This learning object focuses on fundamental concepts of organometallic chemistry. I use an article published in the Journal of Chemical Education (Jensen, W.B. "The Origin of the 18-Electron Rule," J. Chem. Educ.
Organometallics has just published a series of reviews of new organometallic textbooks.
Navarro, O.; Vicic, D. A.; Jensen, C. New Organometallic Textbook Reviews. Organomet. 2011, ASAP, DOI:10.1021/om101126k.
The textbooks that are reviewed are:
1) The Organometallic Chemistry of the Transition Metals, 5th ed. Robert H. Crabtree (Yale University, USA). Wiley: Hoboken, NJ, USA. 2009. ISBN 978-0-470-25762-3.
A really neat interactive periodic table
I am sure most people already use this but I always refer to students to the Organometallic hypertext book. It has excellent explanations of topics such as back-donation in organometallic complexes.
Early in 2009, Christopher Cummins’ group at MIT reported (in Science) the synthesis of AsP3, a compound that had never been isolated at room temperature. Later that year, a full article was published in JACS comparing the properties and reactivity of AsP3 to those of its molecular cousins, P4 and As4. The longer article is full of possibilities for discussion in inorganic chemistry courses, with topics including periodic trends, NMR, vibrational spectroscopy, electrochemistry, molecular orbital theory, and coordination chemistry.
Every time I teach inorganic, I always ask myself the question: “What’s the best way to motivate the course and get the students excited?” A long time ago, I decided it’s important to start with some music. (Until last year, Tom Lehrer’s The Elements was my favorite. As a TMBG fan, I’ve swiched to Meet the Elements.)
In the two years since this article was published, it has jump-started a large amount of research in the area of cobalt-based catalysts for solar water splitting. The paper describes the electrochemical synthesis and oxygen-evolution capabilities of a Co-phosphate catalyst under very mild conditions. The paper can stimulate discussion of many topics found in the inorganic curriculum, including electrochemistry, semiconductor chemistry, transition metal ion complex kinetic trends, and solid state and electrochemical characterization techniques.
This communication from the Journal of the American Chemical Society (J. Am. Chem. Soc.