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.
AI statements are somewhat obsolete.
This research-based laboratory series investigates the stoichiometry of metal ion complexes of the Schiff-base ligand salicylaldehyde benzoyl hydrazone (SBH) in both the solid and solution states using gravimetric analysis and UV-VIS spectroscopy.
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.
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.
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.
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
This literature discussion comes from a paper in the Turkish Journal of Chemistry (1999, 23, 9-14) https://journals.tubitak.gov.tr/chem/vol23/iss1/2/. In this paper, the authors report spectroscopic data for nine compounds, [M(CO)4(PP)] (M = Cr, Mo or W; PP = dppm, dppe, dppp). This is a very fundamental paper and as such, students are not expected to have had any significant coursework in inorganic chemistry.
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.