National ACS Award Winners 2022 LO Collection

This collection of learning objects was created to celebrate the National ACS Award Winners 2022 who are members of the Division of Inorganic Chemistry. The list of award winners is shown below. 

Shirley Lin / United States Naval Academy Sat, 03/12/2022 - 07:01
1FLO: Addition of H2 to four-coordinate iridium
Description

This paper (J. Organomet. Chem. 2022, 965-966, 122317) describes the synthesis and reactivity of four-coordinate iridium compound with a tridentate ligand. This ligand is referred to in the paper as a pincer ligand which are a general class of tridentate ligands that coordinate in a mer- arrangement.

Chip Nataro / Lafayette College Wed, 10/22/2025 - 13:41
2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry - MOFs

In celebration of the 2025 Nobel prize in Chemistry awarded to Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar Yagi, this collection features various LOs about MOFs.

Chip Nataro / Lafayette College Wed, 10/08/2025 - 08:43

Metallocene cations and anions

Submitted by Chip Nataro / Lafayette College on Tue, 09/23/2025 - 11:39
Description

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.

Rhenium isocyanide complexes from the Figueroa group

Submitted by Chip Nataro / Lafayette College on Tue, 08/26/2025 - 13:34
Description

This literature discussion is in honor of Dr. Josh Figueroa, recipient of the 2026 F. Albert Cotton Award in Synthetic Inorganic Chemistry. Josh has done some tremendous work with isocyanide ligands and this paper is but a brief glimpse into this field. The complexes of interest contain carbonyl ligands and isocyanide ligands, so there are plenty of opportunities for students to use group theory to predict the number of IR-active vibrations for these ligands.

SLiThEr #64: Developing ACS Guidelines for Undergraduate Chemistry Programs
Description

A discussion about the 2023 ACS Guidelines for Undergraduate Chemistry Programs with Michelle Brooks (Assistant Director of the Office of Higher Education at ACS), Cora MacBeth (Emory University) and Barb Reisner (James Madison University). Additional discussion is available to registered faculty users.

Chip Nataro / Lafayette College Mon, 07/28/2025 - 07:41

SLiThEr #63: Catching up with Reilly and Sydney

Submitted by Chip Nataro / Lafayette College on Mon, 07/28/2025 - 07:25
Description

This goes back to SLiThEr #14 when we interviewed two senior undergraduates in the midst of the COVID pandemic. At the time of this SLiThEr, both are in graduate school and getting close to their PhD.

Reilly Gwinn (Virginia Tech) and Sydney Towell (UNC - Chapel Hill) update us on their career paths.

Hydrocyanation

Submitted by Chip Nataro / Lafayette College on Mon, 07/07/2025 - 07:35
Description

This literature discussion was inspired by a talk given by Dr. Nora Radu, recipient of the 2025 ACS Award for Distinguished Service in the Advancement of Inorganic Chemistry. It is a bit 'big picture' in nature in that the hydrocyanation reaction is important for the synthesis of nylon. As such, there is a significant amount of background material relating to nylon-6,6. Students will read an article from C&EN, portions of a patent, and portions of an article from J. Chem.