The wave nature of electrons is applied to atomic structure and periodic trends. Inter and intramolecular bonding models are used to interpret the chemical and physical properties of various materials, from simplistic diatomic molecules to structurally complex molecular and ionic systems.
This Guided Literature Discussion was assigned as a course project and is the result of work originated by students Elina Andreassen and Abigail Palmer.
"Guess Who?" is a two player board game in which the object is to guess the identity of a character by asking questions about their appearance or features. This activity uses a similar game mechanic to identify concepts, models, and historical figures from inorganic chemistry.
Lignin material from plants may be transformed into useful organic materials. This LO is part of a special VIPEr collection honoring the 2022 ACS National Award recipients in the field of inorganic chemistry. Mahdi Abu Omar was the recipient of the ACS Award in Green Chemistry for his contributions to fundamental science and technology development for catalytic lignin conversion to renewable chemicals, fuels, and materials following green chemistry and engineering principles.
This literature discussion will guide students through an article that applies spectroscopic, structural, and computational analyses to a family of compounds of the type [Re(CO)3(dippM)Br]n+ (dippM = 1,1’-bis(diisopropyl)phosphino metallocene, M = Fe, n= 0 or 1; M = Co, n = 1).
This LO was created to celebrate Dr. Vivian W.-W. Yam's 2022 ACS Award, the Josef Michl Award in Photochemistry. These questions are written to help guide class discussion about this paper and the complexes in it. This LO would be good for an organometallics class or similar upper-division inorganic chemistry class.
The literature discussion is based on a manuscript by Gunnoe and coworkers (ACS Catal. 2021, 11, 5688-5702. DOI: 10.1021/acscatal.1c01203). The paper presents mechanistic studies of catalytic oxidative conversion of arenes and olefins to alkenyl arenes with a focus on styrene production.
This LO discuss various aspects of a reversible hydrogen activation by a metal-free phosphonium-borate compound. Attentions are paid to the specific and usual reaction between highly steric phosphine and borane reactants to form a zwitterionic phosphonium borate product. NMR spectroscopy, kinetics and thermodynamics of the hydrogen activation with the phosphonium borate product are also discussed. The original work was published in Science by Douglas W. Stephan and co-workers.
This collection accompanies the IONiC VIPEr nanoCHAt video series NeWBiEs, recorded in Spring 2022. This series is comprised of weekly conversations with two IONiC members, Wes Farrell and Shirley Lin from the US Naval Academy, as they taught a foundation-level inorganic chemistry course for the first time. The LOs discussed in the videos are included in this collection.
Course Description: This foundational course for 2nd-year students covers the properties and trends of molecules derived from across the periodic table. In addition to main-group elements, a deeper understanding of transition metal ions will be developed. Topics covered include periodicity, bonding, symmetry, and reactivity.