Crystallography (in English) & Evaluating Crystal Structures

Submitted by Barbara Reisner / James Madison University on Thu, 06/18/2009 - 18:04
Description

The University of Oklahoma has put together a nice website on Crystallography which includes a standard introduction to crystallography & crystal symmetry. I also like some of the features that you don't normally come across including evaluating crystal structures and twinning.

Energy Nuggets: Wise Energy Use – The Challenge of Nitrogen Fixation

Submitted by Maggie Geselbracht / Reed College on Tue, 06/16/2009 - 01:33
Description
This literature discussion activity is one of a series of “Energy Nuggets,” small curricular units designed to illustrate: The Role of Inorganic Chemistry in the Global Challenge for Clean Energy Production, Storage, and Use.

Energy Nuggets: MOF’s for CO2 Sequestration

Submitted by Maggie Geselbracht / Reed College on Thu, 06/04/2009 - 03:50
Description
This literature discussion activity is one of a series of “Energy Nuggets,” small curricular units designed to illustrate: The Role of Inorganic Chemistry in the Global Challenge for Clean Energy Production, Storage, and Use.

Henry Taube and Electron Transfer

Submitted by Brad Wile / Ohio Northern University on Wed, 05/06/2009 - 18:07
Description

When teaching reactions and mechanisms of inorganic complexes, I tend to get to the end of the chapter (out of breath) and find myself thinking "*$#&, I forgot about electron transfer". While I think it is important that students get an understanding of this in an upper level inorganic course, I simply don't have, or forgot to budget the time to really talk about it.

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

Symmetry Resources at Otterbein University

Submitted by Dean Johnston / Otterbein University on Sat, 03/28/2009 - 23:42
Description

The resources contained within this web site are designed to help students learn concepts of molecular symmetry and to help faculty teach concepts of molecular symmetry.

d-orbitals in a variety of ligand geometries

Submitted by Flick Coleman / Wellesley College on Fri, 03/13/2009 - 20:54
Description

I developed this Jmol page to help my students see the relationship(s) between the ligands and metal d-orbitals in a number of different geometries.  Since the images are all rotatable, students who have difficulty looking at flat images and drawing appropriate conclusions have that barrier reduced or eliminated.  I have now used the application twice - this past fall in the second semester of introductory chemistry and a few weeks ago when I began ligand field theory in my inorganic course.  In both classes I received favorable comments.  A number of students in the inorganic course, who h

How molecular orbitals change as atomic energy levels shift

Submitted by Flick Coleman / Wellesley College on Wed, 03/11/2009 - 18:11
Description

Over the years I have developed a number of interactive tools that I use in my classes. This is a tool that seems appropriate for VIPEr. Comments are always appreciated, and I am always interested in developing new tools if there is something you might find useful.

This tool allows you to look at how molecular orbitals change as the difference in electronegativities of the parent atomic orbitals increases.