The course will provide students with an in-depth knowledge about several aspects related to homogeneous catalysis. The first part of the course (48 hours of classroom lessons) concerns the deepening of the main catalytic processes, from the synthetic and the mechanistic point of view, with attention both to laboratory-scale and to industrial processes. The second part (24 hours of laboratory experiments) will focus on the attainment of the aptitude of students to apply the previously acquired knowledge to practical experiments where they will prepare and characterize some organometallic catalysts and will use them in hydrogenation and/or C-C bond-forming catalytic reactions
Course Prerequisites
Solid knowledge of General and Inorganic Chemistry (especially the principles of Coordination Chemistry) and basic Organic Chemistry and Physical Chemistry are required.
Teaching Methods
Classroom lectures with the aid of power-point projections.
Assessment Methods
The final evaluation will be based on an oral examination concerning the topics covered in the course. The final grade will be expressed in thirtieths. In particular, in formulating the final grade, the lecturer will carefully evaluate the ability to discursively organize knowledge; rigor in exposition; the ability to critically reason about the study carried out; the quality of exposition, with particular reference to the use of specific language. The lecturer will award praise when all the above components are met.
Contents
1) Metal-ligand bonding in coordination compounds (8 h): Crystal field theory and Russell-Saunders coupling scheme: term symbols for an isolated transition metal ion, term splitting in the presence of crystal field. Orgel diagrams, Racah parameters, Tanabe-Sugano diagrams and d-d transitions. Angular Overlap Model: sigma e pi interactions, d orbitals splitting according to AOM. 2) Coordination and organometallic compounds: synthesis and main properties (20 h): 18 electron rule adn electron counting in complexes. Carbene complexes. Olefin complexes. Complexes with cyclic polyenes. N2 and O2 as ligands. Nitrosyl complexes. 3) Coordination and organometallic compounds reactivity (20 h): Ligand substitution reactions. Oxidative addition and reductive elimination. Migratory-insertion reactions. Introduction to homogeneous catalysis.
Course Language
Italian/English
More information
Office hours Daily, 10 a.m. to noon and 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
