Nanomaterials Chemistry
This list includes a number of LOs to help in teaching nanomaterials subjects; however, it is not exhaustive.
Updated June 2018.
ColourLex - a colorful website!
Description
ColourLex (colourlex.com) is an amazing website that mixes chemistry and art. The creators of this website have extensively catalogued paintings and the pigments that were used to create them. The pigments range from artificial to natural and organic to inorganic. You can search for the specific combination that you want to see.
Synthesis and Characterization of a Series of Organometallic Ru(II) Complexes with Fluorinated Phosphine and Phosphite Ligands
Description
In this experiment, students will synthesize and characterize a series of Ru(II) p-cymene piano-stool complexes.
Annotated List of Metal-Containing Structures in the Cambridge Structural Database Teaching Subset
Description
The Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre (CCDC) provides many free programs that can be used to view and manipulate crystal structures. Additionally, they have made a subset of the Cambridge Structural Database (CSD) available for teaching purposes and many educational activities have been created to go along with this teaching subset (see link below). This teaching subset can be freely viewed through the WebCSD interface or can be used in the freely-available Mercury program. (Mercury is avaliable for Mac, Windows, and Linux systems.)
A Demonstration to Segue Between d to d and CT Transitions
Description
The following is a simple in-class “demonstration” that I use to segue between d to d and charge transfer transitions. After teaching about d to d transitions and Tanabe-Sugano Diagrams, I show my students three solutions that I have put in large test tubes before class. The three solutions I place in the test tubes are:
a. 10 ml of 0.1M Co(H2O)62+
b. 10 ml of 0.1M Cu(H2O)62+
c. 10 ml of a freshly prepared 0.1 M KMnO4 solution
Peer Review - How does it work?: A literature discussion with a focus on scientific communication
Description
This learning object is based on discussion of the literature, but it follows a paper through the peer review process. Students first read the original submitted draft of a paper to ChemComm that looks at photochemical reduction of methyl viologen using CdSe quantum dots. There are several important themes relating to solar energy storage and the techniques discussed, UV/vis, SEM, TEM, electrochemistry, and catalysis, can be used for students in inorganic chemistry.
Ir(III) Catalyst Regeneration Using Molecular Oxygen: Addressing Key Challenges that Hinder Alkane Dehydrogenation Catalysis. A Literature Discussion
Description
This Learning Object involves reading a recent scientific journal article, answering questions relating to the content, and participating in a classroom discussion. The paper under review is “Regeneration of an Iridium (III) Complex Active for Alkane Dehydrogenation Using Molecular Oxygen,” Organometallics, 33, 1337-1340. DOI: /10.1021/om401241e).
Literature Discussion: Manganese mesbpy electrocatalysts for carbon dioxide reduction
Description
Upper division literature discussion of a JACS paper on electrocatalysis. This activity serves as an introductory look at the paper as a homework assignment to prepare the student for a more in depth class discussion.
A discussion on "Electrochemical formation of a surface-adsorbed hydrogen-evolving species"
Description
The paper entitled “Electrochemical hydrogenation of a homogeneous nickel complex to form a surface adsorbed hydrogen-evolving species” explores the discovery, characterization and catalytic activity of a film that deposited on the electrode while studying a nickel complex under electrocatalytic conditions.
This literature discussion includes several sets of questions that address different aspects of the paper, as described in the implementation notes.
Vibrational Modes and IR Spectra using Character Tables
Description
In this activity, students in my upper-level Inorganic course are given two possible structures of sulfur dioxide, and based on an assessment of given vibrational modes, they determine which of the modes are IR active by two methods: (1) the “Intro Chem” method (determing whether the dipole moment changes for a particular vibrational mode) and (2) using character tables. They compare their assessment to experimental IR absorption peaks, and the students decide which structure is valid. For those of you who teach Raman spectroscopy, it could be included in this LO as well.