Transition Metal Project

Overview. The Transition Metal Project is a term-long endeavor in which you will explore some of the chemistry of one of the transition metals. On the first day of term, you will select from a beaker a slip of paper on which will be written the name of the metal that you will investigate, and the name and formula of a particular compound of the metal to use as a starting material for the syntheses that you will carry out during the term. The metals to be investigated and the starting material options are shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Metals and Starting Materials
Metal IonMetal Starting Material
Co2+cobalt chloride hexahydrate, CoCl2.6H2O
cobalt acetate tetrahydrate, Co(C2H3O2)2.4H2O
cobalt carbonate, CoCO3
Cu2+copper chloride dihydrate, CuCl2.2H2O
copper acetate monohydrate, Cu(C2H3O2)2.H2O
basic copper carbonate, Cu2(OH)2CO3
copper metal
Fe3+,2+ferric nitrate nonahydrate, Fe(NO3)3.9H2O
ferric chloride hexahydrate, FeCl3.6H2O
ferrous acetate, Fe(C2H3O2)
tetrapyridinedichloroiron(II), Fe(C5H5N)4Cl2
Mo4+,6+sodium molybdate, Na2MoO4
Ni2+nickel chloride hexahydrate, NiCl2.6H2O
nickel acetate tetrahydrate, Ni(C2H3O2)2.4H2O
basic nickel carbonate, Ni2(OH)2CO3
V4+,3+divanadium pentoxide, V2O5

As the term progresses, you will proceed through the sequence of experiments detailed below. You will begin the term by fully characterizing your starting material as to physical properties such as density, melting point, solubility in water, infrared spectrum (if applicable), UV-visible spectrum (if applicable), and NMR spectrum (if applicable). Once you are comfortable with your starting compound, you will embark on a series of chemical syntheses in which your goal is to produce compounds of your metal ion with various Lewis bases (also called ligands). As an integral part of each synthesis you should plan to characterize the ligand; design and carry out a reaction of your metal starting material, the ligand, and any other reagents you believe necessary; isolate the product(s) of your reactions; and characterize your products. For each synthesis you should prepare a mole table that accommodates the anticipated reaction stoichiometry.

At the halfway point of the term, you will submit a draft of a formal research report in which you present the results of your experimental efforts to date. The format for the report should follow that recommended for the ACS journal, Inorganic Chemistry. This format can be found in the first issue of the current volume of the journal. I will read and critique your drafts, but will not grade them. Instead, I will make suggestions for you to implement in the final draft of the report, due the last day of term. The final report will be graded. One point will be deducted for each grammatical error (spelling, punctuation, sentence structure, formatting); two points will be deducted for each chemical or conceptual error.

CH2670 will differ from previous courses in the 2nd year laboratory sequence in several respects. First, everyone will have a different experience. Second, the course will simulate a true research experience, in which you have some general goals but are not told in detail how to achieve them. Thus we will not do "canned" experiments. One advantage of "canned" experiments from the student point of view is that they usually "work", meaning that they usually give the expected and anticipated results. Unfortunately, this gives a misleading impression of how laboratory work in chemistry (or any science) proceeds. Of course in real-world research, there is no "canned" plan of attack or procedure. The experimenter must therefore design a plan and a procedure. Often the initial attempts at an experiment are "unsuccessful" in one respect or another, due to defects in the plan or procedure. It is then necessary to find and fix these defects and to try again. Often this process of finding, fixing, and trying must be repeated several times before "success" is achieved. (Here "success" means, of course, that one gets the result that one expects or that one thinks someone else expects.) Many times, even with a well-designed and executed plan, results are different from what was expected! This, of course, is what makes research really interesting! We usually progress most rapidly when things turn out differently than we thought they would. So, real-life research is very much a 2-steps forward 1-step back (and sometimes 1 forward then 2 back!) endeavor. Becoming a productive scientist means learning to deal with this reality. Thus in CH2670, each of you will have to feel your way through the chemistry of your assigned metal, and will learn about techniques and synthetic strategies as you proceed. You will also become better at dealing with the frustration and failure that inevitably accompany research. Third, the project is open-ended. That is, I will expect you to put in the minimum of 9 hours in laboratory each week, and I expect you to work hard, but I have only mild requirements as to how much you get finished. Rather, I am interested in the quality of your work. What you do should be done as well as you can do it! I specifically am NOT interested in having you race through a series of experiments in order to finish them all. This invariably results in shoddy work. The course schedule contains guidelines as to how far along you should try to be by the end of each week.

Prerequisite Training. As everyone knows, we are not allowed to specify prerequisites at WPI. However, as everyone also knows, this does not mean that there aren't any! As you come into CH2670, I will assume that you have acquired, from your work in CH2640, 2650, and/or 2660, a reasonable fundamental knowledge about laboratory protocol and comportment. I will also assume that you have developed some level of skill in laboratory techniques and procedures and in maintaining a lab notebook, although I will have a few suggestions to make along these lines. If at any time you feel uncertain of the proper way to do something, please feel free to ask!

Description of the Project. During your 63+ hours of laboratory time during D term, you should work toward completing the following series of experiments:

Course Objectives. As you do these experiments you should work toward the following objectives:

Because the enrollment in CH2670 is usually small, you have an opportunity to learn a considerable amount about laboratory work from your course instructors. Take advantage of these opportunities and thereby prepare yourself for the MQP experience.

Required Equipment and Materials