This LO was written by the IONiC Leadership Council to celebrate Steve Koch as the recipient of the 2024 ACS Award for Distinguished Service in Advancement of Inorganic Chemistry. Steve has been a major supporter of the IONiC community since its inception. This LO is based on the article New Members of the Class of [Fe(CN)x(CO)y] Compounds. published in Inorganic Chemistry (DOI: 10.1021/ic015604y).
This literature discussion was created on invitation as part of a broad collection of learning objects celebrating Spring 2024 ACS award winners conducting research in Inorganic Chemistry. This learning object is in celebration of Prof. Christopher J.
Laboratory Project Summary:
Students in an upper level Inorganic Chemistry lab course are given a choice between two final lab projects. Both projects involve the synthesis of visible light-absorbing ruthenium complexes, however the subsequent application of these complexes correspond to different subfields within inorganic chemistry. This feature allows them to pursue a project that continues to develop their synthetic, data-analysis, and writing skills while pursuing one that most closely aligns with their interests.
I regularly give an oral exam instead of a written exam in my junior and senior level organometallics seminar course. The course focuses on the primary literature, discussion of advanced topics, and asking questions. A written exam would not evaluate the students' abilities on the important skill development they learned in the class. Besides, I am better able to gauge when a student has no idea about a certain topic, or just needs a little nudge in order for them to demonstrate that they actually understand 95% of it.
The Tonks group has helped to revitalize interest in early metal, especially titanium, organometallic chemistry in recent years. Often his group uses Ti complexes for multi-component coupling, increasingly with masked low-valent Ti(II) as an important intermediate. This paper is more fundamental, exploring a ligand based on ortho-terphenoxide since the meta- and para- derivatives were already known. Along the way, they report some interesting NMR and structural information, and finish with some hydroamination catalysis.
When I saw this paper come out, I thought it would make a great teaching paper. It has synthesis, characterization, reaction mechanisms, computational chemistry and it directly impacts catalysis by a thorough examination of the reductive elimination reaction. What are the factors governing the rate of C-C RE? Can geometry (sterics) control reactivity or is it only based on the hybridization (sp2/sp3) of the carbon atom in question (electronics)?
I wanted my organometallic class to explore the bonding and spectroscopy of the Kubas dihydrogen complex without having to spend the time doing the entire literature discussion (which is really great and I have done it many times in the past) because I wanted to do it in only about 20-30 minutes in a 75 minute class period. Most of the questions come from the Kubas literature discussion, which I shortened. The IR and reduced mass calculations come from an LO I wrote about arene activation by Jones and Feher.
This is an in class activity that I just used to replace a lecture! After students have the basic ideas of how to perform symmetry operations and put molecules in point groups, I like to reflect on the idea of a 'mathematical group' and what that means in terms of symmetry and group theory in inorganic chemistry.
I saw Amanda Cook present this work (and another paper, Organometallics, 2022, 41, 997) at the Organometallics Gordon Conference in summer 2023 and while I was furiously taking notes, I knew that I wanted to teach this paper. The paper elucidates the mechanism of oxidative addition of tertiary silanes to palladium zero phosphine complexes.
This POGIL based activity is intended to review general chemistry concepts of atomic structure and to further those concepts with additional attention to d orbitals and radial distribution graphs. The primary model in the activity is The Orbitron website (https://winter.group.shef.ac.uk/orbitron/) with students examining the isosurface and radial distributions for a variety of orbitals.