CE
401L – Advanced Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory
Fall
2003 –
PROFESSOR: Dr. Robert Topper
Office:
E-243 Phone: (732) 571-4418
Email:
rtopper@monmouth.edu
Web:
http://www.monmouth.edu/~rtopper
REQUIRED
TEXT: Synthesis
and Technique in Inorganic Chemistry (3rd ed.)
by
G.S. Giolami, T.B. Rauchfuss, and R.J. Angelici.
CLASS
MEETINGS: T 2:30-
OFFICE
HOURS: Th
PREREQUISITES: This advanced
laboratory course has CE401 as a corequisite and CE 372 / CE372L as
prerequisites. Students currently enrolled in CE372 and CE372L may be allowed
to take this course with the instructor's permission, but only if they have completed CE241/CE241L and CE242/CE242L (Organic Chemistry I and II with Lab). Students
are generally also presumed to have completed the sophomore-level CE221 and
CE221L (Quantitative Analysis)
courses or their equivalents.
LAST
DATE TO WITHDRAW WITH AUTOMATIC "W": Wednesday,
November 5.
SAFETY: Safety
goggles must be worn in the laboratory by all persons while anyone is working
with hazardous chemicals in the laboratory. Safety goggles are provided. Safety
glasses are not acceptable for many experiments as they do not provide full splash
protection or protection from chemical vapors. However, it is generally safe to
wear contact lenses under safety goggles. Sandals, or any other footwear which
does not completely cover the foot, are not permitted in the laboratory. Use of
a lab coat or apron and / or sturdy cotton clothes is recommended. Food and
drink are not permitted in the lab.
You are responsible for looking up and understanding the
MSDS of chemicals used in the day's experiment and summarizing their safety and
handling information in your laboratory notebook before you will be allowed to start working.
ATTENDANCE: Attendance
is generally mandatory. All experiments must be completed in order to receive a
passing grade in the course. All experiments should be during the scheduled
laboratory periods unless otherwise announced. Experiments may not be carried
out without faculty supervision under any circumstances.
ORGANIZATION: There
are 14 lab meetings this semester. The list of experiments to be performed is
attached. The schedule may change as necessary as equipment needs and other
scheduling considerations dictate. You will be informed a week in advance of
each experiment which experiment will be begun the following week.
OBJECTIVES:
Students should gain a deeper knowledge of the synthesis and characterization
of inorganic compounds. They will also learn how to work collaboratively with
colleagues in an industrial setting, and how to communicate their findings
effectively to an employer.
GRADES: Grades
will be based on the following considerations: your written Technical Reports (40%); your Technique, as reflected in your
accuracy, precision, and the quality/yield of synthesized products (25%); your Preparation and Organization (25%); and
your demonstrated professionalism as manifested in your Attendance, Effort and Collegiality
(10%). Based on these categories a point
total (maximum 100) will be earned by the end of the semester. This point total
will be used to assign the final grade
according to the scale below:
A=92, A-=88,
B+=84, B=80, B-=76,
C+=72, C=69, C-=66,
D+=63, D=60, D-=57;
F=below 57.
No extra assignments or projects will be accepted in order
to improve your grade. I reserve the right to make a judgement call in
borderline cases based on my best professional acumen.
Preparation/Organization will be
assessed by weekly examination of your laboratory notebook (see below) and by
observation. You will earn maximum credit for Attendance, Effort and Collegiality by coming to each scheduled lab
period, coming on time, trying your best, and working respectfully with your
instructor, the lab technician and your fellow students. If you are sick and
can't come to lab, call or email before the lab starts or you will lose credit.
NOTEBOOK: You
must have a cloth-bound notebook with pages sewn in.
Before
beginning each day's experimentation, you must research and record a summary of
the relevant safety and handling information for all of the substances you will
be working with that day. If you are not prepared in this manner before each
class, you will not be allowed to work that day.
Lab notebooks should be kept neat and organized. All data
must be entered directly into the notebook using ink. If an error is
made, cross out the incorrect entry and write the new entry beside or above it.
Date each page of the notebook. Make sure you know how to do any calculations
you will need for each day's work in advance and include them in your notebook
as well.
STATEMENT
ON ACADEMIC HONESTY: You may not use or copy material from
any unattributed sources in your reports. Furthermore, you may not consult any
sources which you do not attribute in your Bibliography. Both of these actions
are examples of academic fraud, or plagiarism.
Committing plagiarism, or conspiring with another student to commit plagiarism
by allowing another student to borrow your report so that they can copy from
it, will result in very serious consequences. The minimum penalty will include
all authors of a report receiving a grade of zero for the report, but depending
on the circumstances heavier penalties may accrue (including receiving an F in
the course as well as a report to the Provost and the Judicial Board).
STUDENTS
WHO NEED SPECIAL ACCOMODATIONS: Students with disabilities who need
special accomodations for this class are encouraged to meet with the professor
or the appropriate disability service provider on campus as soon as possible.
In order to receive accomodations, students must be registered with the
appropriate disability service provider on campus as set forth in the Student Handbook and must follow the
University procedure for self-disclosure, which is stated in the University Guide to Services and
Accomodations for Students with Disabilities. Students will not be afforded
any special accomodations for academic work completed prior to disclosure of
the disability and completion of the documentation process with the appropriate
disability service office.
TECHNICAL
REPORTS: After the completion of a given experiment, you must write a
technical report in the same manner and format as that used by research chemists
and chemical engineers in industry. The report must be written in prose and no
outlines or bulleted lists are generally permitted. The format is discussed below.
Each student will write his or her own technical report if
the experiment is carried out by one individual. However, if an experiment is
carried out with one or more partners you will usually have the option of either turning in individual
reports or a joint report with both of your names, for which you will both
receive the same grade. You must both contribute equally to the writing of a
joint report and identify which sections were written by which student.
Moreover, you are both fully responsible for ALL of the report and must review
each other's work. If one partner plagiarizes part of the report, you will both
be held fully responsible. Moreover, if you turn in a joint report you will
both receive the same grade. Do not complain if your lab partner fails to do
his or her share on a technical report.
MORE
ON TECHNICAL REPORTS:
Reports must be typed (not handwritten) and the text should
be submitted both electronically by email or on media (in DOC format) and in print . Technical reports should usually 1-2 pages in length, single spaced,
excluding biblography, figures, graphs and tables, which should always be given
as attachments. Three pages is the absolute maximum length allowed.
Attachments should be numbered and an (unnumbered) list of all attachments must
be given after the 1-3 page technical report and the bibliography. Quoted
paragraphs are generally not acceptable as part of the content of a report. The
entire report should be written using your own words.
Technical reports and synthesized products are generally due
1 week after the completion of an
experiment. Note that some experiments will take more than 1 week.
Grammar and spelling DO count as part of your technical
report grade. Also, make sure there are no typgrphcall errrs unles yew wantt
two bee yelld att (and have your grade lowered).
Always
start out with a one-paragraph summary of the experiment (what was done and
what its purpose was and what the result was). If a
synthesis is reported, give the experimental yield and, if possible, a very
brief description of any other outcomes. All in a single paragraph! Make sure
to consult an ACS journal article for an example before turning in your first
report.
You will need to include a brief discussion of the
relevant reactions studied or carried. Balanced equations for all relevant
reactions will typically be part of this discussion.
The procedure should then be briefly (but completely)
described. If you did not deviate in any way from a procedure described in the
text or in an article or handout, you should simply say something along the
lines of "The procedure described in Giolami et al. was followed without
modifications." If you do this, make sure to include the full reference
(the ACS style is recommended) in a Bibliography attachment. If any changes are
made to written procedures they must be documented here. This is also an
appropriate place to describe any and all errors and how they were handled
("As the crystals formed were noticeably contaminated with impurities, at
the suggestion of the instructor the sample was recrystallized at the
suggestion of the instructor using a minimum of solvent."
A concluding
paragraph describing your conclusions and your future recommendations is always mandatory. The outcome of the
experiment should be summarized, and recommendations made for future work. You
must make a recommendation as to whether this experiment be used the next time
this course is taught, or whether it should be replaced by another experiment.
Useful suggestions as to how to improve the procedure are generally good things
to do, as are ideas for other experiments to follow up on (or replace) the
investigation you are describing.
Attachments
will include the following:
1. Bibliography
(if necessary)
2. List
of Attachments.
3,4,5.,….(all
supplementary data, figures, diagrams, plots, data analysis, etc.)
Documenting
Data, Figures, and Data Analysis - The data must be presented in neat,
well-organized tables. Tables must have a title which clearly explains the
contents of the table. Units must be clear and symbols must be defined either
in the text or in a table caption. Figures must also have a title. Units must
be clear. A figure caption may also be necessary to explain the figure's
contents or meaning. All calculations must be fully explained in an attachment.
A sample calculation should be given to illustrate a complicated data analysis.