I asked the students in my junior/senior inorganic course to develop their own literature discussion learning objects and lead the rest of the class in a discussion of their article.  Student Johann Maradiaga chose this article describing the synthesis and characterization of Fe₂GeS₄ nanocrystals with potential applications in photovoltaic devices (Sarah J. Fredrick and Amy L. Prieto, “Solution Synthesis and Reactivity of Colloidal Fe₂GeS₄: A Potential Candidate for Earth Abundant, Nanostructured Photovoltaics” J. Am. Chem.

This literature discussion activity is designed to highlight the use of different instrumentation and what details can be gained from each instrument.  It should also help the students review their knowledge of crystal structure, types of crystals, and amorphous solids.  The paper is from Chemistry of Materials, 2013, 25, 2394-2403 (DOI: 10.1021/cm303490y).  The paper should be given one week prior to class discussion, ideally after covering some of the instrumentation in class including X-ray dif

This literature discussion was created at the NSF-TUES sponsored workshop at Penn State, June 2013.  It is based on the article from Ray Schaak’s group (Buck, Matthew R.; Bondi, James F.; Schaak, Raymond E. “A total-synthesis framework for the construction of high-order colloidal hybrid nanoparticles” Nature Chemistry, 2012 4, 37-44, DOI: 10.1038/NCHEM.1195), which Ray presented at the workshop.

This Literature Discussion learning object (LO) is based on the paper “Template Electrodeposition of Single-Phase p- and n-Type Copper Indium Diselenide (CuInSe₂) Nanowire Arrays,” Emil A. Hernández-Pagán, Wei Wang, and Thomas E. Mallouk, ACS Nano, 2011, 5 (4), pp 3237–3241. DOI: 10.1021/nn200373k