This LO focuses on creating complexes with multiple bonds between late transition metals and nitrogen. The questions will guide students through Mindiola and Hillhouse's communication that details the synthesis and investigation of three-coordinate terminal amido and imido complexes of nickel. This communication is significant because it describes the synthesis and structural characterization of what became known as his "double nickel" complex, which contains a Ni-N double bond.  

This is a general assignment given prior to discussing a paper in class.  Students are asked to read a particular literature paper, and then fill out the template giving the citation information of the paper and: three (3) new things they learned from the paper, two (2) questions that reading the paper raised for them or left unanswered, and one (1) reference cited by the paper that the student thinks is worth reading and why.  The assignment helps seed the discussion prior to class, and gives the instructor some information about specific details to discuss to fill in gaps in the students'

This literature discussion focuses on a J. Am. Chem. Soc. communication that describes a series of Pt complexes that exhibit competitive reductive elimination reactions to form either an sp²-sp³ bond or an sp³-sp³ bond. One of the complexes also contains a C-C agostic interaction with the metal. The questions are written to be addressed by students in a foundation-level inorganic course.

This Guided Literature Discussion was assigned as a course project and is the result of work originated by students Elina Andreassen and Abigail Palmer.

Lignin material from plants may be transformed into useful organic materials.  This LO is part of a special VIPEr collection honoring the 2022 ACS National Award recipients in the field of inorganic chemistry. Mahdi Abu Omar was the recipient of the ACS Award in Green Chemistry for his contributions to fundamental science and technology development for catalytic lignin conversion to renewable chemicals, fuels, and materials following green chemistry and engineering principles.