As the use of inorganic-organic hybrid materials grows due to the wide variety of existing applications, it becomes more and more imperative that chemistry students learn the laboratory skills for producing these materials during their undergraduate education. While many laboratory experiments reinforcing concepts of organic techniques and inorganic techniques separately, few experiments that cover both genres have been implemented. A series of experiments for undergraduate laboratories at different levels (general, organic, polymer) have been developed. These experiments focus on the synthesis of phosphine ligands and subsequent palladium (II) complexes. Laboratories at all levels are focused on understanding how the implementation of functionalized ligands provides the capability of isolating a hybrid material. Undergraduates in upper level courses have used a modified Stille coupling to polymerize the palladium complexes with thiophene-based comonomers to yield hybrid materials. Undergraduates are split into small teams to explore the properties of materials isolated from various reaction conditions. Students then compare the data as a class to draw their own connections of how structure directly impacts the properties of the materials. This results in a deep understanding of the importance of synthetic control over hybrid polymers and how materials can be designed for specific applications. Undergraduate students are exposed to a number of important synthetic and characterization techniques as well as important chemical concepts that span a wide variety of disciplines. Post-laboratory surveys indicate increased confidence using air-free techniques, instrumentation, and independent thinking as well as a better understanding of hybrid materials. <br/>

Thienyl phosphine palladium (II) complexes: An introduction to hybrid materials in undergraduate laboratories

253rd National Meeting (2017)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.