This recent article discusses a series of isostructural complexes across the lanthanides using a multidentate ligand. In these structures, the lanthanides are all eight-coordinate, bonded to all oxygen donors. Copious structural data is presented that provides excellent experimental verification of the lanthanide contraction.
This is a list of Nobel Prizes that in my opinion were either in Inorganic Chemistry or in an area that has impacted Inorganic Chemistry. I pass this out to students on the first day of class when we are talking very generally about what inorganic chemistry is all about. This could be extended into a longer discussion at this point or at a later point on one or more of the prizes. For example, later in the semester I have them read the Nobel Prize address of Alfred Werner. This helps to inform their lab work and introduces coordination chemistry, which we have not yet discussed in lectu
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This is a worksheet on Lewis structures and formal charges. The learning goal is for students to be able to use formal charges to defend the relative stabilities of resonance structures of molecules.
I have students construct Lewis structures on the board starting at the noble gases and working backwards to the group 14 elements. We talk about both second period then heavier elements. As we move across the period we transition from molecular solids to extended solids.
This is a nice transition from molecular chemistry to extended compounds. I use this as a bridge into the solid state portion of the course because it allows me to review Lewis structures, trends in bond energies, and provide some descriptive chemistry information.
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.