SOP4CV - A Web Resource for Cyclic Voltammetry Information

Submitted by Gerard Rowe / University of South Carolina Aiken on Fri, 05/05/2017 - 11:00
Description

http://sop4cv.com/

This is a great website created by Dr. Daniel Graham (who has the distinction of publishing a paper featured on TOC ROFL) to give anyone a working understanding of cyclic voltammetry techniques, their physical background, and the interpretation of their results.  

Redox Chemistry and Modern Battery Technology

Submitted by Zachary Tonzetich / University of Texas at San Antonio on Mon, 04/10/2017 - 11:33
Description

This In-Class Activity is a series of instructor-guided discussion questions that explore lithium-ion batteries through the lens of simple redox chemistry. I use this exercise as a review activity in my Descriptive Inorganic Chemistry course to help prepare for examinations. However, my primary purpose with this exercise is to impress upon students how basic concepts in redox chemistry and solid-state structure are directly relevant to technologies they use everyday.

Nanomaterials for Carbon Dioxide Reduction

Submitted by Anne Bentley / Lewis & Clark College on Mon, 03/27/2017 - 12:58
Description

This literature discussion is based on an article describing the use of copper nanoparticles on an N-doped textured graphene material to carry out the highly selective reduction of CO2 to ethanol (Yang Song et al., “High-Selectivity Electrochemical Conversion of CO2 to Ethanol using a Copper Nanoparticle / N-Doped Graphene Electrode” ChemistrySelect 2016, 1, 6055-6061.  DOI: 10.1002/slct.201601169). The article provides a good introduction to the concepts of electrochemical reduction, selectivity and recycling of fossil fuels.

Formulas and Nomenclature of Compounds

Submitted by Sarah Shaner / Southeast Missouri State University on Sun, 03/26/2017 - 12:41
Description

Students will be given the formula for a cation or anion on a slip of paper or index card. He or she will find another student with an ion with the opposite charge and practice writing the formula and naming the ionic compound that would result by combining the cation and anion. Students also answer a few questions about naming and formulas of binary molecular compounds with their partner.

In-class peer review

Submitted by Chantal Stieber / Cal Poly Pomona on Fri, 03/03/2017 - 17:15
Description

This activity includes questions for students to answer to help guide them through the process of peer review. It was designed to assist students in writing peer reviews for research reports written by their classmates, but could be applied to literature articles as well.

Experimenting with Danger- CSB safety Video

Submitted by Sheila Smith / University of Michigan- Dearborn on Thu, 03/02/2017 - 12:19
Description

This 2011 video by the Chemical Safety Board is a very serious and moving motivation for adopting safe practices in the chemical laboratory.  It focuses on two recent and very real safety issues in University labs (UCLA, 2008 and TTU, 2010 ), both of which have shaken the educational research community to result in positive change. 

I have shared a "SafeShare" link so that you will not have to listen to ads, and if you choose to play the link in your classroom, you will not see all the Youtube ads on the screen.  

Reactivity and Bonding of Complexes with Metal-Metal Bonds

Submitted by Chantal Stieber / Cal Poly Pomona on Wed, 03/01/2017 - 19:04
Description

This problem set was designed to be an in-class activity for students to practice applying their knowledge of metal-metal bonding (as discussed in the previous lecture) to recently published complexes in the literature. In this activity, complexes from four papers by Christine M. Thomas and coworkers are examined to give students practice in electron counting (CBC method), drawing molecular orbitals, and fundamental organometallic reactions.

Diverting Wilkinson's Catalyst: Critical Analysis of a Literature Paper

Submitted by Matt Whited / Carleton College on Tue, 02/21/2017 - 18:52
Description

This LO is a problem-set-style literature discussion that leads students through a critical analysis of an interesting but flawed paper from the recent chemical literature.  Students use the questions to help them work through the paper prior to class, providing plenty of raw material for an in-class discussion about various aspects of the work from a mechanistic organometallic perspective.  The questions help students critically analyze substrate tables, spectroscopic data, and computational results from DFT.

Six-coordinate Carbon In-class Activity

Submitted by Kyle Grice / DePaul University on Fri, 02/03/2017 - 22:29
Description

This is an in-class exercise developed based on a recent paper in Angewandte Chemie International Edition that reported a crystal structure of "six-coordinate" carbon. We normally think of carbon being four-coordinate at most, but this case has definitive evidence otherwise. However, we can use our inorganic chemistry knowledge to understand the structure and bonding of this molecule and rationalize its stability. Students do a pre-class exercise and then construct the MO of fhe molecule in class together. 

Iron Catalysts for Lactide Polymerization

Submitted by Anthony L. Fernandez / Merrimack College on Fri, 01/27/2017 - 21:11
Description

This set of questions is intended to guide students through an excellent article by Jeff Byers and co-workers that describes the us