This Learning Object is dedicated to Prof. Claudia Turro as part of the VIPEr LGBTQIAN+ LO collection created in celebration of Pride Month (Jun) 2022. Prof. Turro was featured in the April 2022 special virtual issue Out in Inorganic Chemistry: A Celebration of LGBTQIAPN+ Inorganic Chemists (https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.inorgchem.2c00729). Claudia holds a special place in my heart. I came out later in life, and she was incredibly supportive as I wrestled with my identity as a gay man.

This literature discussion focuses on a J. Am. Chem. Soc. communication that describes a series of Pt complexes that exhibit competitive reductive elimination reactions to form either an sp²-sp³ bond or an sp³-sp³ bond. One of the complexes also contains a C-C agostic interaction with the metal. The questions are written to be addressed by students in a foundation-level inorganic course.

This Guided Literature Discussion was assigned as a course project and is the result of work originated by students Elina Andreassen and Abigail Palmer.

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 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. 

This literature discussion focuses on the synthesis, characterization, and polymerization behavior of non-cyclopentadienyl-based Group 4 catalysts for the polymerization of ethylene/1-octene and propylene.

This LO is part of a special VIPEr collection honoring the 2022 ACS National Award recipients in the field of inorganic chemistry. Jerzy Klosin was the recipient of the ACS Award in Industrial Chemistry for the development of versatile homogeneous catalysts for the production of a wide range of polymer-based materials on a large industrial scale.

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.