Electronic spectra often exhibit vibronic structure when vibrational and electronic transitions occur in concert. Theory reveals (1) that orbital symmetry considerations determine specific roles played by the nuclear degrees of freedom and (2) that the vibrational excitation is often highly regiospecific, that is, attributable to an identifiable…

A laboratory experiment for students in advanced inorganic chemistry is described. In this experiment, students prepare two metal complexes with a potentially bidentate-carbene ligand. The complexes are synthesized by reaction of a bisimidazolium salt with silver(I) oxide or palladium(II) acetate. Silver and palladium complexes are binuclear and…

This work describes a convenient and reliable laboratory experiment in nanochemistry that is flexible and adaptable to a wide range of educational settings. The rapid preparation of yellow colloidal silver nanoparticles is achieved by glucose reduction of silver nitrate in the presence of starch and sodium citrate in gently boiling water, using…

Compared to studies on school students' understanding of various topics in the sciences, studies involving university students have received relatively less attention in the science education literature. In this study, we investigated university students' understanding of transition metals chemistry, a topic in inorganic chemistry, which…

Asymmetric transfer hydrogenation is an important transformation for the production of fine chemicals. Traditionally, platinum group metals are used to catalyze this reaction, but recent pressure for greener practices has driven the development of base-metal catalysts. Due to the growing interest in this area of research, the underlying concepts…

The organometallic complex Fe[subscript 2](µ-S[subscript 2])(CO)[subscript 6] has interesting biological implications. The concepts of bio-organometallic chemistry are rarely discussed at the undergraduate level, but this experiment can start such a conversation and, in addition, teach valuable synthetic techniques. The lab experiment takes a…

Worldwide, more than 85% of all chemical products are manufactured with the help of catalysts. Virtually all transition metals of the periodic table are active as catalysts or catalyst promoters. Catalysts are divided into homogeneous catalysts, which are soluble in the reaction medium, and heterogeneous catalysts, which remain in the solid state.…

The purpose of this research was to determine how metal oxide used in a thermite reaction can impact the production of nanoparticles. The results showed the presence of nanoparticles (less than 1 micron in diameter) of at least one type produced by each metal oxide. The typical particles were metallic spheres, which ranged from 300 nanometers in…

Element 43 could not be positively identified despite decades of search but the joint effort of two German researchers, led to naming of the element as masurium which was criticized by scientists from other countries. Thus several names were proposed for it like trinacrium, technetium and so on.