Students construct computer models of two transition metal complexes, solve their electronic structures, and inspect the resulting d-type molecular orbitals to identify which are non-bonding, sigma* antibonding, or pi* antibonding. After constructing a molecular orbital diagram, they determine which of the two complexes is likely to absorb light at a longer wavelength.
This in-class activity is intended to help visualize the meaning of the subscripts and coefficients in molecular formulas that appear in balanced chemical equations. It has been my experience that students in 2nd semester general chemistry can sometimes still be confused about this fundamental aspect of chemical language. It substitutes edible candy for the atoms in a molecular model kit, thus allowing students to eat the atoms at the end. (My philosophy is that if students are eating, they're probably awake and could be learning!)
This 5 slides about gives a basic introduction to synchrotron radiation. Information includes how the particles are accelerated, how they travel to the individual instruments, and where synchrotrons in the USA are located.
Maggie Geselbracht has a great fondness for compounds with too many nitrogen atoms next to each other. This is a collection of problem sets and class activites based on the structure, bonding, and spectroscopy of a number of such compounds, drawn from the recent literature.
There are three ways to modulate the redox potential of a metalloenzyme: Changing ligands, changing geometry, and changing solvent. When I introduce this topic in Bioinorganic, I try to give my students concrete examples of each. I love this one because it applies what they learned in Gen Chem about the Nernst Equation to a biological problem. Granted, I don't use a metalloenzyme as my example, but I do pull the biological chemistry into it at the end, by referrring to the cytochrome oxidase/O2 couple.
In Haverford College's course Chem 111:Structure and Bonding, we have included a workshop exercise that guides students through their first experience using electronic structure calculations. We use the WebMO interface along with Gaussian03, but the exercise could be adapted for other electronic structure programs. The general structure of the exercise is as follows:
This Lewis structure and VSEPR problem is based on a paper from Inorganic Chemistry in 2010 reporting the crystal structure of the carbonyl diazide molecule. This relatively simple molecule provides an interesting application of the predictive powers of Lewis structures and VSEPR theory to molecular structure, backed up by experimental data on bond distances and bond angles. Before tackling carbonyl diazide, the students warm up by considering the structures of hydrogen azide and the isolated azide ion. The reference to the original paper is
This set of experiments provides an introduction to simple inorganic synthesis and qualitative analysis of inorganic pigments. I have taught this series of experiments in my first semester junior level inorganic class for the past 5 years. In part 1, students synthesize five inorganic pigments. Part 2 involves identifying an unknown inorganic white pigment by chemical and physical tests. These