electiveHQ

The course deals with reactivity and change in inorganic chemistry. It is split in three parts. The first part will deal with the use of transition metal catalysis in polymerisation chemistry. The use of early and late transition metal complexes in polymer synthesis will be presented. Monomers, i.e. the principal building blocks will include linear and cyclic olefins and enyne compounds. The two main types of polymerisation methods presented here are migratory insertion polymerisation and ring-opening olefin metathesis polymerisation. Related polymerisation methods, which involve the use of other transition metal complexes, will be discussed as well. Conventional multi-component catalysts and well-defined single component and single site catalysts will be presented. Specialised catalyst systems that promote polymer chain growth in two or more directions are also included. In the second part of this module, the focus is on functional materials. Topics to be covered include solid-state batteries, metal-organic frameworks and crystalline photovoltaics. The properties of each class of material will be rationalised through understanding their structure and the means of describing network topologies will be demonstrated. The third part of the module will cover advanced chemistry of the main group elements and their uses. There will be a brief summary of the s-block elements and their uses as reductants and catalysts but the main focus will be the p-block elements. Common structures and bonding of the compounds of p-block elements will be discussed. The Lewis acidity and basicity of the compounds of the p-block will be examined, including their use as Frustrated Lewis Pairs and in catalysis. The formation and reactivity of low- and high-valent main group species will be considered. The practical aspects of multinuclear NMR spectroscopy used to study main group compounds will be covered