Teacher(s)

Elias Benjamin; Filinchuk Yaroslav; Hermans Sophie;

Language

French

Prerequisites

- Basic chemistry and physics
                                               - Practical experience in chemistry laboratories.

Main themes

The students in small groups will work on a project, which will lead them to state the problem, synthesize the necessary products to solve it, and to characterize them with the appropriate experimental method to solve the problem. This experimental method will be advanced in the sense that it requires technical means usually devoted to research, which are not available in the teaching laboratories. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Mass Spectrometry, gas or liquid phase chromatography, X-ray diffraction assisted by molecular modelling are the main methods envisaged in this course.

Aims

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	- The use of modern methods of characterization in chemistry; - The identification of unknown substances by physico-chemical methods. The goal of this course is to teach the students how to analyze advanced problems in chemistry and to familiarize them with advanced instrumental techniques. The students will integrate and critically analyze the obtained experimental results to find a solution to the given chemistry problem.

Content

The synthesis of unknown organic and/or inorganic products is carried out. Then, the students will learn instrumental techniques by analyzing the synthesized samples. This familiarization comprises an introduction to the technique, measurements and an advanced interpretation of the results. These results are written up in a formal report. As an example, but not limited to this, mass spectrometry will allow to determine the structure and stability of coordination complexes; NMR will allow to determine the stability constants of several families of complexes; HPLC will allow to follow the kinetics and to determine the yield of reactions involving catalysts, irradiation, etc. Diffraction methods are presented in the context of the analysis of reaction products, as well as aiming to characterize a completely unknown substance. In the crystallographic part of the course, we follow a chemical reaction induced by high energy ball milling. We study different mixtures and products after different milling times using X-ray powder diffraction. Databases and simulations are used for data interpretation. Moreover, in a separate experiment, a crystal structure is determined by single-crystal diffraction.

Teaching methods

Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the information in this section is particularly likely to change.

The work is carried out in small groups supervised by academic, scientific and technical staff. The course is of the "learning by projects" type. There is no formal lectures, but information sessions followed by practical and experimental work.

Evaluation methods

Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the information in this section is particularly likely to change.

The academic who is responsible for the manipulation will evaluate the students based on written reports. The course coordinator will combine all marks in a unique final note for this course.

Online resources

All the resources needed for this course are available on Moodle.
In addition, the following softwares are used:
CrysAlis and Shelx- single crystal diffraction
Fit2D, ICDD database - powder diffraction
Mercury- visualization of crystal structures and simulation of powder diffraction patterns

Bibliography

Les articles scientifiques recommandés sur le sujet de l'étude ainsi que des modes opératoires types sont disponibles sur Moodle. La recherche documentaire est encouragée. 

Faculty or entity

CHIM