A literature discussion has been developed for two courses: (i) a more basic set of questions appropriate for a sophomore level course or, possibly, a one semester upper level course that does not spend much time on organometallics, and (ii) an in-depth, in- and out-of-class set of assignments appropriate for an organometallics unit or course. Both sets of questions explore the mechanism of olefin metathesis in first- and second-generation Grubbs catalysts using a variety of spectroscopic kinetic techniques that were presented in the paper Sanford, M. S.; Love, J. A.; Grubbs, R. H. J.

The literature discussion is based on one of the early papers from the Chirik group (J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2004, 126, 14688). In this communication, the coordination of N₂ to a series of (C₅H₄R)₂Ti fragments is examined. Being a communication, it is very short and that helps make it less intimidating for undergraduates. But don't be fooled, it is very rich in the fundamental concepts of orgnaometallic chemistry.

Reading and understanding a journal article is a critical skill to obtain as a student. After college, many students will pursue careers in which learning occurs exclusively from the literature. Students  will read a full paper from the journal Inorganic Chemistry and answer guiding questions pertaining to the article. There will be an in class discussion about the article to introduce which is used to introduce the topic of catalysis. This assignment breaks down the article through a series of questions that helps students to navigate a journal article.

The literature discussion is based on a paper by Legzdins (Organometallics, 2017, 36, 26). In this work, the C-H activation of methane by a [Cp*W(NO)(allyl)(alkyl)] compound is described. The paper is extremely well written and approachable for undergraduates, although the initial length and large quantity of experimental data might be a bit intimidating at first. The problem of using methane is a signifiant real world problem and as such should provide an interesting context to talk about this paper.

Literature discussion about the first examples of molecular hydrogen complexes isolated by Gregory J. Kubas in the early 80s. The questions are divided into groups with two levels of difficulty.

The more basic group of questions includes topics on:

1)      Coordination Chemistry: electron count, geometry, oxidation state, orbital interactions, types of ligands, binding modes, cis/trans and fac/mer isomers.

2)      Symmetry elements and point groups.

3)      Basic concepts on spectroscopy: NMR, Raman, IR, UV/Vis, XANES, EXAFS, neutron and X-ray diffraction

This is a literature discussion based on a short paper on ethylene compounds of the coinage metals (Dias, H. V. R.; Wu, J. Organometallics 2012, 31, 1511-1517). In this paper, analogous ethylene compounds are prepared with Cu(I), Ag(I) and Au(I). The other ligand on the coinage metal is a scorpionate tris(pyrazolyl)borate ligand. The strength of the interaction between the metal and the ethylene varies significantly with the coinage metal as seen in X-ray crystallographic and spectroscopic (¹H and ¹³C NMR) data.