The Molecule of the Week: A Didactic Tool for Teaching General Chemistry

Chemical Education

Authors

  • Antonio Togni Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, ETH Zürich, HCI H 239, Vladimir-PrelogWeg 2, CH-8093 Zurich;, Email: atogni@ethz.ch

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.2533/chimia.2020.615

PMID:

32778215

Keywords:

Acid-base equilibria, Coordination compounds, General chemistry, Redox reactions

Abstract

The molecule of the week is regularly used by the author in his first-semester course General Chemistry I (Inorganic Chemistry) to illustrate, exemplify, and deepen fundamental aspects and concepts treated in the course. Pure sulfuric acid and its autoprotolysis is used to introduce the concepts of protochemical window and superacidity. The drug Auranofin serves at showing fundamental aspects of gold redox and coordination chemistry and the widely used disinfectant trichloroisocyanuric acid (TCICA) exemplifies redox processes with organic compounds.

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Published

2020-08-12