Molecular Orbital Diagrams

Submitted by Adam Bridgeman / The University of Sydney on Tue, 07/07/2009 - 03:51
Description

http://firstyear.chem.usyd.edu.au/calculators/mo_diagrams.shtml

Flash based tools to help with the construction of MO diagrams:

  • "energy levels" shows how the form of the bonding and antibonding orbitals, the bond order and atomic charges vary in a diatomic molecule with the electronegativity of the two atoms involved
  • "Molecular orbital diagram maker" shows how a complex MO diagram can be made by a drag and drop approach using symmetry adapted components

 

The Elements: Theo Gray's periodic table website

Submitted by Hilary Eppley / DePauw University on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 16:47
Description

While this site is also a commercial site (selling Theo's periodic tables and book, etc.) it is a wonderful resource of pictures of elements and their compounds, and "real life" uses of elements (such as a gamma ray imaging of the skeleton for Tc, a hard drive for B, and sushi for Hg!). It is also a source of movies of reactions of the elements, including some pretty impressive ones for the alkali metals and the thermite reaction. It also provides easy access to his chemistry column for Popular Science magazine.

Periodic Table Formulations

Submitted by Barbara Reisner / James Madison University on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 10:56
Description

This website provides access to many formulations of the periodic table over time. I think that looking at the various representations of the table would provide an excellent way to discuss periodic trends.

This list was compiled by Mark R. Leach and is part of his free resource, The Chemogenesis web book.

Coordination Chemistry Nomenclature

Submitted by Maggie Geselbracht / Reed College on Sat, 04/25/2009 - 22:19
Description

I usually do not take time in my inorganic course to teach students about how to name coordination complexes. And yet, I would like them to know nomenclature to the extent that they can correctly name various complexes in their lab reports or understand the naming conventions used in the literature. Often, there is a section in their textbook that I can refer them to. However, this year, I am using Housecroft and Sharpe, and I could not find the appropriate sections in the text. So, I found some online resources to refer my students to.

Glassware and Apparatus Videos

Submitted by Jason Cooke / Department of Chemistry, University of Alberta, Canada on Wed, 04/15/2009 - 18:07
Description

A series of videos has been produced to show students the best way to assemble glass jointware.  A variety of different examples are provided, with variations that demonstrate some of the more complicated assemblies that are often used in inorganic synthesis (e.g., how to protect the system with a drying tube or to purge an apparatus with an inert gas).  The intent of the videos is to provide visual learners with a better idea of what they must do in the laboratory, and thereby speed up the process of assembling glass jointware.

Videos include:

Inorganic Chemistry Spectroscopy Tutorial: Theoretical Principles and Applications

Submitted by Jason Cooke / Department of Chemistry, University of Alberta, Canada on Wed, 04/15/2009 - 16:02
Description

We have developed an online tutorial that demonstrates the fundamental principles and applications of the various types of spectroscopy that students will encounter in the inorganic chemistry laboratory, namely infrared spectroscopy (IR), nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) and UV-visible spectroscopy (UV-vis).  The tutorial has been designed as a stand-alone interactive resource that can either introduce the fundamental aspects of spectroscopy from first principles or serve as a supplement for students who prefer to learn visually in an individual setti

Materials Chemistry: UW MRSEC Library of Slide Shows for Class Presentations

Submitted by Maggie Geselbracht / Reed College on Mon, 04/13/2009 - 17:43
Description

The Interdisciplinary Education Group at the University of Wisconsin Madison Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) has a fabulous website with a wide variety of great resources for teaching about materials and the nanoworld at all levels.  A favorite "corner" of this website that I refer to a lot in my own teaching is the library of so-called Resource Slides on a variety of topics.  These Resource Slides are divided up into 36 topical Slide Shows and include wonderful graphics to use in class presentations.   Slide Shows include:

Elements on Encyclopedia of the Earth

Submitted by Barbara Reisner / James Madison University on Thu, 04/09/2009 - 01:32
Description

This is a resource that focuses on the elements from a geological perspective. What I like about the website is that it provides examples of the uses and sources of elements.

Open-ended Recrystallization Addition to the Traditional M(acac)3 Laboratory

Submitted by Hilary Eppley / DePauw University on Fri, 04/03/2009 - 10:14
Description

In this open-ended activity, students design crystallizations to can see who can grow the biggest crystals of their colorful products. This addition is something that I add to the standard M(acac)3 syntheses that many of us do as an introductory lab in an upper level course or as a final lab in an introductory type course. Syntheses of the M(acac)3 starting materials are available in most published inorganic laboratory manuals.