Fourier Transforms and the Phase Problem

Submitted by Adam Johnson / Harvey Mudd College on Tue, 06/09/2009 - 13:03
Description

At the end of my inorganic course, I teach several "cool" spectroscopic techniques that inorganic chemists use.  These techniques are discussed within the context of bioinorganic chemistry, and I typically cover EXAFS/XANES, X-ray crystallography, EPR and Mössbauer.  

This website introduces (or reviews) Fourier Transforms in a neat graphical way, but most importantly, illustrates the phase problem.  Given the intensities from your crystal and the phases from your model, the phases are more important!  Which is too bad, as we don't have ready access to that information.

Contemporary Inorganic Chemists

Submitted by Betsy Jamieson / Smith College on Tue, 01/13/2009 - 11:59
Description
This is an assignment I use to give students a sense of what kinds of problems real life, contemporary inorganic chemists work on.  I start out by having them find 2 contemporary inorganic chemists.  They give a 15-20 min presentation on their two chemists that gives a general overview of their research projects.  Once everyone has done their general presentation, I have students choose a specific journal article by one of their chemists to present in class.  I usually have this assignment run throughout the semester, with the general presentations taking place in the first half of the semeste

House: Inorganic Chemistry

Submitted by Adam Johnson / Harvey Mudd College on Mon, 01/12/2009 - 15:35
Description

House (Inorganic chemistry):  The book is divided into 5 parts:  first, an introductory section on atomic structure, symmetry, and bonding; second, ionic bonding and solids; third, acids, bases and nonaqueous solvents; fourth, descriptive chemistry; and fifth, coordination chemistry.  The first three sections are short, 2-4 chapters each, while the descriptive section (five chapters) and coordination chemistry section (seven chapters covering ligand field theory, spectroscopy, synthesis and reaction chemistry, organometallics, and bioinorganic chemistry.) are longer.  Each chapter includes

Nitrogenase primary literature

Submitted by Adam Johnson / Harvey Mudd College on Fri, 04/04/2008 - 17:58
Description
Some in-class materials for discussion of the nitrogenase enzyme, including some background reading on the bacterial process, the industrial process, X-ray structure data of the P-cluster and the Mo-Fe cluster, and Schrock's reaction cycle that models the biological process.  Also included are the literature sources I use in my in-class discussion of nitrogenase;  2 X-ray crystal structures by Rees, and the synthetic work by Schrock.

Housecroft and Sharpe: Inorganic Chemistry, 3ed

Submitted by Lori Watson / Earlham College on Wed, 03/26/2008 - 20:01
Description

Housecroft and Sharpe (Inorganic Chemistry, 3ed): This is a comprehensive inorganic textbook designed primarily for students at the Junior/Senior level. P-Chem would not be needed as a prerequisite for this text, but would be helpful. It includes both theoretical and descriptive material along with special topics, enough for a two semester course though it is easily adaptable to a one-semester "advanced inorganic" course by choosing only some topics. It is written in a clear and generally readable style and the full-color graphic contribute to student understanding.

Two Communications on Bioinorganic and Coordination Chemistry

Submitted by Hilary Eppley / DePauw University on Fri, 01/04/2008 - 20:39
Description
This assignment would make a good choice for a first attempt at actually having a discussion on primary literature articles since these are two short communications. They also touch on two important applications of coordination chemistry so might be appropriate early in a course, namely modeling biological systems and non-linear optical applications.
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