This is an in-class activity that I use in my advanced general chemistry course to teach students how to qualitatively assign oxo anions as non-basic, feebly basic, or basic. Being able to qualitatively make these assignments helps students when we get to predicting solubility of compounds using Bronsted acidity and basicity.
This is an in-class activity that I use in my advanced general chemistry course to teach students how to rank the relative acidity of monoatomic cations and how to qualitatively predict the strength of the interaction of these cations with water (hydration and hydrolysis).
This is an in-class activity that I use in my advanced general chemistry course right before I start teaching about the relationship between the Bronsted acidity of cations and their hydration/hydrolysis. This is the first topic in the course (reactions of ions in aqueous solution), and we would have just spent a lecture reviewing intermolecular forces.
This course will emphasize the fundamental concepts needed to understand the diverse chemistry of all the elements of the periodic table. The common theme for the entire course will be Structure and Bonding. The primary focus will be inorganic molecules, ions and solids, but the concepts we will discuss are applicable to all aspects of chemistry. The first two-thirds of the course will cover theories of bonding in molecules and solids along with some background in symmetry and structure.
A collection of all of the IONiC VIPEr NanoCHAts. These are short discussion on a teaching topic by 4-5 faculty members from different institutions. Each of these events is recorded and posted to the IONiC VIPEr YouTube Channel.
This is a virtual adaptation of a buffer capacity lab experiment using the chemcollective digital workspace. Students learn to make buffers in different ways and then test the capacity of their buffers to understand what makes an optimal buffer.
The article from The Journal of the American Chemical Society by M. Kanatzidis et al describes a new ion-exchange material (FJSM-SnS) that shows high selectivity for rare-earth metals (REE) and very fast adsorption kinetics. A number of techniques are used to characterize the properties of the compound that students may not be very familiar with but the article presents in an accessible way.
I created this activity as a way to get the class involved in creating new, fun ways to teach course concepts (selfishly- that part is for me) and for students to review concepts prior to the final exam (for them). Students use a template to create a 15-20 min activity that can be used in groups during class to teach a concept we have learned during the semester. We then randomly assign the activities and students work in groups to complete them and provide feedback.
The benefits are twofold:
This is the classic Job's Method experiment from "Synthesis and Technique in Inorganic Chemistry" 2nd Ed. (1977 or 1986 pp 108-114) by R. J. Angelici. There are slight changes from the experiment published in the book but they just include running solutions with ethylenediamine mole fractions of 0.67 and 0.75, so details will not be provided. What is provided are a series of pictures and videos showing the experiment being performed. Also included are the raw files of the absorbance spectra in EXCEL.
Many of the topics in this course have their origins in the topics that are covered in General Chemistry but are covered in more detail. Many of the rules learned in General Chemistry are actually the exception. Chemical systems are much more complicated than the simple models presented in a first year course. The course begins with the electronic structure and periodic properties of atoms followed by discussion of covalent, ionic, and metallic bonding theories and structures. Students also apply acid-base principles to inorganic systems. The second half of the course is dedicated to t