Instructor: Johnny Galbraith

Office: DN 231 A

Phone: 575-3000 x 2264 (office) 797-2508 (home)

Location DN 231

Class Time Th 2:00-6:15

Office hours TBA

I will work out office hours after the first week of class when everyone has a better idea of their schedules

III Objectives: At the end of this course, you will:

• further your understanding of topics in Inorganic Chemistry through hands on experience.
• become familiar with the theory and application of modern instrumentation such as NMR, UV/Vis, GC, IR, polarimetry and computational simulation.
• develop new and improve upon previous laboratory techniques such as working in an inert atmosphere and synthetic methods.
• become familiar with the inorganic chemistry literature, finding it, reading it and writing it.

We will meet at the beginning of the lab period in order to discuss some background relevant to that day’s experiment. Theoretical principles, laboratory techniques, instrumentation, alterations in the procedure… Once the experiment begins, you will be largely on your own. I will remain close by and provide consultation when needed, but will mostly leave things up to you. Occasionally, we will start in the laboratory right away and then discuss theoretical aspects during experimental down time (lengthy refluxations, drying times etc…)

Your text book is not allowed in the lab. Therefore, you should copy as much of the procedure into your laboratory notebook as is necessary to complete the experiment. All observations and modifications to the procedure should be recoded in your notebooks. At the end of the semester, I will collect your notebooks for grading (see below)

While Safety is always a concern in any chemistry laboratory, it is especially a concern here where the chemicals and procedures can be potentially fatal to a careless uninformed experimenter. You should review the safety section of your text (pp. 5-17) and familiarize yourself with the chemicals to be used before you need to use them.

Successful completion of the objectives in III will be assessed by the evaluation of written laboratory reports, laboratory notebooks, final exam and final project.

There are three experiments which require journal style write up.

1. Isomerism of Dichlorobis (ethylenediamine)cobalt(III) Chloride (Exp #26 p. 239)
2. Synthesis and characterization of ferrocene (Exp #40 A+B p. 302)
3. Synthesis and characterization Re₂Cl₈ (Exp. #25 p. 235)
   

There are four experiments that do not require a full write up. Instead, you will be required to answer a few questions or work some calculations to be handed in.

1. TBLMTO (handout)
2. Computational study of crystal structures (handout)
3. Synthesis and reactions of Carboranes (Exp. 7 A + B p. 170)
4. Synthesis of Wilkinson’s Catalyst (Exp. #34 A+ C p. 271)

The last few weeks of the course are dedicated to a final project that each student will do individually. You will search the literature for a suitable project, design, execute and write up the results on your own. This is an exercise in experimental design, scientific writing and laboratory function. Once you find an interesting project, you need to figure out if we can do it with the equipment and chemicals available at Marist College. Therefore, a project proposal is due early in the semester (week 4). In this proposal you need to outline the project and create a budget for any materials or equipment that needs to be purchased.

See section V. about lab notebooks above. You will be allowed to use your notebook for the final exam. This exam will be designed to be quite simple if you kept a good notebook. Therefore the notebook grade and the final grade are combined.

The final exam will be during the time assigned by the registrar. During this time you will be devoted to the final and you will hand in your lab notebooks at the end.