Preamble This is actually a question geared towards analytical chemistry, but us analytical chemists are pretty introverted when it comes to on-line forums.  (Doubt me? Check out the Analytical version of VIPEr here. ) Besides, Inorganic chemists are bright, reflective and welcoming, so I'm confident that some of you have thought about this issue or one closely related.

FYI, a number of the large courses on our campus have started using a new system called Gradescope to help us grade short answer questions on exams and homeworks much more efficiently. In Chem 1a for example (~1300 students), we were able to get rid of MC (Scantron) questions entirely on exams (three midterms and a final). 

Their website (https://www.gradescope.com) has details on how the system works - it really is wonderful! I believe it's in public beta right now and is free to use.

So I've come to realize that my least favorite thing about teaching inorganic chemistry is grading their homework assignments.  I typically have about 15 students and in the past I have assigned weekly graded problem sets.  They are allowed to work together on the homework, but must hand in individual papers.  I get bogged down in the somewhat mindless repetitive task of grading their assignments.  That said, I do tend to try and challenge students through homework and it has typically been a reasonable chunk of their grade in this class (20%) which helps to balance the difficult exams.

Has anyone done the preparation and IR identification of Mo(CO)4(PR3)2 isomers (cis vs. trans)?  The complexes give me pretty much everything I want (relatively short syntheses and distinct differences in the number of IR peaks that students can analyze via group theory), but I'm not thrilled with the potential hazards of the starting reagents (Mo(CO)6 and piperidine).  I've also seen conflicting reports on whether or not the syntheses need to be performed under N2.  (One prep says yes, another mentions nothing about refluxing under N2.)  Should I go for it, or stay far far away?

Does anyone in VIPErland know anything about benchtop NMR systems? Such as: Magritek's Spinsolve, Thermo Scientific's picoSpin, Nanalysis' NMReady, Oxford's Pulsar, and Bruker's Fourier 60.

thanks,

Adam

Chip Nataro and I have been having a back-and-forth conversation on this topic for about 18 hours now and neither of us likes where we are, so I am opening up the thread to the larger community.  However, I will preface this with, I think the question is poorly written and the answer they want is simple, when in fact, the answer is complex.

Here goes. Spessard and Miessler, 2nd ed, chapter 5, end of question problem 5.5:

The Fe-C distance in ferrocinium+ is 6 pm longer than in Fc, but the Co-C distance in Cobaltocinium+ is 6 pm shorter than that in Colbatocene.

I know there's an old thread on this topic somewhere, but I can't find it. We've been using Shriver and Atkins' Inorganic Chem for a while now. Our other inorganic chemist tried Miessler and Tarr once and it was a bust. It was just too much for our students. I agree that Shriver and Atkins is a decent text, but it skimps so much on symmetry and group theory. I was comtemplaing a change to Housecroft and Sharpe (4th edition). Any thoughts? The order of the material is quite different than Shriver, but I constantly find myself going back to Housecroft (which I used as an undergraduate).

Hi all,

Has anyone developed a guided inquiry or Q&A worksheet for Symmetry@Otterbein? (http://symmetry.otterbein.edu/).

On Thursday September 11

Hello Everyone,

I teach the labs for the introductory inorganic chemistry course at our institution.  For one of the experiments,my students prepare a Co(III) complex, trans-[Co(en)₂(NO₂)₂]NO₃ . I would like them to use FTIR spectroscopy to characterize this compound.