This assignment takes students through the process of learning how to find and read a paper from the primary literature, specifically to get experimental details (synthesis, characterization).  It also focuses on how to use a variety of chemical information resources.  It could be combined with the questions from Chemical Information Assignment to create a longer assignment.  

­This paper discusses the synthesis and characterization of a novel compound of nitrogen.  The pre-discussion assignment asks students draw a Lewis structure for the N₅⁺ cation, and using the tools of group theory, conduct a normal mode vibrational analysis, comparing the results to the experimental Raman spectral data.­­