Chemistry 5192
Inorganic Synthesis
Fall Term, 2009
MW(F) 1 - 5 PM (Quant Lab, Fondren Science)
General Information
Experimental Techniques
ExperimentsLab Schedule |
Instructors: Dr. Michael Lattman Phone: x8-2467 Email: mlattman@smu.edu
Dr. Patty Wisian-Neilson Phone: x8-2483 Email: pwisian@smu.edu
Dr. David Son Phone: x8-8813 Email: dson@smu.edu
First Day of Lab - Monday, October 19 The course is a rigorous laboratory course even though it begins late in the semester when all your other courses are going full speed. BE PREPARED TO WORK DILIGENTLY. Late reports, lack of preparation, etc. will not be tolerated and point penalties apply to all late and haphazard work. Typically each experiment takes two lab periods. To prevent decomposition, etc., it is mandatory that these syntheses are completed in this time rather than allowing them to sit from Wednesday to the following Monday. The course will introduce you to many new techniques and to many new concepts that have not been covered in any other course. Much instruction will be through direct interaction with the instructors, but most learning will occur through your individual effort and from digging out information and answers from the literature references at the end of each experiment. This lab course will be completely different than any other one you have had thus far. You will usually work in pairs with partners changing almost every week. This will require extensive effort on your part to make sure you do your share and that you understand what has been done. You must ALWAYS thoroughly study (not just skim) the procedures BEFORE you come to lab. It is important that you realize that this is not a "cooking" class and that understanding "what, why and how" is truly the essence of this course. Indeed, that is why you have final exam questions based on the experiments and on lab techniques, including things done "behind the scenes" such as calibrating the vacuum line and distilling solvents. We will introduce the lab course on Wednesday, October 14. At this time you will be assigned an experiment for Monday, October 19. YOU MUST BE READY TO DO THE EXPERIMENT - no faking it! We will know! Part of your grade will be based on how ready you are. The references at the end of the experiments will be useful in preparing you for the lab, in writing your report, and in answering the questions pertaining to each experiment. Some of these references are on reserve in the science/engineering library. Last but not least ---- please come to see us if you have any questions about this class, the information provided here, your experiment the first week, etc.
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