VIPEr

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Subdiscipline:

Learning Goals:

Students will interpret provided data to write their own experimental sections for molecules they were unable to prepare in the lab. The guided inquiry part allows students to use data to predict the outcome of a chemical reaction.

Topics Covered:

Group theory & applications

Nomenclature

Job's Method - The Covid-19 Version

Equipment needs:

be able to view PDF/PNG files

Related activities:

Ferrocene acylation - The Covid-19 Version

Manganese Carbonyl experiment

Manganese carbonyl calculation addition

Implementation Notes:

I have not used this yet but will be using it spring 2020.

Time Required:

unknown

21 Mar 2020

Ferrocene acylation - The Covid-19 Version

Submitted by Chip Nataro, Lafayette College

Additional Authors:

Lisa Bell-Loncella , University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown

Description:

This is the classic Chromatography of Ferrocene Derivatives experiment from "Synthesis and Technique in Inorganic Chemistry" 3rd Ed. (1986 pp 157-168) by R. J. Angelici. There are no significant changes from the experiment published in the book so details will not be provided. What is provided are links to some excellent videos showing the experiment and characterization data for students to work with. For the time being this will be a living document. Currently it has ¹H, ¹³C{¹H}, COSY, DEPT, HMBC, HSQC IR, UV-Vis, GC-MS and Cyclic Voltammetry raw data files for all compounds for students to work with. It also includes processed ¹H, ¹³C{¹H}, COSY, DEPT, HMBC, HSQC, IR, GC-MS and Cyclic Voltammetry data for all compounds. If anyone has any additional means of characterization they would like to include (say Mossbauer) please feel free to contact the author.

Topics Covered:

Descriptive chemistry

First Semester Inorganic Chemistry / Foundation Course in Inorganic Chemistry

Visualization

Prerequisites:

Course Level:

Corequisites:

Subdiscipline:

A very lab focused video from the Univ. of Sheffield

Learning Goals:

A student should get an appreciation for what doing this lab would be like by watching videos. In addition, the student will analyze the data provided and learn about the characterization of ferrocene, acetylferrocene and 1,1'-diacetylferrocene.

Equipment needs:

Nothing.

The NMR data comes from a Bruker instrument and can be opened with TopSpin, MestReNova and perhaps other programs.

Implementation Notes:

Like most everyone at this time this is going to be a trial by fire.

Web Resources:

Video focused more on background material

Bruker Topspin for academia

MestReNova

20 Mar 2020

virtual inorganic lab experiments with data

Submitted by Adam R. Johnson, Harvey Mudd College

This collection includes new and/or updated lab experiments useful for online/distance learning. To be included in this collection, data should be provided for others to use in their new virtual laboratory courses. This collection was prepared as part of my response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Subdiscipline:

Topics Covered:

Computer modeling

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Course Level:

19 Mar 2020

Job's Method - The Covid-19 Version

Submitted by Chip Nataro, Lafayette College

Evaluation Methods:

Students are generally asked to write a full lab report including an abstract, brief introduction, experimental and results/discussion. I will likely not ask them to do that in this virtual lab. However, they will be asked to determine the value for n for the various [Ni(en)_x] solutions as well as questions 1 and 2 from Angelici's book. In addition, I typically ask them to do some literature searching questions, but I am not sure if they will have access to SciFinder so I may have to bypass that or provide them the original papers I have them look at. Links to those papers are included.

Evaluation Results:

I'll use this in a few weeks and see how it goes.

Description:

This is the classic Job's Method experiment from "Synthesis and Technique in Inorganic Chemistry" 3^rd Ed. (1986 pp 108-114) by R. J. Angelici. There are no significant changes from the experiment published in the book so details will not be provided. What is provided are a series of pictures and videos showing the experiment being performed. Also included are the raw files of the absorbance spectra in EXCEL. It is not perfect but given the situation many of us are facing at the time this is published, it is better than nothing. I was extremely rushed given that the governor essentially closed the state down the evening I did this, so please forgive any errors. This also includes literature searching questions.

Topics Covered:

Prerequisites:

Course Level:

Corequisites:

Learning Goals:

A student should get an appreciation for what doing this lab would be like by watching videos. In addition, the student will analyze the data provided and determine the species present in solutions containing various mole fractions of ethylenediamine and Ni(II).

Subdiscipline:

Diaqua bis-ethylenediamine and tetra aquaethylenediamine nickel(II) sulfate complexes

Equipment needs:

Nothing

Implementation Notes:

Like most everyone at this time this is going to be a trial by fire.

Web Resources:

On the Possible Existence of Tetrahedral Ni(II) Complexes

9 Jan 2020

Marvin suite from ChemAxon

Submitted by Anthony L. Fernandez, Merrimack College

Evaluation Methods:

As my students draw structures, I usually observe them and make suggestions to improve their drawings.

Evaluation Results:

While I do no formal assessment of this activity, I have observed that students seem to learn how to use the program fairly quickly and then use it without much difficulty for the rest of the semester.

Description:

It is important for students to be able to effectively communicate the results of their scientific work. This does not only inlcude written and oral communication, but the creation of appropriate representations of the complexes they have investigated. It is crucial that students learn how to draw molecules using electronic structure drawing programs, but site licenses for structure drawing programs can be prohibitive for some institutions.

Marvin suite is a software package from ChemAxon that is freely avaialble for educational institutions. It contains a structure drawing program (MarvinSketch) and a viewer (MarvinView), as well as tools that allow for the calculation of many molecular and spectroscopic properties of molecules. This is a very useful suite of programs that can be used by all students and faculty at an instituion once an Academic License is obtained.

A set of directions for drawing a coordination complex in MarvinSketch is also included as part of this learning object. These directions will guide the user as they draw the structure of a square-planar coordination complex, trans-[Ni(NCS)₂(PMe₃)₂].

Topics Covered:

Professional skills development

Communication skills

Computer modeling

Visualization

Corequisites:

No Corequisites

Prerequisites:

No Prerequisites

Subdiscipline:

Science Skills, Practices, and Resources

Course Level:

First year

Second year

Guideline for drawing chemical structures

Learning Goals:

After following the instructions, students should be able to draw a chemical structure electronically using a chemical structure drawing program.

Once the structure in drawn in the program, a user would then be able to access the many other functions available in the software.

Related activities:

Drawing, visualizing and interpreting 3-D molecular structure (2019 Community Challenge #2)

Implementation Notes:

During the first week of our semester, lab sections are usually not held for courses so that student enrollment issues can be sorted out. In an advanced course such as Inorganic Chemistry, I want to take advantage of every week that I can so I use the first lab meeting time to have students learn how to use several software programs that they wil use over the course of the semester.

I post the download link and the license file for the software on the course LMS before the lab period and I ask the students to download and install the software. You should make sure that students update their Java installation before installing the Marvin suite. (I also place a link to the Java download site on the course LMS as well, but students tend to ignore it.) Aside from the Java issue, I have found that there are no real issues encountered by students when they install the software.

When we meet, I ask the students to follow the linked instructions to create a drawing of a coordination complex. Once they complete that successfully, I ask them to draw several other structures. I do not have any specific structures that I use, but I try to choose complexes with different geometries (octahedral, tetrahedral, square pyramidal, etc.) around the metal center.

The Marvin suite of programs provides the students with a number of useful tools, not just a structure drawing progam. Students use this to calculate or estimate a number of different things, such as the molecular mass, the elemental analysis, a mass spectrum, ¹H and ¹³C NMR, and charge distribution.

To obtain a license file, the faculty member must log into the ChemAxon site and request an Academic License. Once approved, the instituion is allowed to use the software for 2 years and the license can be easily renewed when it expires.

Time Required:

30 minutes

Web Resources:

Marvin webpage

Request an Academic License

Marvin webpage

8 Jan 2020

How to Read a Journal Article: Analyzing Author Roles and Article Components

Submitted by Catherine McCusker, East Tennessee State University

Evaluation Methods:

Follow up small group work with a class discussion of the correct answers. Grade students on participation and completness

Description:

This literature discussion uses a recently published article on solvatochromic Mo complexes to introduce students to the different components of a research article. The activity is divied into to two parts. Before class students read the paper and focus on defining terms, investigating the "meta" data of the paper, and the different sections iof the paper. In class the students work in groups to investigate the scientific content of the paper

Topics Covered:

Chemical literature

Communication skills

Computer modeling

Professional skills development

Prerequisites:

Course Level:

Corequisites:

Learning Goals:

Students should be able to:

Interpret the roles that authors play in a research project
Recognize the different sections of a research article and the purpose of each section
Understand how to access supporting information and the type of information found there
Find key conclusions of a research paper and the experimental evidence the author used to make those conclusions

Subdiscipline:

Science Skills, Practices, and Resources

Analyzing a journal article for basic themes, roles of authors, and the scientific method

Related activities:

Analyzing a journal article for non-content issues of style and convention

Time Required:

~30 min (if students complete part 1 before class)

Web Resources:

http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1021/acs.inorgchem.9b02955

9 Oct 2019

2019 Nobel Prize - Li-ion battery LOs

Submitted by Barbara Reisner, James Madison University

Congratulations to the 2019 recipients of the Nobel Prize - John B. Goodenough, M. Stan Whittingham and Akira Yoshino. It's a well deserved honor!

There are several LOs on VIPEr that talk about lithium ion batteries and related systems. The 2019 Nobel is a great opportunity to include something about these batteries in your class.

I hope to see more LOs in the coming weeks so we can bring this chemistry into our classrooms!

Subdiscipline:

Bioinorganic Chemistry

Electrochemistry

Solid State and Materials Chemistry

Topics Covered:

Bonding models: Extended systems

Electron transfer

Extended structure

Solids & solid state chemistry

Physical properties

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Course Level:

9 Oct 2019

Fourier Transform IR Spectroscopy of Tetrahedral Borate Ions

Submitted by Zachary Tonzetich, University of Texas at San Antonio

Evaluation Methods:

The students perpare laboratory reports displaying their data in proper format with each peak labeled. The report must also contain answers to all of the quetions posed in the manual. Student performance and learning is assessed by the qualtity of their written reports and by a separate quiz covering aspects of vibrational spectroscopy. Teaching assistans also ensure that students' data acquisition is performed in a satisfactory manner during the laboratory period.

Evaluation Results:

Students typically have great difficulty connecting the idea of normal modes, their symmetries, and why we observe IR peaks. They approach IR spectroscopy in much the same way they do NMR spectroscopy (i.e. methane shows four equivalent C-H bonds so I expect one C-H stretching motion) leading to serious misconceptions. This laboratory was designed in part to dispell these misconceptions. Question 1 addresses this issue most directly and many of the class answer incorrectly.

The questions in the laboratory involving harmonic oscialltor analysis are generally more straightforward for students as they just need to use the correct equations. Most of the class answers these correctly.

Likewise, students generally understand that vibrational frequencies are inversely proportional to the mass of the atoms involved in the vibration and are there able to make connections between the observed spectra of BH₄^-, BD₄^- and BF₄^-.

Aspects of functional group analysis are more familiar to students and they generally have little trouble assigning the spectrum of tetraphenylborate.

Description:

This experiment was developed for an upper division Instrumental Analysis course to give students additional experience with infrared (IR) spectroscopy beyond the routine functional group identification encountered in undergraduate Organic Chemistry courses. It shares some aspects with the analysis of gas phase rovibrational spectra typically performed in Physical Chemistry courses, but places a greater emphasis on more practical considerations including data acquisition (using ATR) and interpretation. The molecular ions used in the experiment also demonstrate tetrahedral symmmetry which allows for topics in Group Theory to be exploited.

The experiment has students record the spectra of several tetrahedral borate ions including the isotopomers NaBH₄ and NaBD₄. The students then analyze their data in the context of the symmetry of normal modes, the harmonic osciallator model, comparisons with Raman spectra, and functional group composition. Post lab questions guide students through each of the topics and ask them to make quantative and qualitative predictions based on their data and theoretical models of molecular vibration.

Course Level:

First Semester Inorganic Chemistry / Foundation Course in Inorganic Chemistry

Prerequisites:

Physical Chemistry: Quantum Mechanics

Corequisites:

Subdiscipline:

Group theory & applications

Learning Goals:

-Students should be able to understand the relationship between molecular structure, normal modes, and peaks in the IR spectrum. This is a major misconception with students as they tend to believe that the presence of four B-H bonds in the borohydride ion will neccessary mean that four peaks (or one since they are equivalent) will be observed by IR. Unlike NMR spectroscopy, there is no 1:1 correspondence between the number of equivalent bonds and the number of peaks observed in the spectrum.

-Students should also be able to apply their knowledge of theoretical models (quantum harmonic oscillator) to quantitaively intrepret IR spectra and predict the energy of transitions that cannot be observed due to instrumental limitations.

-Students should be able to understand at a qualitative level how the masses of atoms affect the energy of molecular vibrations.

Topics Covered:

Isotopic labeling and reduced mass calculations for IR spectroscopy

Symmetry

Equipment needs:

The only required piece of equipment beyond the chemicals is an infrared spectrophotometer. At our institution we use an ATR element to acquire the data, but KBr pellets or nujol mulls should work equally well. All chemicals were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich and are of reasonable price.

Related activities:

CompChem 05: Infrared, Thermochemistry, UV-Vis, and NMR

Vibrational Modes and IR Spectra using Character Tables

Good resource for Teaching IR with Symmetry Elements

Synthesis and Molecular Modeling of Sodium Tetrathionate

Implementation Notes:

See attached file with more details. The data acquisition is very straightforward if ATR sampling is employed. Students need only use the instrument for about 15 - 20 minutes to record all four samples.

Time Required:

30 minutes to 2 hr depending upon the number of students.

25 Jul 2019

1FLO: One Figure Learning Objects

Submitted by Chip Nataro, Lafayette College

Course Level:

First year

Second year

Subdiscipline:

Electrochemistry

f-block Chemistry

Topics Covered:

Catalysis

Chemical literature

Electron transfer

Group theory & applications

Electronic structure

f-block chemistry

Kinetics

Symmetry

First Semester Inorganic Chemistry / Foundation Course in Inorganic Chemistry

Corequisites:

No Corequisites

Prerequisites:

General Chemistry

First Semester Inorganic Chemistry / Foundation Course in Inorganic Chemistry

27 Jun 2019

Porphyrin-Based Metal-Organic Frameworks

Submitted by Amanda Bowman, Colorado College

Evaluation Methods:

Students completed this activity in small groups, then turned in individual worksheets. Student learning and performance were assessed through 1) in-class group discussion after they had worked on the activity in small groups, and 2) grading the individual worksheets. Participation was most important in the small-group portion.

Evaluation Results:

In general, students really enjoyed this exercise and felt that it was helpful for visualizing metal-organic frameworks (particularly the extended 3D structure). They also generally felt that it was helpful in visualizing the bonding sites of metal vertices, particularly for thinking about how that influences potential reactivity. We used Mercury as a visualization software for this discussion, and the majority of students felt very comfortable using Mercury and looking at cifs on their own after this activity.

The biggest challenge for students seemed to be in relating the 3D structure in the cif to the images and chemicals formulas in the article. They also tended to need some hints about question 5 – to think about what information Mössbauer can provide about oxidation state of the metal, or that you can tell whether or not there are two distinct iron environments. In our class, we do brief units on X-ray crystallography including how to use and interpret cifs, and Mössbauer spectroscopy before this literature discussion. If those topics are not already addressed in a particular class it might be helpful to add them in or directly address those topics for the students as an introduction to the literature discussion.

Description:

This literature discussion explores the physical structures, electronic structures, and spectroscopic characterization of several porphyrin-based metal-organic frameworks through discussion of “Iron and Porphyrin Metal−Organic Frameworks: Insight into Structural Diversity, Stability, and Porosity,” Fateeva et al. Cryst. Growth Des. 2015, 15, 1819-1826, http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1021/cg501855k. The activity gives students experience visualizing and interpreting MOF structures, and gives students exposure to some of the methods used to characterize MOFs.

Prerequisites:

General Chemistry

Corequisites:

No Corequisites

Topics Covered:

Chemical literature

Diffraction

Electronic structure

Extended structure

Solids & solid state chemistry

Course Level:

Learning Goals:

Students will be able to:

Interpret and describe the bonding and structural characteristics of MOFs
Apply knowledge of ligand field strength to electronic structure of MOFs
Analyze X-ray crystallographic data to gain information about structural characteristics of MOFs
Interpret Mössbauer spectra to gain information about electronic structure of MOFs

Subdiscipline:

Solid State and Materials Chemistry