This tutorial will introduce students to some of the three-dimensional crystal structures exhibited by ionic and metallic solids. They will examine the simple cubic, body-centered cubic, face-centered cubic, and the hexagonal closest-packed systems. To facilitate visualization of the structures at the atomic level, they will use the Crystal Explorer website at Purdue University.
This first-year laboratory is designed to give students an introduction to basic solid-state structures using both CrystalMaker files and physical models. I think this would work in a foundations level inorganic course as well. It could be used alternatively as an in-class activity or take-home problem set depending on the instructor. It was adapted by me and later, David Harvey, from an original activity that was posted as an educational resource on the CrystalMaker website in the mid 2000s.
Congratulations to the 2019 recipients of the Nobel Prize - John B. Goodenough, M. Stan Whittingham and Akira Yoshino. It's a well deserved honor!
There are several LOs on VIPEr that talk about lithium ion batteries and related systems. The 2019 Nobel is a great opportunity to include something about these batteries in your class.
I hope to see more LOs in the coming weeks so we can bring this chemistry into our classrooms!
This is a 1 Figure lit discussion (1FLO) based on a Figure from a 2015 JACS article on synthesizing conductive MOFs. This LO introduces students to Metal-Organic Frameworks and focuses on characterization techniques and spectroscopy.
This literature discussion explores the physical structures, electronic structures, and spectroscopic characterization of several porphyrin-based metal-organic frameworks through discussion of “Iron and Porphyrin Metal−Organic Frameworks: Insight into Structural Diversity, Stability, and Porosity,” Fateeva et al. Cryst. Growth Des. 2015, 15, 1819-1826, http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1021/cg501855k.
This site is another excellent resource from Dean Johnston (see also his Symmetry resource).
Important Note: Part of this web resource has recently been replaced by a new site with a new URL. The previous version used JSmol and had some quirks with ion sizes, but this complete revision addresses those and has a much more robust "tutorial" style for students to work through solid state structural types.
During our first fellows workshop, the first cohort of VIPEr fellows pulled together learning objects that they've used and liked or want to try the next time they teach their inorganic courses.
The hyperphysics website uses concept maps as a way to organize physics content knowledge: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/hframe.html (condensed matter). I cam across this website while doing a review of the literature on what students know about semiconductors. There are nice explanations of many of the topics associated with semiconductors and they are organized in an unique way.
This Learning Object came to being sort of (In-)organically on the first day of my sophomore level intro to inorganic course. As I always do, I started the course with the IC Top 10 First Day Activity. (https://www.ionicviper.org/classactivity/ic-top-10-first-day-activity). One of the pieces of that In class activity asks students- novices at Inorganic Chemistry- to sort the articles from the Most Read Articles from Inorganic Chemistry into bins of the various subdisciplines of Inorganic Chemistry.
What is a foundations inorganic course? Here is a great description