DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY

***First-Year Seminar Courses are Not Open to General Enrollment***

Science Writing for a Non-Technical Audience (Fall 2019; Larry Trzupek)

In this course we will read and discuss works on technical subjects written for a general audience with no special scientific training; the authors we'll be reading include Sam Kean, John McPhee, Don Norman, Richard Rhodes, and Lewis Thomas.

Although the course is not targeted exclusively to science majors, students enrolling in it should have enough of a background in the fundamental sciences to feel comfortable writing about technical topics.

The Chemistry of Food (Fall 2019; Owen Priest)

In The Chemistry of Food we will explore the chemistry and science of nutrition, cooking, food preservation, flavoring, coloring, and aroma. We will explore the science of salt, sugar & high fructose corn syrup, leavening agents, microwaves, proteins, and fats. What is the science behind genetically modified foods and why is it so controversial? What is celiac disease and gluten sensitivity? Is gluten sensitivity real? What does the science say?

The Chemistry of Clean Water (Winter 2020, Will Dichtel)

Access to clean water for drinking, farming, and many other uses is a basic human need that is anticipated to become more expensive and difficult because of climate change, expanding populations, and resource depletion. We will learn this problem from both a chemical and practical perspective. What are common water sources and their common contaminants? How is drinking water and waste water treated today, and what are the limitations of these methods? What technologies are emerging or need to emerge to address these limitations? How does water relate to food production and energy consumption in regard to sustainability? We will answer these questions through literature research, studying current and recent problems in water systems, and by visiting local drinking water and/or waste water treatment facilities.

Sustainability Meets Environmental Justice (Spring 2020, Shelby Hatch)

In this course, we will explore how issues of race and class shape our views of these concepts. Northwestern University is currently about halfway through its first five-year strategic sustainability plan. This plan will serve as a starting point for discussing various issues of sustainability such as the built environment, transportation, and resource conservation. We will delve into the chemistry behind sustainable design with a particular eye toward how the 12 Principles of Green Chemistry and Green Engineering are applied.

Chemical analysis of real samples using basic laboratory techniques including titration, colorimetric analysis, density measurements, and atomic spectroscopy. Planning, data collection, interpretation, and reporting on experiments. Must be taken concurrently with the Chem 131-0 lecture course.

Prerequisite: Chem 110-0 (C- or better). Students may not start the sequence in this course. All Chemistry course sequences start in Fall Quarter.

Chemistry laboratory techniques applied to materials science and nanotechnology, acid-base chemistry, and chemical kinetics. Planning, data collection, interpretation, and reporting on experiments.  Must be taken concurrently with the Chem 152-0 lecture course.

Prerequisites: Chem 151-0 and Chem 161-0 (C- or better in both courses). Students may not start the sequence in this course. All Chemistry course sequences start in Fall Quarter.

Study of the physical chemistry (acid-base chemistry, kinetics, etc.) behind the operating principles of biosensors. Planning, data collection, interpretation, and reporting on these experiments. Must be taken concurrently with the Chem 172-0 lecture course.

Prerequisites: Chem 171-0 and Chem 181-0 (C- or better in both courses). Students may not start the sequence in this course. All Chemistry course sequences start in Fall Quarter.

The chemistry of aromatic, carbonyl, and nitrogen compounds; characterization of organic substances by chemical and spectral methods; reaction mechanisms. Must be taken concurrently with the Chem 230-2 laboratory course. 

Prerequisite: Chem 210-1 (C– or better).

A continuation of themes and topics explored in Chem 212-1 and builds upon the foundation provided by that course. Must be taken concurrently with the Chem 232-2 laboratory course. 

Prerequisites: Chem 212-1 and Chem 232-1 (C- or better in both courses).

For ISP students and (prospective or declared) chemistry majors. Techniques of modern organic chemistry including NMR spectroscopy and reactions such as electrophilic aromatic substitution, esterification, Grignard reaction, aldol condensation, Robinson annulation, and Diels-Alder reaction. Must be taken concurrently with Chem 212-2 lecture course.

Prerequisite: Chem 212-1 and Chem 232-1 (C- or better in both courses)

The design of synthetic routes to natural products and other medicinally relevant organic compounds will be covered in detail. Retrosynthetic analysis, substructure keying, and pattern recognition, along with other methods for synthetic planning will be discussed within the context of specific case studies. Classic and modern organic reactions, including asymmetric synthesis and catalysis, will be introduced and their application in synthetic planning examined. Case studies will include the synthesis of terpenes, alkaloids, polyketides, steroids, proteins and pharmaceuticals. The end result should be that students are familiar with the important issues associated with synthesis and gain intimate knowledge of a wide variety of chemical reactions. Ultimately, when presented with a given molecule, students should be able to develop a reasonable synthesis plan based on firm ideas and reliable transformations.

Taught with Chem 319. Undergraduates should enroll in Chem 319, unless they are completing the BA/MS program.

Advanced techniques of synthetic inorganic chemistry including synthesis of zeolites, MOFs, and bioinorganic compounds and use of a Schlenk line. In addition, you will learn instrumental analysis techniques relevant to analysis of samples in materials chemistry. These techniques will include X-ray crystallography, solid state NMR spectroscopy, electrochemistry, atomic spectroscopy, and a variety of polymer characterization techniques (MALDI-TOF MS, NMR spectroscopy, FTIR spectroscopy, gel permeation chromatography, DSC). Some of these analytical techniques may be used to analyze the inorganic samples you prepare in the course.

Prerequisites: Chem 333 and Chem 350-1 or equivalent; Chem 342-2 co-requisite.

The emergence of the mechanical bond during the past 25 years is giving chemistry a fillip in more ways than one. While its arrival on the scene is already impacting materials science and molecular nanotechnology, it is also providing a new lease of life to chemical synthesis where mechanical bond formation occurs as a consequence of the all-important templation orchestrated by molecular recognition and self-assembly processes. The way in which covalent bond formation activates noncovalent bonding interactions, switching on molecular recognition that leads to self-assembly and the template-directed synthesis of mechanically interlocked moleculesof which the so-called catenanes and rotaxanes may be regarded as the prototypeshas introduced a level of integration into chemical synthesis that has not previously been attained. The challenge now is to carry this level of integration beyond relatively small molecules into the realms of precisely functionalized extended molecular structures and aggregated superstructures that perform functions in a collective manner as the key sources of instruction, activation and performance in multi-component integrated devices. In this course I will propose the adoption of the term mechanostereochemistry to describe the rapidly emerging area of chemical science where components of molecules and extended structures are mechanically interlocked or sterically encumbered in such a manner that the components interact dynamically with one another as a result of a panoply of weak noncovalent bonds and/or as a consequence of dynamic coordinative or covalent bonds. Mechanostereochemistry is the stereochemistry of molecules with mechanical bonds. The practice of mechanostereochemistry can be seen to have both a creative aspect (molecular recognition, self-assembly, templation, etc.) and a functional role (relative movements of components, switching, self-energizing, etc.) associated with its territory. Both the creative aspect and the functional role are dynamic in nature and ultimately molecular in context. The conundrum facing the wider chemical community at present is to unravel how to get from relatively small, yet highly programmable molecules to contraptions and gadgets that do something useful in the real world. Suggested Reading : "Big and Little Meccano" Tetrahedron 2008, 64, 8231-8263.

This course will be focused on magnetism and electronic structure of transition metal complexes. By the end of the course students will learn how to acquire and interpret magnetic data for transition metal complexes. The primary focus of the course will be molecular species.

The course will cover fundamental aspects of light-to-electrical energy conversion, light-to-chemical energy conversion, molecular hydrogen as a potentially renewable fuel source, carbon dioxide capture and transformation, and related concepts, chiefly from a chemistry and materials perspective. Emphasis will be placed on promising emerging science and technology, including that associated with organic photovoltaics, solid-state dye cells, and photo-catalytic and electro-catalytic materials for water splitting. Depending on interest, other topics such as thermoelectrics, thermal-solar water splitting, biofuels, or redox flow batteries and other electrical energy storage technologies may be discussed. The course will be taught at the beginning-graduate-student/upper-level-undergraduate-student level.

The first part of the course focuses on a practical approach to chemical kinetics and dynamics. It will briefly review basic rate laws and rate laws for complex reactions, temperature dependence of reaction rates as well as their chemical applications. The second part of the course focuses on spectroscopic methods in solving chemical kinetics and dynamics problems, with fundamental concepts on the interaction of light and matter, the core process in various spectroscopic methods. This is an advanced graduate level course on a special topic, which implies that one will study the materials in a research-like atmosphere and will read and critique the literature. The prerequisite of the course are some quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics and fundamental spectroscopy knowledge, and some basic calculus and linear algebra skills.