Students are asked to find a coordination complex in the recent literature and analyze its structure. This homework or in-class activity is a great way for the instructor to crowd source the discovery of interesting new complexes to use as material in future exams.
This is a collection of LOs that I used to teach a junior-senior seminar course on organometallics during Fall 2014 at Harvey Mudd College.
In this activity, students apply knowledge of the trans effect to the synthesis of planar Pt(II) complexes that contain cis-amine/ammine motifs. These complexes are of interest as both potential novel chemotherapeutic Pt(II) complexes and as intermediates for promising chemotherapeutic drugs such as satraplatin. The questions in this LO are based on recent research described in the paper “Improvements in the synthesis and understanding of the iodo-bridged intermediate en route to the Pt(IV) prodrug satraplatin,” by Timothy C. Johnstone and Stephen C.
I used this paper to illustrate several course concepts related to materials structure (crystal lattice structure, coordination number, crystal field theory and orbital splitting, symmetry, electronic spectra, allowed and forbidden transitions). This activity was paired with a laboratory experiment (see related VIPEr objects) in which students synthesized Prussian Blue, and gave students a really in-depth look at what was going on when they mixed those solutions together.
I use this literature discussion in my second year inorganic class as a follow-up to a lab experiment where students synthesize Werner complexes and then (with much guidance) analyze their IR spectra using symmetry and group theory arguments. This paper provides an excellent example of how cobalt complexes are used in modern applications, and serves as a bridge to bioinorganic chemistry, which is a central feature later in the course.
Over the past several years, I've been doing this in-class exercise shortly after discussing mechanisms of ligand exchange. The exercise expands on the lecture material by having the students think about metal ions, rather than ligands, exchanging from a coordination complex. The students are encouraged to work in groups of 3-5 and actively discuss the material amongst themselves before we go over it as a class. I do not provide the students with the article ahead of time, so that they may come up with their own conclusions, as opposed to simply repeating those of the authors.
This "Five slides about" is meant to introduce faculty and/or students to Spectroelectrochemistry (SEC), a technique that is used in inorganic chemistry research and other areas. SEC is a powerful tool to examine species that are normally hard to synthesize and isolate due to instability and high reactivity. Papers with examples of SEC techniques are provided on the last slide.
This learning object is designed to spark discussion and educate students taking an inorganic chemistry course about laboratory safety. It uses the article "Learning from UCLA" by Jyllian N. Kemsley (Chemical & Engineering News (2009), Vol. 87 Issue 31, pp.
I asked the students in my junior/senior inorganic course to develop their own literature discussion learning objects and lead the rest of the class in a discussion of their article. Student Johann Maradiaga chose this article describing the synthesis and characterization of Fe2GeS4 nanocrystals with potential applications in photovoltaic devices (Sarah J. Fredrick and Amy L. Prieto, “Solution Synthesis and Reactivity of Colloidal Fe2GeS4: A Potential Candidate for Earth Abundant, Nanostructured Photovoltaics” J. Am. Chem.