Databases for Kinetics

Submitted by Adam Johnson / Harvey Mudd College on Mon, 06/03/2013 - 15:02
Description

I recently came across some web resources for teaching kinetics. They are searchable compilations of kinetics data, principally gas-phase. Two of the sites include "recommended" data for use in simulations.

I describe the four sites here and the URLs are here and below.

http://jpldataeval.jpl.nasa.gov/
This is a critical tabulation of the latest kinetic and photochemical data for use by modelers in computer simulations of atmospheric chemistry

[RuH(NO3)(CO)2(PPh3)2]: An analysis of the literature

Submitted by Chip Nataro / Lafayette College on Thu, 05/16/2013 - 18:47
Description

The original description of the synthesis of [RuH(NO3)(CO)2(PPh3)2 appears in Inorg. Chem. (Critchlow, P. B.; Robinson, S. D. Inorg. Chem. 1978, 17, 1896). There are eight possible structures for this octahedral isomer (including two sets of enantiomers). Students are shown one of the structures and asked to draw the remaining seven. The authors analyze the spectroscopic data obtained for the compound in order to determine which isomer formed. Unfortunately, there was an error in the analysis.

A DFT Study of Metal Pentacarbonyls

Submitted by Sibrina Collins / College of Arts and Sciences at Lawrence Technological University on Thu, 05/09/2013 - 16:57
Description

Metal carbonyls are the most widely studied organometallic complexes.  This exercise uses Gaussian with the GaussView interface to investigate the role of the metal centers on backbonding to the CO ligand. Density Functional Theory (DFT) methods were used to evaluate two classic metal pentacarbonyls, namely Fe(CO)5 and Ru(CO)5.

 

Inorganic Chemistry Forums

Submitted by Adam Johnson / Harvey Mudd College on Fri, 04/26/2013 - 12:55
Description

Beginning with Volume 43, Issue 25, Inorganic Chemistry began publishing Forums.

Inorganic Chemistry Forums consist of a set of thematically linked papers from leading scientists on a multidisciplinary topic of growing interest. Papers present overviews, research perspectives and original research reports on the Forum theme and are highlighted on the cover of the journal issue in which they appear.

MO Theory for Organometallic Compounds: Pentalene

Submitted by Zachary Tonzetich / University of Texas at San Antonio on Thu, 04/11/2013 - 16:54
Description

This is an in-class exercise for upper level inorganic students designed to highlight aspects of symmetry, group theory, MO theory, and Hückel theory. The exercise is an expansion of a Problem Set question I give to my Advanced Inorganic Chemistry class. In this activity, students will develop the MO diagram for the π system of the pentalene dianion using the Hückel approach. They will then consider the effect of folding the ring system using a Walsh diagram.

The Guided Tour of Metalloproteins

Submitted by Anthony L. Fernandez / Merrimack College on Tue, 04/09/2013 - 07:41
Description

Bob Morris of the University of Toronto created this website when he was teaching a class on Bioinorganic Chemistry.

So Much Nitrogen: Maggie's Explosive Main Group Compounds

Submitted by W. Stephen McNeil / University of British Columbia Okanagan on Thu, 03/21/2013 - 00:47

Maggie Geselbracht has a great fondness for compounds with too many nitrogen atoms next to each other.  This is a collection of problem sets and class activites based on the structure, bonding, and spectroscopy of a number of such compounds, drawn from the recent literature.

Computational Chemistry

Submitted by Lori Watson / Earlham College on Mon, 02/25/2013 - 16:07

My first computational collection

Semi-Quantitative Molecular Orbital Diagrams

Submitted by Gerard Rowe / University of South Carolina Aiken on Thu, 02/14/2013 - 10:25
Description

In this activity, students construct molecular orbital correlation diagrams for several species (H2, He2, HeH), in a semi-quantitative fashion using a ruler and a list of first ionization energies.  All the MO schema are placed on a common energy scale, and the stability of each orbital is reported using "cm from the top of the paper" as the unit of energy.

Voices of Inorganic Chemistry

Submitted by Sibrina Collins / College of Arts and Sciences at Lawrence Technological University on Sun, 01/27/2013 - 17:08
Description

This learning object focuses on the new video series, “Voices in Inorganic Chemistry,” established to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the American Chemical Society journal, Inorganic Chemistry. The are currently 12 videos celebrating pioneers in the field of inorganic chemistry.  This activity consists of two components, namely the students watching one interview and writing an essay about their chosen inorganic chemist.