423/523 Syllabus

Zinc alkyls

Course Outline

A detailed look at transition metal organometallic chemistry. Structure and bonding. Ligands. Reactivity. Catalysis. Applications of organometallic complexes in organic synthesis and industrial catalysis.

You will be expected to have a general understanding of transition metal chemistry, as taught in Chem324.

Recommended Text

• Organotransition metal chemistry: from bonding to catalysis (Hartwig). Massive modern treatment of organometallic chemistry. The course will be a distillation of sections of this tome, so if you want the full explanation, look no further.

Other Texts

• Organometallic Chemistry (Spessard & Miessler). Good comprehensive text; the recommended text for this course for many years.
• Organometallics: A Concise Introduction (Elschenbroich & Salzer).
• The Organometallic Chemistry of the Transition Metals (Crabtree). Limited previews available for the 5th and 4th editions.
• Organometallics 1 and 2 (Bochmann). Two primers, both are needed to be a useful reference. Basic coverage of topics.
• Organotransition Metal Chemistry (Hill). The cheapest organometallic chemistry text available and better value than the Bochmann books with a similar level of coverage. Well-organized basic text. Limited preview available.
• Inorganic Chemistry (Housecroft & Sharpe). You may already own a copy of this textbook - it has some useful background material on organometallic chemistry: Chapter 23 covers the organometallic compounds of d-block elements, and Chapter 18 the organometallic compounds of s- and p-block elements.
• Advanced Inorganic Chemistry (Cotton & Wilkinson). This classic textbook is up to the 6th edition, but the 5th edition is probably the best. Chapters 22-28 cover various aspects of organometallic chemistry.
• Organometallic Chemistry and Catalysis (Astruc).

More basic and general texts are not useful. There is no compulsory text for this course, but you should have access to one or more of the texts listed above. Note that Google Books has a wide selection of online textbooks on the subjects of organometallic chemistry and homogeneous catalysis. See the terms of use; you usually don't get the whole book, but you can't argue with the price! In fact, some of the books above are available online in this format, and I've provided links for you.

Wikipedia has decent articles on organometallic chemistry, but the best web resource is probably still Rob Toreki's Organometallic Hypertextbook.

Grades and Examinations

The total percentage mark will be made up as follows for undergraduates (423) students:

• Midterm 1 (Friday October 10) 20%
• Midterm 2 (Friday November 14) 20%
• Wiki article (team project, due Friday November 21) 10%
• Final 50% (1900 Tuesday 16 December, DSB C108)

Graduate (523) students will be graded using a different format:

• Midterm 1 (Friday October 10) 15%
• Midterm 2 (Friday November 14) 15%
• Class presentation (November 25, 26 or 28) 20%
• Wiki article (team project, due Friday November 21) 10%
• Final 40% (1900 Tuesday 16 December, DSB C108)

The examinations will not necessarily be the same for 423 and 523 students but will be held at the same time. Midterms will be 50 minutes (both will be counted under all circumstances) and the final 3 hours. Due to Senate regulations limiting the percentage of the final grade that may be allotted to the Final examination, any missed midterms will have to be made up.

All dates are subject to change with due notice.

Academic Integrity

The university has a policy on academic integrity to which all students are expected to abide.