My Notes
Specific Course Information
Course Meetings and Time
Categories
Inorganic chemistry interfaces and overlaps with the other areas of chemistry. Inorganic chemists synthesize molecules of academic and commercial interest, measure properties such as electronic energy levels, magnetism, and unpaired electron spin with sophisticated instruments, study metal ion uptake in living cells, and prepare new materials like photovoltaics and superconductors. Inorganic chemistry is a diverse field, and we will only be able to touch on some of the chemistry of the 118 elements that currently reside in the periodic table. The major subdisciplines of inorganic chemistry are coordination chemistry, organometallics, bioinorganic chemistry, and solid-state/materials chemistry. Inorganic chemists study the s-, p-, d- and f-block elements, reaction rates, determine reaction mechanisms, and prepare new compounds. In this course, you will get a broad overview of some areas, and a more detailed study of others.
By the end of the course you will be able to…†
- explain the history and breadth of inorganic chemistry guided by the inorganic Nobel Prizes
- select and use an appropriate theory or model to describe the structure, bonding, reactivity, and physical properties of inorganic elements and compounds
- construct qualitatively correct MO diagrams for centrosymmetric molecules
- describe MOs as s/p/d, bonding, non-bonding or antibonding, and be able to draw them
- interpret quantum mechanics calculations on inorganic compounds
- describe the correspondence between qualitative and quantitative MO diagrams
- explain bonding and magnetism in transition metal complexes using MO arguments
- draw mechanisms for common inorganic/organometallic reactions
- explain why and how transition metals are used in biological systems†
- describe the chemical reaction catalyzed by a metalloenzyme†
- interpret spectroscopic methods (including UV-Vis, Xray, NMR and IR) for inorganic compounds
- describe how the common crystalline and ionic solids are derived from simple lattices
- describe the composition of more complex solids
- explain the trends in the chemistry of the representative elements
- explain the background, history, and scientific/societal contributions of an inorganic chemist to a general audience
…if you work on and develop the skills in the course.
† not all topics are taught every year; topics still under consideration for this year are greyed out