Inorganic Chemistry Forums

Submitted by Adam Johnson / Harvey Mudd College on Fri, 04/26/2013 - 12:55
Description

Beginning with Volume 43, Issue 25, Inorganic Chemistry began publishing Forums.

Inorganic Chemistry Forums consist of a set of thematically linked papers from leading scientists on a multidisciplinary topic of growing interest. Papers present overviews, research perspectives and original research reports on the Forum theme and are highlighted on the cover of the journal issue in which they appear.

A Visual Isotope Effect (a YouTube video)

Submitted by Dan O'Leary / Pomona College on Wed, 04/24/2013 - 17:46
Description

We have prepared a YouTube video demonstrating a visually accessible kinetic isotope effect in the Cr(VI) oxidation process, a reaction commonly encountered in introductory organic chemistry. The demo provides students with an opportunity to see an isotope effect and then understand how it can be used to provide mechanistic evidence for the identification of a rate-determining reaction step.

MO Theory for Organometallic Compounds: Pentalene

Submitted by Zachary Tonzetich / University of Texas at San Antonio on Thu, 04/11/2013 - 16:54
Description

This is an in-class exercise for upper level inorganic students designed to highlight aspects of symmetry, group theory, MO theory, and Hückel theory. The exercise is an expansion of a Problem Set question I give to my Advanced Inorganic Chemistry class. In this activity, students will develop the MO diagram for the π system of the pentalene dianion using the Hückel approach. They will then consider the effect of folding the ring system using a Walsh diagram.

The Guided Tour of Metalloproteins

Submitted by Anthony L. Fernandez / Merrimack College on Tue, 04/09/2013 - 07:41
Description

Bob Morris of the University of Toronto created this website when he was teaching a class on Bioinorganic Chemistry.

Energy Content and Properties of Fuels

Submitted by Matt Whited / Carleton College on Thu, 03/07/2013 - 10:59
Description

This is a group activity I developed for my "Introduction to Chemistry" class, which is set up primarily to cover the topics we consider to be prerequisites for the first course in our chemistry sequence at Carleton.  However, it covers aspects of thermodynamics (e.g., particularly Hess's Law) that are core topics for most intro courses.

The Lewis Dot Structure(s) of Nitryl Fluoride

Submitted by Sheila Smith / University of Michigan- Dearborn on Wed, 09/26/2012 - 20:43
Description

This is the In Class Activity that I use to review the concepts of Lewis Dot Structures, LDS, (connectivity, resonance, formal charges, etc.) learned in General Chemistry and to introduce new ideas of resonance contributions to the character of the molecule.  The question itself is apparently very simple, but the discussion that it produces can be quite rich and brings in both new and old ideas of LDS, providing both a good review and a good segue into advanced ideas of Lewis Dot Structures.

keeping a lab notebook

Submitted by Adam Johnson / Harvey Mudd College on Thu, 09/13/2012 - 23:19
Description

I found this great website linked from somewhere a few days or a week ago and already forgot where. But I am teaching organic lab this semester and convinced one of the students to do a little research. As a reward, I am going to buy her, and the whole class, gelly roller pens for keeping their notebooks.

This is a GREAT site that has so much detail on keeping a lab notebook. There is a lot of great stuff in there.

Oxidative Suzuki-Type C-H Functionalization (Learning to Read a Detailed Organic Paper)

Submitted by Matt Whited / Carleton College on Tue, 07/17/2012 - 21:09
Description

This is a literature excercise I used in my upper-level organometallic course to guide students through some of the important points of a detailed organic/organometallic paper.  I have found that the first hurdles in some of these papers involve getting students to the point where they can understand (a) what specific reaction is being performed, and (b) what the role of each reagent is.  This set of questions includes a mix of material, including some things that are specifically stated in the article and some that are implied or referenced elsewhere.  I found that excercises like this one

Cu/Pd catalysis review article

Submitted by Adam Johnson / Harvey Mudd College on Sat, 05/12/2012 - 20:10

VIPEr user and supporter Melanie Sanford has a recent review article entitled "High-valent organometallic copper and palladium in catalysis." The article reviews the use of high-valent Cu and Pd catalysts for improving the activity, selectivity, and scope of chemical processes. Coauthor Amanda Hickman is my former student (insert paternal pride here).
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v484/n7393/full/nature11008.html

Congratulations Melanie and Amanda!