While the Chan research group is interested in solid state chalcogenide chemistry, our focus here is on a crystallography project to produce publishable research results in a classroom laboratory setting. Built upon on a program at Vassar College, students at TCNJ used the Cambridge Crystallographic Database and SciFinder to find unpublished crystal structures of organic compounds. We targeted molecules that could be organometallic ligands and were readily purchasable or available in our stockroom. The students learned crystallization techniques, studied the compounds' applications, and wrote summaries for Acta Crystallographica articles. X-Ray Diffraction data were collected for the compounds and eight new crystal structures were solved. Students studied the intermolecular forces that stabilized the solid state structures. We are now in the process of publishing these crystal structures in Acta Crystallographica E and Acta Crystallographic C.

Single crystal X-ray diffraction project: An approach to conduct authentic research in an undergraduate Inorganic Chemistry course

245th National Meeting (2013)

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