9
Jun
2019
Physical Chemistry: Thermodynamics
9
Jun
2019
Inorganic Chemistry I
Submitted by Bradley Wile, Ohio Northern University
8
Jun
2019
VIPEr Fellows 2019 Workshop Favorites
Submitted by Barbara Reisner, James Madison UniversityDuring our first fellows workshop, the first cohort of VIPEr fellows pulled together learning objects that they've used and liked or want to try the next time they teach their inorganic courses.
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11
Apr
2017
Johnson Matthew Catalytic Reaction Guide
Submitted by Sheila Smith, University of Michigan- DearbornEvaluation Methods:
No evaluation yet
Evaluation Results:
No results yet
Description:
This guide, available in print, online and in an app, allows users to look up appropriate catalysts and conditions to accomplish a wide variety of reactions.
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A student should be able to use the Catalytic Reaction Guide (CRG) to identify appopriate reaction conditions and catalysts to accomplish a wide variety of reactions.
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I have not yet used this... I just picked up a copy at ACS, but will add to this as I implement it in my classroom.
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variable
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4
Jan
2017
Inorganic Chemistry for Geochemistry and Environmental Sciences Fundamentals and Applications by George W. Luther III
Submitted by Rachel Narehood Austin, Barnard College, Columbia UniversityDescription:
This is a great new textbook by George Luther III from the University of Delaware. The textbook represents the results of a course he has taught for graduate students in chemical oceanography, geochemistry and related disciplines. It is clear that the point of the book is to provide students with the core material from inorganic chemistry that they will need to explain inorganic processes in the environment. However the material is presented in such a clear, logical fashion and builds so directly on fundamental principles of physical inorganic chemistry that the book is actually applicable to a much broader audience. It provides a very welcome presentation of frontier orbital theory as a guide to predicting and explaining much inorganic chemical reactivity. There are numerous very helpful charts and tables and diagrams. I found myself using the book for a table of effective nuclear charges when I was teaching general chemistry last semester. The examples are much more interesting that the typical textbook examples and would be easy to embellish and structure a course around. There is also a helpful companion website that provides powerpoint slides, student exercises and answers. The book covers some topics not typically seen in inorganic textbooks like the acidity of solids but the presentation of this information makes sense in light of the coherent framework of the text. We so often tell our students "structure dictates function". This text really make good on that promise. My only complaint is that I wish the title were something more generic so that I could use it for a second semester of introductory-esque material that we teach after students have taken a single semester of intro chem and two semesters of organic chemistry. So much of what is covered in this textbook is precisely what a second semester sophomore chemistry major should know before proceeding on in the major. But the title makes the book hard to sell to chemistry majors and that is regrettable.
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28
Dec
2016
Isotope Effects in Arene C-H Bond Activation by Cp*Rh(PMe3)
Submitted by Adam R. Johnson, Harvey Mudd CollegeEvaluation Methods:
This LO was used in class to help a student guide a discussion of the paper. We did not cover all of the LO in a 75 minute class period, as we let the discussion take us where it wanted to.
A better way to ensure student preparation would be to collect the questions at the beginning (or end, if they wanted to use their notes in class) of class to ensure that they had really studied the paper.
Evaluation Results:
I used this LO as a guided reading handout and did not collect the answers so I do not have any assessment data at this time.
Although my students found this paper to be relatively dense and hard to follow at times. The paper separates out the Results and Discussion sections, so at times it seems repetitive. However, once they had worked their way through the paper, the students found the results interesting and the methods informative. We were able to discuss it at a high level in class.
Description:
This literature discussion is based on a paper by Bill Jones and Frank Feher (J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1986, 108, 4814-4819). In this paper, they study the activation of aromatic C-H bonds by a rhodium complex. Through careful experimental design, they were able to examine isotope effects on the selectivity of the reaction. Analysis of the rate data allowed them to prepare a reaction coordinate free energy diagram. This paper also introduces the effects of C-H bond breaking in early or late transition states on the vibrational energy spacing at both ground and excited states. The paper is a good way to bring kinetic isotope effects into the classroom. The paper also introduces the concept of deuterium labeling experiments and what that information can tell you.
An important aspect of this paper, and what makes it so interesting, is that they are able to get two kinetic isotope effects, one for each step of the reaction. From these two KIEs alone they are able to determine the unexpected rate-determining step of the reaction. It is a triumph of mechanistic investigation into intermediates that are undetectable.
This LO presents a series of guided reading questions that help a student approach and understand the material presented in the paper in a more thorough way. Part one is a guided inquiry that allows the students to derive and understand differing zero point energies for proteated and deuterated compounds. Part two guides students through the results presented in the paper to help them better understand how experimental data can be used to understand the mechanism of a chemical reaction. There is more to the paper than kinetic isotope effects, but that is the focus I chose while developing it. The LO is suitable for junior or senior undergraduates in an organometallics course or unit within an inorganic course.
I would like to acknowledge Ryan Pakula and Joanne Redford from my Chem 165 course in 2008 who wrote early versions of some of the questions about vibrational states, and a careful critical read by Nancy Williams, who understands this stuff at a much deeper level than I do.
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upon completing this LO students should be able to
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1. calculate and interrelate reduced mass, vibrational frequency, force constant, and zero point energies for vibrational states of bonds
2. define kinetic isotope effects (normal, and inverse)
3. calculate/predict/estimate a normal and inverse KIE for a chemical reaction from IR data.
4. interpret and describe a reaction coordinate diagram for a chemical reaction
5. count and classify metal complexes using CBC method
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I used this LO as a guided reading handout for a senior-level organometallics class. The questions and the paper were provided to the students a week in advance and the in-class activity was a student-led discussion of the paper.
Time Required:
1 50-75 minute class period for discussion
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27
Dec
2016
Energetics and mechanisms of reductive elimination from Pt(IV)
Submitted by Adam R. Johnson, Harvey Mudd CollegeEvaluation Methods:
This LO was used in class to help a student guide a discussion of the paper. We did not cover all of the LO in a 75 minute class period, as we let the discussion take us where it wanted to.
A better way to ensure student preparation would be to collect the questions at the beginning (or end, if they wanted to use their notes in class) of class to ensure that they had really studied the paper.
Evaluation Results:
I used this LO as a guided reading handout and did not collect the answers so I do not have any assessment data at this time.
My students found this paper to be highly readable and very clear. It is dense, with a lot of information presented, but once the students dove in, we were able to discuss it at a high level.
Description:
This literature discussion is based on a paper by Karen Goldberg (J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1995, 117, 6889-6896). In this early paper by Goldberg, she studied the reductive elimination of ethane and methyl iodide from dppePtMe3I. The paper is well written, and approachable for undergraduates. It shows a real, interesting application of thermodynamic and kinetic methods to the study of a problem in mechanistic chemistry. The experimental details are complete, and this paper would serve as a good review of kinetics, thermodynamics, and organometallic reaction mechanisms.
This LO presents a series of guided reading questions that help a student approach some of the material presented in the paper in a more thorough way. It asks students to derive equations and understand how experimental data can be combined into a reaction coordinate free energy diagram. The LO is suitable for junior or senior undergraduates in an organometallics course or unit within an inorganic course.
An update and correction was made to the LO in April 2018. Questions 7 and 8 in the learning object have students address the point of the differing M-C and M-I bonds. For the purposes of understanding what was written at the time, the questions are still valid, but the conclusions drawn in the paper about M-X bond strengths are not. For more information, see the "faculty only" file entitled "Goldberg Update 201804."
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upon completing this LO students should be able to
1. demonstrate where thermodynamic parameters come from in a reaction coordinate free energy diagram
2. derive complex rate equations using the steady state approximation
3. describe the principle of microscopic reversibility
4. gain a deeper appreciation for the experimental methods (thermodynamic and kinetic) used in mechanistic chemistry
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Implementation Notes:
I used this LO as a guided reading handout for a senior-level organometallics class. The questions and the paper were provided to the students a week in advance and the in-class activity was a student-led discussion of the paper.
Time Required:
one 50-75 minute class period
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4
Aug
2014
Suite of LOs on Biomimetic Modeling
Submitted by Sheila Smith, University of Michigan- DearbornThis suite of activities can be used as a unit exploring the use of small molecule models and biophysical techniques to illuminate complicated biomolecules. The Parent LO: Modeling the FeB center in bacterial Nitric Oxide reductase is a short, data-filled and well-written article that is approachable with an undergraduate's level of understanding.
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29
Jul
2014
Five Slides About Magnetic Susceptibility
Submitted by Sibrina Collins, The Charles H. Wright of Museum of African American HistoryDescription:
This Five Slides About provides an overview of the concept of magnetic susceptibility for paramagnetic metal centers. Three methods are discussed, namely the Evans NMR Method, the magnetic balance and SQUID (Superconducting QUantum Interference Device). The availability of each method varies across institutions.
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The student will gain hands-on experience evaluating the magnetic properties of a paramagnetic metal complex.
The student will be able to calculate μeff (magnetic moment) from the χM (magnetic susceptibility) of a sample.
The student will learn and understand the connection between magnetic properties, unpaired electrons, oxidation state and ligand field strength for a given metal complex.
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The purpose of this Five Slides About is to provide the instructor with a resource to introduce the topic of magnetic susceptibility. This could be used as a pre-lab discussion before students collect magnetic susceptibility data needed to calculate the magnetic moment for a given metal center. The slides can certainly be modified depending on the method for obtaining magnetic susceptibility data.
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20 minutes
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17
Jul
2014
Introduction to Photoinduced Electron Transfer
Submitted by Robert Holbrook, Northwestern UniversityDescription:
This 5 slides about will introduce students to the concept of photoinduced electron transfer. These slides go over the energics of photoinduced electron transfer, which implements basic concepts of photochemistry and electrochemistry. The photoinduced electron transer properties of ris-(2,2'-bipyridine)-ruthenium(II) is used as an example.
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Students will be introduced to photoinduced electron transfer and how to determine the driving force between an electron acceptor/donor pair. Students will be able to incororapte photochemistry and electrochemistry to inorganic complexes. Tris-(2,2'-bipyridine)-ruthenium(II) is used as an example. Students should learn the basic concept of photoinduced electron transfer and how to determine the thermodynmics for determining the driving force for PET. This maybe an interesting way to merge concepts of photochemistry and electrochemistry. The excited state of a molecule effects its reduction potentials dramatically (a 2.12 V shift in reduction potential for Ru(bpy)3). This concept is used in a wide variety of research topics from dye-sensitized solar cells to electron transfer in photosystem II.
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These slides can be used in a lecture or a reference to introduce the concept of photoinduced electron transfer. Students must have had an introduction to basics of photochemistry and electrochemistry prior to these notes.
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