Advanced Inorganic Chemistry

Catalog description

This course introduces students to the interdependence of chemical bonding, spectroscopic characteristics, and reactivity properties of coordination compounds and complexes using the fundamental concept of symmetry. The principles of coordination chemistry will be introduced after reviewing atomic structure, the chemical bond, and molecular structure. A basic familiarity with symmetry will be formalized by an introduction to the elements of symmetry and group theory. The students will use symmetry and group theory approaches to understand central atom hybridization, ligand group orbitals, and the construction of qualitative molecular orbital (MO) energy diagrams including both sigma and pi bonding contributions. The students will continue to utilize their understanding of group theory during an introduction of electronic spectroscopy and the use of correlation and Tanabe-Sugano diagrams. MO diagrams will then be used as a starting point for understanding the reactivity properties of coordination complexes.