Course overview
This course covers a range of topics to highlight the importance of Inorganic Chemistry in the world today and provide graduates with relevant job-ready skills. It covers aspects of the chemistry of metals from different parts of the periodic table including the heavy transition metals, lanthanides (rare earth metals) and main group metals. Included are applications of these metal complexes in medicine (e.g. those used as anti-cancer drugs and for medical imaging) and catalysis (e.g. enantioselective drug synthesis and petrochemicals). The course will also provide an in depth understanding of the analytical techniques used to interrogate the properties and structures of these metallodrugs and catalysts including vibrational and optical spectroscopy, magnetism, nuclear magnetic resonance and X-ray diffraction.
Course learning outcomes
- Describe and explain the properties, applications, and synthetic mechanisms of important classes of materials, including metallo-supramolecular assemblies, porous extended materials, and polymers.
- Explain the physical principles of key techniques for characterising materials, including X-ray crystallography, advanced NMR spectroscopy, and gas adsorption, and apply these techniques.
- Propose general syntheses for important classes of materials and provide mechanisms to explain their formation.
- Demonstrate proficiency in undertaking individual and/or team-based laboratory investigations using appropriate apparatus and safe laboratory practices, including the collection, analysis, interpretation and communication of results of an experiment.
- Design and plan an investigation by selecting and applying appropriate practical and/or theoretical techniques or tools.