Structure & Properties of Inorganic Compounds

Course Overview

Chem 130, which is one of the required introductory core courses for the chemistry major and the biochemistry major, provides an introduction to the structure and properties of inorganic compounds. Other courses in the introductory core provide introductions to the structure and function of organic molecules (Chem 120), to basic stoichiometric calculations (Chem 170), to the structure and function of biomolecules (Chem 240), and to the key theoretical principles and experimental approaches that guide our exploration of chemistry and of biochemistry (Chem 260). Together, these courses provided a solid foundation for advanced work in chemistry and biochemistry, and a solid preparation for those who plan to pursue a career in healthcare or a career in STEM-related disciplines.

Inorganic chemistry is the oldest of the chemical and biochemical sciences as we can trace its history back 4000 years to a time when various civilizations across the east and the west learned how to extract metals from ores and how to form alloys, such as bronze, in furnaces. The limiting factors in advancing metallurgy was in finding ways to increase the available heat and to control the atmospheric conditions needed to extract metals from ores (see the figure below, which shows a method for extracting mercury from its ore). The communication of methods between practitioners that we see here in this 16th-Century manuscript is, in many ways, the beginning of the chemical and biochemical sciences. Although our study of inorganic chemistry will not focus on metallurgy, the chemistry in extracting a metal from ore is governed by the properties of the metal atoms, the ability of these atoms to bond with other elements to form compounds, and the types of chemical reactions these compounds experience, are the three main themes we will explore this semester.