Point Group Battles Activity
Description
In this activity, a pair of students are show an object or molecule and are asked to determine the point group before their competitor.
Working with Catalytic Cycles
Description
Students work in groups to identify relevant steps and intermediates in 3 catalytic cycles, all the while considering bonding (and electron counting) factors. Following assignment of these steps and intermediate species, the students consider several questions related to catalysis more broadly, particularly the role of each reagent, how to speed up or slow down specific steps, and the importance of regiospecificity in certain steps.
Iron Cross-Coupling Catalysis
Description
In this experiment, students will synthesize and characterize an iron complex followed by completion of two series of catalytic cross-coupling reactions mimicking the methodology utilized by organometallic chemists to balance catalyst efficacy and substrate scope. Initially the complex Fe(acac)3 [acac = acetylacetone] is prepared. Two sets of catalytic reactions are completed: one comparing different iron catalysts (Fe(acac)3, FeCl2, FeCl3) while the other compares substrates (4-chlorotoluene, 4-chlorobenzonitrile, 4-chlorotrifluorotoluene).
Antibacterial Reactivity of Ag(I) Cyanoximate Complexes
Description
In this experiment, students will synthesize and characterize one of three Ag(I) cyanoximate complexes as potential antimicrobial agents for use in dental implants. This experiment combines simple ligand synthesis, metalation and characterization, and a biomedical application. The complexes are both air and light stable.
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
Shape & Polarity Review with Clickers
Description
A set of questions to be used in General or Introductory Inorganic Chemistry as a review or “quiz” of shapes and polarities.
Orbital Viewer: Visualize atomic and molecular orbitals
Description
Orbital Viewer (http://www.orbitals.com/orb/ov.htm) is a PC-based program that shows electron density calculated from the Schrodinger equation for atoms and molecules. Results can be shown as probability densities or probability surfaces.
Orbital Viewer Program copyright 1986-2004 by David Manthey
Kayaking to Lake Washington
Description
Leisure activity after days of hard work at the IONiC VIPEr workshop in Seattle, WA.
Participants rented kayaks and paddled around the lake for about 90 minutes.
Pre-requisites: Application of a generous amount of sunscreen.
The original plan was to paddle to Lake Washington, but no directions or map was provided. So given the lack of navigation skills and familiarity with the area it is no surprise that only one kayak made it all the way to lake Washington (Go team FBL & KMH!).
Interpreting XPS and CV data from an Electrocatalysis Publication
Description
This is a learning object focused on analyzing a specific figure from a research article that show XPS and CV data on Ni(OH)2/NiOOH thin films that have incorporated Fe.