Kinetics constitutes a core topic in both the lecture and laboratory components of lower- level chemistry courses. While textbook examples can ignore issues of time, temperature and safety, the laboratory can not. Reactions must occur slowly enough to be detected by students, occur rapidly enough for data collection in the few hours assigned to a…

A commercially available Grignard reagent (3.0 M solution of phenyl magnesium bromide in ether) was used in a convenient Grignard synthesis in a second-year organic chemistry laboratory without any of the typical failures associated with the Grignard reaction. The reaction setup used oven-dried glassware and no extraordinary measures were taken to…

The series of experiments proposed for advanced undergraduate students deal with both standard organometallic preparative methods in dry anaerobic conditions and with a kinetic study of the mechanisms operating in the substitution of square-planar complexes. The preparation of organometallic compounds is carried out by transmetallation or…

This manuscript describes a set of three experiments that investigates the thermodynamic and kinetic aspects of phosphine substitution at a Ru center. In the first experiment, the students synthesize a Ru organometallic complex containing a phosphine ligand. In the second, equilibria for phosphine substitution involving several different…

Four different approaches to residual entropy (the entropy remaining in crystals comprised of nonsymmetric molecules like CO, N[subscript 2]O, FClO[subscript 3], and H[subscript 2]O as temperatures approach 0 K) are analyzed and a new method of its calculation is developed based on application of the Boltzmann distribution. The inherent connection…

Different formulations of thermodynamic work "w" as a pressure-volume integral are examined for a piston moving against a gas in an irreversible process. Proper expressions are obtained using the instantaneous pressure of the gas on the piston as the integrand and also using certain external pressures as the integrand. There are two common yet…

A model of a thermodynamic system is described in which particles (representing atoms) interact with one another, the surroundings, and the earth's gravitational field according to the principles of classical mechanics. The system's energy "E" and internal energy "U" are defined. The importance is emphasized of the dependence of energy and work on…

A virtually closed system is treated as open and compared to known results. The classic experiment of Clement and Desormes provides the conceptual framework for this open system approach in determining the molar heat capacity ratios, lambda. This alternate view, extends the theoretical treatment beyond the first law of thermodynamics for closed…

This article develops a general thermodynamic treatment to predict the direction of shift in a chemical equilibrium when it is subjected to a stress. This treatment gives an inequality that relates the change in the perturbed variable and the change that the equilibrium shift produces in the conjugated variable. To illustrate the generality of…

The four types of ionic equilibria--acid-base, redox, precipitation, and complexation--have certain similarities, which has led some authors to develop a unified treatment of them. These authors have highlighted the common aspects and tried to find a systemization of the equilibria that would facilitate learning them. In this unified treatment,…

For more than 200 years, the beautiful "molybdenum blue solutions" have been a puzzle for chemists because they could not determine the molecular structures of the solutes while experiments showing the Tyndall effect proved the presence of "giant species". This problem was finally solved in Bielefeld. As a result of this discovery, novel inorganic…

Least-squares linear regression is the best of statistics and it is the worst of statistics. The reasons for this paradoxical claim, arising from possible inapplicability of the method and the excessive influence of "outliers", are discussed and substitute regression methods based on median selection, which is both robust and resistant, are…

Peer-led team learning (PLTL) is a program of small-group workshops, attached to a course, under the direction of trained peer leaders who have completed the course. Peer leaders ensure that team members engage with the materials and with each other, they help build commitment and confidence, and they encourage discussion. Studies of PLTL have…

Common examples of graphic organizers include flow diagrams, concept maps, and decision trees. The author has created a novel type of graphic organizer called a decision map. A decision map is a directional heuristic that helps learners solve problems within a generic framework. It incorporates questions that the user must answer and contains…

Inspired by the Salters Approach (UK) and ChemCom (USA), units for a new curriculum for chemistry teaching are being developed in Germany based on theories of scientific literacy, motivation, and situated learning. The curriculum follows a context-based approach. Rather than using the structure of the discipline, it generates basic chemical…