A study of the chemistry of inorganic compounds, including the principles of covalent and ionic bonding, symmetry, periodic properties, metallic bonding, acid-base theories, coordination chemistry, inorganic reaction mechanisms, and selected topics in descriptive inorganic chemistry. Laboratory work is required.
The class is divided into two parts. In the first part students learn the physical principles involved with the absorption of light and the photophysical and photochemical processes that may occur aafter the abosrption of light. The second part uses literature discussions and student presentations to explore applications of photophysical and photochemical reactions in inorganic chemistry
This course is designed to give an introduction to the concepts of electronic structure, bonding,
and reactivity in inorganic chemistry. The field is too vast to comprehensively cover every aspect in
a single semester, so this class will offer a qualitative overview of inorganic chemistry. Reading and
understanding scientific literature is an important skill for any scientist to have, whether you move
on to grad school, professional school, or the job market, so relevant literature articles will be
What is a foundations inorganic course? Here is a great description
The Interactive Syllabus is a web-based survey delivery of syllabus content to your students prior to the first day of classes. The web link below explains many of the features and advantages, but in my opinion some of the best benefits are (1) students actually engage with the content on the syllabus in meaningful ways, (2) it saves class time on the first day, and (3) can encourage students to share questions/concerns they may not have been as eager to share in person.
The survey is built on the qualtrics platform, but could be adapted for other programs.
An overview of descriptive main group chemistry, solid state structures and the energetics of ionic, metallic, and covalent solids, acid-base chemistry and the coordination chemistry of the transition metals. The course is intended to explore and describe the role of inorganic chemistry in other natural sciences with an emphasis on the biological and geological sciences. Important compounds and reactions in industrial chemistry are also covered. Intended for both chemistry and non-chemistry majors.
For inorganic lab, I have my students write their lab reports in the style of the journal Inorganic Chemistry. The first week of lab, we spend time in small groups looking at several examples of recent articles from Inorganic Chemistry, focusing mainly on the experimental section and the abstract (as these are included in every lab report). We then come back together as a class to have a discussion of each of the sections in the articles. We discuss what was included in each section, what wasn’t included, and the style, tone, tense, and voice of each section.
I present a format for more effective communiction of errors in lab reports to students that I term Errors Checklists. Grading lab reports are one of the banes of our existence as professors. They are endless, unremitting papers that need to be scrutinized for accuracy, precision and understanding.
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).