Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is a process routinely used to produce thin films of materials via decomposition of volatile precursor molecules. Unfortunately, the equipment required for a conventional CVD experiment is not practical or affordable for many undergraduate chemistry laboratories, especially at smaller institutions. In an effort to…

With an increased focus on integrated upper-level laboratories, we present an experiment integrating concepts from inorganic, biological, and physical chemistry content areas. Students investigate the effects of ligand strength on the spectroscopic properties of the heme center in myoglobin using UV-vis, [superscript 1]H NMR, and EPR…

An experiment exploring the photochemical properties of quinones was developed. Their unique photochemistry and highly reactive nature make them an ideal class of compounds for examining structure-activity relationships. For several substituted quinones, photochemical reactivity was related to structure and ultimately to the Gibbs energy for…

This laboratory activity is a mechanistic exploration of the interactions between electronically deficient organometallic compounds and solvent molecules. Simple kinetics experiments designed to explore the mechanism of C[subscript 60] fullerene-benzene exchange on Ir(([eta][superscript 2]-C[subscript 60])(CO)(Cl)(PPh[subscript 3])[subscript 2]…

Much of our understanding of metabolic pathways has resulted from the use of chemical and isotopic labels. In this experiment, a heavy isotope of carbon, [superscript 13]C, is used to label the product of the well-known RuBisCO enzymatic reaction. This is a key reaction in photosynthesis that converts inorganic carbon to organic carbon; a process…

A pedagogical experiment is described to examine the physical absorption of gases, in this case carbon dioxide, in a hollow fiber membrane contactor (HFMC) where the absorption concentration profile can be followed by a color change. The HFMC is used to teach important concepts and can be used in interesting applications for students, such as…

This article describes a novel experiment focused on metal ion hydrolysis and the equilibria related to metal ions in aqueous systems. Using [superscript 27]Al NMR, the students become familiar with NMR spectroscopy as a quantitative analytical tool for the determination of aluminum by preparing a standard calibration curve using standard aluminum…

We describe an alternative educational approach for an inorganic chemistry laboratory module named "Experimentation in Chemistry", which is included in Industrial Engineering and Chemical Engineering courses. The main aims of the new approach were to reduce the high levels of failure and dropout on the module and to make the content match the…

To determine the carbonation degree of materials used in mineral carbonation experiments, a fast, simple, and sufficiently accurate method is required. For this purpose, a method based on the reaction between carbonates and hydrochloric acid was developed. It was noted that this method could also be used to teach undergraduate students some basic…

This demonstration, if done in the original way, can lead to fires in waste containers (sometimes in the middle of the night after the experiment has been conducted), because pyrophoric zinc is generated by suspending powdered zinc in hot sodium hydroxide. This is avoided by using hot ZnSO[subscript 4].

A two-week laboratory experiment for students in advanced inorganic chemistry is described. Students prepare and characterize a cobalt(III) complex coordinated by a thioether ligand during the first week of the experiment and then study the kinetics of Co-S bond cleavage in basic solution during the second week. The synthetic portion of the…

The mercury beating heart (MBH) is a commonly performed experiment, which is based on varying oxidizing agents and substituting other metals for iron. Various modified versions of the classical demonstration of the experiment are presented.

The experiment described here for advanced inorganic chemistry undergraduate students includes a solvolysis reaction of [CoCl(NH[subscript 3])[subscript 5]][superscript 2+] in nonaqueous (H[subscript 3]PO[subscript 4]) medium, followed by an alternative way of using ion-exchange chromatography based on the capability of changing the charges of the…

The photochemical synthesis and subsequent ligand exchange reactions of Ru(CO)[subscript 4] (eta[superscript2]-alkene) compounds has provided a novel experiment for upper-level inorganic chemistry laboratory courses. The experiment is designed to provide a system in which the changing electronic properties of the alkene ligands could be easily…

The study presents an experimental approach, which is expected to be very useful for a better understanding of the synthetic, mechanistic and measurable properties of gold nanoparticle layering techniques. The experiment is found to serve numerous educational objectives as well.