alike CC BY-NC-SA

Comments

Hilary Eppley / DePauw University
I wonder if you could add a Cambridge Structural database assignment where students actually find that kind of information themselves.... Hilary Eppley, DePauw University heppley@depauw.edu
Fri, 02/08/2008 - 06:47 Permalink
Hilary Eppley / DePauw University

I created a problem set question where students do have to go to Cambridge Structure Database and find a group of related compounds and compare bond distances and essentially derive the lanthanide contraction.  

heppley@depauw.edu

Sun, 06/15/2008 - 13:54 Permalink