This is a literature-based activity that focuses on a review I recently published as part of a thematic series on C-H activation.

The review highlights similarities between the newly discovered frustrated Lewis pairs and polarized metal-ligand multiple bonds.  There are many ways to use the review, but the attached set of questions focuses on drawing analogies among seemingly diverse types of reactivity using frontier-molecular-orbital considerations.

This is a literature discussion based on an interesting Bergman/Arnold paper utilizing d² niobium imido complexes for the semihydrogenation of arylalkynes to Z-alkenes.  The mechanism is quite unusual, and I found it to be an interesting paper to discuss after we had talked about the classical hydrogenation mechanisms (typically observed for late transition metals).  The students should come into the discussion understanding fundamental reaction mechanisms (including σ-bond metathesis), and it's helpful if they are somewhat familiar with mono- and dihydride mech

This learning object has the student search the chemical literature for a paper focusing on a catalytic cycle (Wilkinson’s, Grubbs, Heck, Wacker, Suzuki, Click, etc.). They answer a set of guiding questions for reading the literature, then analyze the catalytic cycle presented in the paper to assign oxidation state, d electron count, valence electron count, and preferred geometry for each complex in the cycle. They also identify the process(es) occurring during each step in the cycle.

This is a literature discussion of a short JACS communication that describes an iridium catalyst for the reduction of bicarbonate to formate. It addresses green chemistry, potential industrial processes, bridges between homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis, pH-dependent solubility, electron counting, oxidation state assignments, and thermodynamic analyses.

Searching and reading the literature is an important tool in teaching organometallic chemistry. This overall project focuses on the improving students' writing skills and to begin to think critically about articles in the literature through a series of different writing assignments. This project is used in a semester long course on organometallics and reaction mechanisms. The first assignment (this LO) is a summary, the second is related to the NSF highlight, and the third is a literature critique.