Searching and reading the literature is an important tool in teaching organometallic chemistry. This overall project focuses on the improving students' writing skills and to begin to think critically about articles in the literature through a series of different writing assignments. This project is used in a semester long course on organometallics and reaction mechanisms. The first assignment (this LO) is a summary, the second is related to the NSF highlight, and the third is a literature critique.

The synthesis of the nitrogen triiodide ammoniate shock-sensitive explosive is a simple laboratory exercise, but it does require a lengthy time for the material to dry before it is active.  This activity uses that time to have students investigate some simple thermodynamics behind their explosive, as well as consult the literature on high energy density materials from the work of Karl O. Christe.

There is also a shorter version of the activity posted as an in-class activity that omits most of the literature investigation.

In 2011, I was fortunate to have Nicolai Lehnert come and speak to my bioinorganic class on his work modeling the FeB (non heme iron) center in bacterial Nitric Oxide reductase.  He suggested this paper to prepare the students for his talk and I developed this reading guide to help them (the students) get more out of the reading.

This learning object was developed with a lot of help from B. Scott Williams from the Keck Science Department of the Claremont Colleges for my junior/senior level course in 2009.   This object is a literature discussion on the topic, but Scott and I hope to add a 5-slides about learning object to go with it shortly.   The primary literature article used for the discussion is “Characterization of a Rhodium(I) sigma-Methane Complex in Solution,” by Wesley H. Bernskoetter, Cynthia K. Schauer, Karen I.

This is a Reading guide to the Review article Transition Metal Speciation in the Cell: Insights from the Chemistry of Metal Ion Receptors Lydia A. Finney, et al. Science 300, 931 (2003);

DOI: 10.1126/science.1085049.  

This paper from Chemistry: A European Journal by Manolis Manos and Mercouri Kanatzidis (link provided below in Web Resources) describes the ion-exchange chemistry of a layered sulfide (KMS-1) that exhibits an enhanced preference for soft metal cations (Cd²⁺, Pb²⁺, and Hg²⁺) replacing K⁺ in between the metal sulfide layers of KMS-1.  Not only does this paper provide a practical application of hard-soft acid-base theory (HSAB), but it provides an accessible introduction to the technical literature for undergraduates, par