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

Modern theories of atomic structure and chemical bonding and their applocations to molecular and metallic structures and coordination chemistry.

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).

Modern concepts of inorganic and transition-metal chemistry
with emphasis on bonding, structure, thermodynamics, kinetics and
mechanisms, and periodic and family relationships. Atomic structure,
theories of bonding, symmetry, molecular shapes (point groups), crystal
geometries, acid-base theories, survey of familiar elements, boron
hydrides, solid-state materials, nomenclature, crystal field theory,
molecular orbital theory, isomerism, geometries, magnetic and optical
phenomena, spectra, synthetic methods, organometallic compounds,

Inorganic chemists study the entire periodic table (even carbon—as long as it’s bound to a metal!) and are interested in the structure and reactivity of a wide variety of complexes.  We will spend the first third of the course learning some “tools” and then will apply them to a variety of current topics in inorganic chemistry (bioinorganic chemistry, solid state materials, catalysis, nuclear chemistry, and more!).