This course is the last part of a three part series (Chem 201/250A/251A) that first year graduate students must take as a review of coordination complexes (with a focus on six-coordinate complexes, i.e. ML6). This course places an emphasis on understanding experimental observations and measurements (color, stability, NMR, X-Ray Crystallography, magnetic susceptibility, etc) and their use in determining electronic structure. Undergrads may take this course with instructor permission (email the professor), and a few choose to do so each year.
Additional Notes
3 hours of lecture per week. Problem sets and may take 3-4 hours each.
The class is predominantly taken by first-year graduate students with some junior and senior undergraduates. You should take Chem 104A and 104B before taking this class.
The recommended textbooks for this course are DeKock and Grey’s Chemical Structure and Bonding, and Albright, Burdett and Whangbo’s Orbital Interactions in Chemistry – the latter has examples of almost every molecular orbital diagram you’ll ever need to complete the problem sets in it. The 1st edition may honestly be better than the 2nd, because the 1st edition is shorter and more straightforward.
This course places an emphasis on understanding experimental observations and measurements (color, stability, NMR, X-Ray Crystallography, magnetic susceptibility, etc) and their use in determining electronic structure. Often, Prof. Anderson will present an experimental observation (e.g. bond lengths in a complex), and will ask you to rationalize a molecular orbital diagram that supports this observation. Frequently, Prof. Anderson will give journal citations from which his lectures are based on; some are helpful though many are not. It may be helpful to at least download and skim through some of these articles in preparation for the final exam.
When reviewing for the final exam, consult lecture notes, problem sets, then assigned readings, in that order. Material covered in lecture will be emphasized. The final exam is open-note and open-Internet.
Written by: Edward Mu
Last edited: Fall 2018