After successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Indicate the number and approximate location of protons, neutrons, and electrons in a given atom. Electron configurations and quantum numbers will be used to assign probabilities of finding electrons in each of the orbitals. Paramagnetism will be exemplified in a lab experiment.

• Describe the symmetry, geometry, and electronic structure of a molecule using valence bond theory and molecular orbital theory. Electronegativity, polarity, hybridization, resonance, delocalized bonding are all concepts that can aid the description.

• Predict whether optical, linkage, or coordination isomerism is possible within a molecule and describe the expected results of experiments that may be able to differentiate or describe the isomers. Lab experiments will explore a set of linkage isomers and a set of optical isomers.

• Employ crystal field theory, ligand field theory, and the spectrochemical series to anticipate the color and reactivity of coordination complexes. A lab experiment will explore the ligand exchange kinetics of a coordination complex and the UV-visible spectroscopy of a series of cobalt complexes.

• Describe solid state structure crystal packing and use lattice energy, trends in ionization energy and ionic radii to understand inorganic salt formation. Salts are often purified by recrystallization as carried out in the first lab experiment.

• Analyze experimental data to confirm the thermodynamics of reactions based on reduction-oxidation potentials and known constants. Also apply these redox potentials to describe the anticipated photovoltaic chemistry of various organometallic dye compounds in solar cells. A photovoltaic device will be constructed as the final lab experiment.