Ligands can bind to anions, just as they do to metal ions, and Bowman-James developed these analogies as well as many examples of selective anion binding ligands. This short slide decks gives background to her work as well as some relevant introductory material.
This collection of learning objects was created to celebrate the National ACS Award Winners 2021 who are members of the Division of Inorganic Chemistry. The list of award winners is shown below.
The discussion covers a 2021 publication by the Chirik group (Nature Chemistry, 2021, DOI: 10.1038/s41557-020-00614-w) which details the discovery of a new way to polymerize butadiene through iron-catalyzed [2+2] cycloadd
In this literature discussion, students are asked to explore the chemistry behind a eta-1 to eta-2 linkage photoisomer of sulfur dioxide bound to pentammine osmium. There are questions that tie to chemical structure and the nature of the two bonding modes of the ligand as well as an examination of the spectroscopic properties of the complex in the solid state. Two of the questions ask students to draw some conclusions based on their knowledge of periodic trends and the sigma donor ability of ligands.
This is the seventh SLiThEr () in the series. In this presentation/discussion, Dr. Shirley Lin explains how she used a literature discussion with students to assess their learning and knowledge. This was for a upper-division senior seminar course. In particular, she discusses questions at various levels of Bloom's Taxonomy. She also explains how to use concepts from Chemical Education Research to really dig down and assess student knowledge.
This is the link to the first SLiThEr (Supporting Learning with Interactive Teaching: a Hosted, Engaging Roundtable), presented by Kyle Grice and Hosted by Chip Nataro. The SLiThEr was recorded and posted on YouTube (see the web resources link).
In 2009, Flick Coleman at Wellesley whipped up a brilliant little web-based tool that showed how the electronegativity and energy difference of atomic orbitals leads to changes in the resulting molecular orbitals. I've used it every year. But it runs on Flash, Flash is about to die forever (no longer supported as of Jan 2021), and I don't think Flick is going to make us an HTML5 version. (And wow I know I can't do that. Does somebody else know how to do that?)
Students first learn the basics of WebMO by building and optimizing 2 small molecules. They then calculate and visualize the molecular orbitals of two diatomic molecules (N2 and BF) and observe how going from a homonuclear to heteronuclear molecule changes the shape of different molecular orbitals.
As written this activity uses the WebMO demo server so no computational chemistry software/licences are required.
This article provides an entry point for students to apply their knowledge of electron configurations and molecular orbital theory to the lanthanide and actinide elements. We have provided a large number of possible questions to use, grouped by theme. Instructors can pick and choose questions that best fit their course.
This literature discussion was based on a short, readable piece from the trade magazine Chemical and Engineering News. Since this was written in a more general tone, it served as a reasonable introduction to carbenes for students in my advanced inorganic class. I have been looking to expand the examples of carbenes presented to students beyond those in the text. Simple examples of Fischer, Schrock, and N-heterocyclic carbenes are plentiful, but modern applications haven't been featured in the text that I use.