National ACS Award Winners 2022 LO Collection
This collection of learning objects was created to celebrate the National ACS Award Winners 2022 who are members of the Division of Inorganic Chemistry. The list of award winners is shown below.
SLiThErs - Supporting Learning with Interactive Teaching: a Hosted, Engaging Roundtable
A collection of all of the IONiC VIPEr SLiThErs (Supporting Learning with Interactive Teaching: a Hosted, Engaging Roundtable). These events are short presentations on a topic followed by a period of discussion between the presenter and live participants. Each of these events is recorded and posted to the IONiC VIPEr YouTube Channel.
150 Interactive VSEPR Molecules (with lone pairs and pi)
Description
In our course sequence, students use VSEPR in general chemistry. Organic chemistry uses hybrid orbitals and pi-bonding. When students get to inorganic chemistry, they are often confused by the two descriptions, especially with a steric number (lone pairs plus bonded atoms) greater than four.
This activity is designed to serve as a bridge between multiple levels and returned to in more than one course.
150 different molecules can be manipulated in JSmol, with options to show multiple bonds, lone pairs, and orbitals suitable for pi-bonding.
Synthesis of Phenyl-Substituted Poly(3-Hydroxybutyrates) with High and Tunable Glass Transition Temperatures via Sequential Catalytic Transformations (Coates)
Description
This literature discussion celebrates Dr. Geoffrey W. Coates for being the recipient of the ACS Award in Polymer Chemistry 2026 from the American Chemical Society.
Terminal Iron–Dinitrogen and Iron–Imide Complexes Supported by a Tris(phosphino)borane Ligand (Peters)
Shirley Lin / United States Naval Academy
Sat, 02/28/2026 - 09:16
Description
This literature discussion LO was created for the ACS National Award Winners 2026 collection for Dr. Jonas C. Peters, the recipient of the ACS Award in Inorganic Chemistry. This LO is based on the article "Terminal Iron–Dinitrogen and Iron–Imide Complexes Supported by a Tris(phosphino)borane Ligand" published in Angewandte Chemie Int. Eng.
Symmetry of Polyhedral Dice
Description
This activity allows students to manipulate highly symmetric objects and find the symmetry elements that are present.
National ACS Award Winners 2026 LO Collection
This collection of learning objects was created to celebrate the National ACS Award Winners 2026 who conduct research related to inorganic chemistry.
The list of award winners included in this collection are shown below. (* denotes learning object pending) IONiC members are welcome to develop more LOs for the collection.
A Geometric Exploration of Metallic and Ionic Solid State Structure
Description
Two worksheets are given that walk students though visualizing and understanding solid state structure. The first worksheet focuses on metallic structure by introducing primitive, body-centered, and face-centered packing types in a cubic unit cell. Then, close packing structures are described followed by a discussion of holes in close packed or primitive packed lattices. The second worksheet introduces ionic solid structure types for the common binary salt lattices as well as perovskite and spinel structure types.
Synthesis and Group Theory Analysis of MoO2(acac)2
Description
This laboratory experiment is a quick and straightforward synthesis of a MoO2(acac)2 complex. The ligand set allows for two possible geometric arrangements: cis and trans. Using IR spectroscopy along with group theory analysis of the Mo-O stretching modes, students can determine which isomer they formed in their synthesis. NMR spectroscopy is also employed, and confirms the geometric arrangement due to the inequivalence of the acac methyl groups.
1FLO: Addition of H2 to four-coordinate iridium
Chip Nataro / Lafayette College
Wed, 10/22/2025 - 13:41
Description
This paper (J. Organomet. Chem. 2022, 965-966, 122317) describes the synthesis and reactivity of four-coordinate iridium compound with a tridentate ligand. This ligand is referred to in the paper as a pincer ligand which are a general class of tridentate ligands that coordinate in a mer- arrangement.