Inorganic Chemistry

Submitted by Adam Johnson / Harvey Mudd College on Tue, 05/05/2026 - 20:56
Description

Background Slides for CURE Project Spring 2025
Description

This is a slide deck I use to introduce the CURE the first day of Inorganic Lab. I have posted the syllabus for this class as an LO as well, and will combine the materials from this CURE in a collection. The CURE was carried out in SQ24 and SQ25 quarters, in collaboration with Madalyn Radlauer, Byran Nell, and David Quist. We have a ACS Symposium Series Chapter on it that will be published in 2026, and I will link the chapter here once it is published. 

Kyle Grice / DePaul University Wed, 04/29/2026 - 15:32
Intermediate Inorganic Laboratory with CURE SQ2025
Description

In this lab we have two standard introduction labs (LUM and POR) and then a full CURE. This was the second time I ran this CURE (the first was Spring 2024).

The CURE is being published as a multi-institution ACS Symposium Series Chapter in 2026, and the materials from the CURE will be hosted in a collection on VIPEr. 

Once the chapter is published, I will add the link to it in the description. 

Kyle Grice / DePaul University Wed, 04/29/2026 - 15:06

Si and Ge ferrocenes

Submitted by Chip Nataro / Lafayette College on Thu, 02/05/2026 - 17:12
Description

This literature discussion is in honor of the work of Shigeyoshi Inoue, winner of the 2026 Frederic Stanley Kipping Award in Silicon Chemistry for “groundbreaking contributions to the synthesis and reactivity of low-valent silicon compounds, and advancing the potential of silicon in metal-free catalysis and small-molecule activation” (https://cen.acs.org/a

Metallocene cations and anions

Submitted by Chip Nataro / Lafayette College on Tue, 09/23/2025 - 11:39
Description

This is a really interesting paper in J. Am. Chem. Soc. (2025, 147, 34641-34646) involving a complex salt in which both the cation and anion are metallocenes. While a majority of the paper is focused on the characterization of two new compounds, it presents some excellent opportunities to practice counting electrons, one of which was a challenge to this author.

Rhenium isocyanide complexes from the Figueroa group

Submitted by Chip Nataro / Lafayette College on Tue, 08/26/2025 - 13:34
Description

This literature discussion is in honor of Dr. Josh Figueroa, recipient of the 2026 F. Albert Cotton Award in Synthetic Inorganic Chemistry. Josh has done some tremendous work with isocyanide ligands and this paper is but a brief glimpse into this field. The complexes of interest contain carbonyl ligands and isocyanide ligands, so there are plenty of opportunities for students to use group theory to predict the number of IR-active vibrations for these ligands.

Hydrocyanation

Submitted by Chip Nataro / Lafayette College on Mon, 07/07/2025 - 07:35
Description

This literature discussion was inspired by a talk given by Dr. Nora Radu, recipient of the 2025 ACS Award for Distinguished Service in the Advancement of Inorganic Chemistry. It is a bit 'big picture' in nature in that the hydrocyanation reaction is important for the synthesis of nylon. As such, there is a significant amount of background material relating to nylon-6,6. Students will read an article from C&EN, portions of a patent, and portions of an article from J. Chem.