Inorganic Chemistry
Modern theories of atomic structure and chemical bonding and their applocations to molecular and metallic structures and coordination chemistry.
Modern theories of atomic structure and chemical bonding and their applocations to molecular and metallic structures and coordination chemistry.
Introduction to classical and modern techniques for
synthesizing inorganic compounds of representative and transition
metal elements and the extensive use of IR, NMR, mass, and UV-visible
spectroscopies and other physical measurements to characterize
products. Syntheses and characterization of inorganic and organic
materials/polymers are included. Attendance at departmental seminars
required. Lecture, laboratory, oral presentations.
This course uses molecular orbital theory to explain the electronic structure and reactivity of inorganic complexes. Topics include symmetry and its applications to bonding and spectroscopy, electronic spectroscopy of transition-metal complexes, mechanisms of substitution and redox processes, organometallic and multinuclear NMR.
Additional notes
I do not require a formal text but George Stanley's organometallic chemistry 'book' on VIPEr is made available to students (the link is found below).
Introduces the theories of atomic structure and bonding in main-group and solid-state compounds. Common techniques for characterizing inorganic compounds such as NMR, IR, and mass spectrometry are discussed. Descriptive chemistry of main group elements is examined. Conductivity, magnetism, superconductivity, and an introduction to bioinorganic chemistry are additional topics in the course. In lieu of the laboratory, students have a project on a topic of their choice. Serves as an advanced chemistry elective for biochemistry majors.
Inorganic chemists study the entire periodic table (even carbon—as long as it’s bound to a metal!) and are interested in the structure and reactivity of a wide variety of complexes. We will spend the first third of the course learning some “tools” and then will apply them to a variety of current topics in inorganic chemistry (bioinorganic chemistry, solid state materials, catalysis, nuclear chemistry, and more!).
Chapter 11 from George Stanley's organometallics course, Ligand Substitution
this chapter covers ligand substitution reactions.
The powerpoint slides contain answers to some of the in-class exercises, so those are behind the "faculty only" wall. I share these with students after the class, but not before.
Everyone is more than welcome to edit the materials to suit their own uses, and I would appreciate being notified of any mistakes that are found.
This LO describes a laboratory experiment in which students generate (in situ) an iron catalyst for the arylation of alkyl halides (Kumada coupling). Students pool data from the class to discern what features lead to successful catalyst systems. GC-MS or GC-FID may be used to quantify the catalytic performance of each system, and results may be expressed as % conversion, with TON/TOF values. Students gain experience proposing reasonable coordination complexes that may be formed from the catalyst precursors, and searching the literature/databases for related compounds/systems.
The set of questions in this literature discussion activity is intended to engage students in reading and interpreting scientific literature and to develop a clear and coherent understanding of agostic interactions.
This paper describes the synthesis of a stable compound of sodium and helium at very high pressures. The paper uses computational methods to predict likely compounds with helium, then describe a synthetic protocol to make the thermodynamically favored Na2He compound. The compound has a fluorite structure and is an electride with the delocalization of 2e- into the structure.
This paper would be appropriate after discussion of solid state structures and band theory.
The questions are divided into categories and have a wide range of levels.
In this literature discussion, students use a paper from the literature to explore the synthesis, structure, characterization (powder XRD, EDS and TEM) and energetics associated with the production of a metastable wurtzite CoS phase. Students also are asked define key terms and acronyms used in the paper; identify the goal of the experiments and determine if the authors met their goal. They examine the fundamental concepts around the key crystal structures available.