CH3431 – Chemistry Workshop
Lecturers:
Professor R. A. Aitken, Professor S. E. M. Ashbrook*, Professor M. Buehl and Dr J. A. McNulty.
(*Module Convenor)
Aim:
The aim of the module is to provide a basis in a range of analytical techniques including organic spectroscopy, molecular symmetry and point groups and their application to inorganic spectroscopy, and crystallography and X-ray diffraction. In addition, students will gain experience in chemical information retrieval and searching online databases.
Application of Spectroscopic Methods, Semester 1 – Professor S. E. M. Ashbrook and Professor D. Philp
Duration:
24 hours
Aims:
To build on the student’s knowledge of the use of a range of analytical techniques, including NMR, electronic and vibrational spectroscopy, and mass spectrometry to develop skills in the structure determination of molecules using spectroscopic data.
Objectives:
1. To understand the basic information that can be obtained from UV- VIS and IR spectra and from mass spectrometry.
2. To understand the physical background behind nuclear spin and NMR spectroscopy.
3. To have a general understanding of chemical shifts and coupling constants in 1H and 13C NMR.
4. To be able to interpret 1H and 13C NMR spectra.
5. To recognize and understand other significant phenomena in NMR spectroscopy such as heteronuclear spin-spin coupling, decoupling, relaxation, NOE and dynamic processes.
6. To understand basic principles of multi-dimensional NMR techniques and some of their applications.
7. To be able to deduce structures of organic molecules from a combination of IR, UV and NMR spectra and mass spectrometry data.
Information Retrieval, Semester 1 – Professor R. A. Aitken
Duration:
6 hours
Aims:
To inform students of the chemical information available in the library in the form of periodicals, books and reference works and to develop skills in computer-based information retrieval.
Objectives:
1. To give a general understanding of Primary, Secondary and Tertiary chemical literature. How journals and scientific literature have developed over time.
2. To understand how to refer to an article in a paper or book and cite it correctly in any of the major styles of chemical journals (RSC, ACS and European).
3. To understand how to find publications and organise a collection of references.
4. To understand the organisation and use of Chemical Abstracts + SciFinder.
5. To familiarise students with the Web of Science on-line access to references.
6. To give practical experience in the use of Reaxys, the Cambridge Structural Database and the Esp@cenet patents database.
7. Practice in the use of DOI (digital object identifier) numbers. The basic structure and meaning of a DOI. How to find a paper from the DOI and to find the DOI for a given paper.
Crystallographic Structure Determination, Semester 2 – Dr J. A. McNulty
Duration:
16 hours
Aims:
X-ray crystallography is a very powerful tool used to determine the structures of compounds in the solid state. The aim of this workshop is to build on the introduction to diffraction given in CH2701 and to develop a theoretical understanding of crystallography, i.e. the structure of periodic solids and their study by X-ray diffraction.
Objectives:
1. Understand periodicity in 3 dimensions and be familiar with unit cells, crystal systems and space groups.
2. Identify symmetry elements in periodic solids.
3. Understand the conditions for diffraction from periodic solids.
4. Understand the reciprocal relationship between the diffraction pattern (structure factors) and the crystal structure (electron density).
5. Understand the origin of systematic absences and how to derive space groups from X-ray diffraction data.
6. Understand the procedures for crystal structure solution from single crystal X-ray diffraction.
Symmetry and Group Theory, Semester 2 – Professor M. Buehl
Duration:
14 hours
Aims:
The aim of this course is to provide students with an appreciation of the symmetry properties of molecules and ions. By presenting some of the formal aspects of group theory, the methods of characterising isolated objects, such as molecules and molecular ions, on the basis of their symmetry properties, will be developed. As a further stage, the exploitation of a group theoretical description of such species will be shown to be useful in describing and rationalising the electronic properties of molecules through molecular orbital theory. The links between the symmetry properties of molecules and various spectroscopies will also be described with particular emphasis on characterising the vibrational properties of molecules and the activity of vibrational modes in Infrared and Raman spectroscopy.
Objectives:
1. Be familiar with group theoretical notation for the description of molecules and molecular properties.
2. Be able to describe the normal modes of molecular vibration and determine the spectroscopic activity of those modes.
3. Be able to construct symmetry adapted combinations of orbitals to describe electrons in molecules.
4. Be in a position to appreciate the behaviour of atomic orbitals under ligand arrangements of differing symmetries.