The set of questions in this literature discussion activity is intended to engage students in reading and interpreting scientific literature and to develop a clear and coherent understanding of agostic interactions.

This module offers students in an introductory chemistry or foundational inorganic course exposure to recent literature work.

This module offers students an introductory chemistry or foundational inorganic course exposure to recent literature work.

This paper describes the synthesis and characterization of a Cr(I) dimer with a very short Cr-Cr distance. Computational studies support fivefold bonding between the chromium atoms. This paper could be used to introduce metal-metal multiple bonds and discuss the molecular orbital interactions of homonuclear diatomics including d-orbitals. More generally, it is a nice example to stimulate the discussion of what constitutes a bond and the various interpretations of bond order.

This module offers students in an introductory chemistry or foundational inorganic course exposure to recent literature. Students will apply their knowledge of Lewis dot structure theory and basic thermodynamics to compare and contrast bonding in SiO₂ and CO₂.

This literature discussion is based on a paper describing the ligand-based reductive elimination of a diphosphine from a thorium compound (Organometallics, 2017, ASAP). The thorium compound contains two bidentate NHC ligands providing an opportunity to discuss the coordination of these ligands. The ligand-based reduction is very subtle and would be challenging for students to pick up without some guidance. The compound undergoing reductive elimination also presents an excellent introduction into magnetic nonequivalence and virtual coupling.