On the Web edited by
William F. Coleman Wellesley College Wellesley, MA 02481
A Web-Based Spectroscopy Tutorial for the Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory Greg Nilsson, Enrico Fok, June M. Ng, and Jason Cooke* Department of Chemistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2G2, Canada *
[email protected] Mastering the interpretation of infrared (IR), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and UV-visible (UV-vis) spectroscopy can be a challenging exercise for undergraduate students. When considering pedagogic objectives for this demanding subject material, the interactivity that is possible through modern Internet applications provides an excellent window of opportunity to actively engage students and move beyond simple Web-page representations of printed media. Examples of interactive online applications exist for illustrating the basic principles of spectroscopy (1) and for interpreting the spectra of organic compounds (2-5), but to the best of our knowledge, there are few such resources directed toward students of inorganic chemistry (6). Therefore, we have developed a tutorial in the form of a Web site using Flash modules to deliver interactive content aimed toward developing an understanding of the interpretation of IR, NMR, and UV-vis spectra of inorganic compounds (Figure 1). Flash was chosen as the development medium because of its wide use, cross-platform stability, and ability to generate visually rich, interactive subject matter in relatively compact file sizes (7). The full tutorial has almost 90 individual pages comprising a total of only 2.6 MB, with the largest file size being 86 KB. In addition to being easily delivered by the WWW, the tutorial can be provided on a compact disk or hard drive and properly rendered so long as the delivering computer has an appropriate Web browser with Flash installed. A forte of Flash is its ability to add animation to subjects that inherently involve some type of motion or to concepts that are best illustrated through sequential assembly of shorter information segments. More important was the ability to design interactive problems that would allow the students to practice their skills. The online tutorial contains several examples each of IR and NMR spectra that the students analyze and interpret before receiving detailed feedback. The feedback the student receives is tailored to each individual response; the most complex examples have 16 fields that are evaluated individually within a single problem. The tutorial is organized into four chapters: an introduction to the basic principles of spectroscopy, IR spectroscopy, NMR spectroscopy, and UV-vis spectroscopy. Each of the latter three
areas begins with a discussion of the basic theoretical aspects of the method and is followed by examples chosen to illustrate the main concepts of spectral interpretation. In the case of the arguably more complex NMR spectroscopy, the basic elements of chemical shift, integration, and spin-spin coupling are addressed in a stepwise and accumulative manner. The tutorial has been designed to be a stand-alone application and contains internal documentation relating to its use, a built-in help function, and references that are both general and specific to the examples that have been chosen. Literature Cited 1. Judd, C. S. J. Chem. Educ. 1999, 76, 1177–1178. 2. Merlic, C. A.; Fam, B. C.; Miller, M. M. J. Chem. Educ. 2001, 78, 118–120. 3. For examples demonstrating the principles of IR spectroscopy, see (a) Reusch, W. http://www.cem.msu.edu/~reusch/VirtualText/ Spectrpy/InfraRed/infrared.htm (accessed Apr 2010). (b) http://www.colby.edu/chemistry/JCAMP/IRHelper.html (accessed Apr 2010). (c) Rafuse, A.; Lahti, P. M. http://www.chem.umass.edu/~nermmw/Spectra/irspectra/index.htm (accessed Apr 2010). (d) Bridgeman, A. http://www.hull.ac.uk/chemistry/spectroscopy/infrared_spectrum.php (accessed Apr 2010). (e) Bridgeman, A. http://assign3.chem.usyd.edu.au/spectroscopy/infrared_spectrum.php (accessed Apr 2010). (f) McCrum, J. R.; Bailey, J.; Browne, L. M. http://www.chem.ualberta.ca/~orglabs/Interactive%20Tutorials/ir/irspec. html. (accessed Apr 2010). 4. For examples illustrating NMR spectroscopy, see (a) King, B. S.; Wong, Y.-L. http://www.wfu.edu/~ylwong/chem/nmr/h1/ (accessed Apr 2010). (b) Reusch, W. http://www.cem.msu.edu/~reusch/VirtualText/Spectrpy/nmr/nmr1.htm (accessed Apr 2010). (c) Bridgeman, A. http://www.hull.ac.uk/chemistry/spectroscopy/spin_spin_coupling.php (accessed Apr 2010). (d) Bridgeman, A. http://assign3.chem.usyd.edu.au/spectroscopy/spin_spin_coupling.php (accessed Apr 2010). (e) Bailey, J. J.; Carmichael, R.; Otter, A. O.; Browne, L. M.
Figure 1. Sample screenshots of the tutorials: IR (left), NMR (middle), and UV-vis (right).
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Vol. 87 No. 7 July 2010 pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc r 2010 American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc. 10.1021/ed100266h Published on Web 05/14/2010
On the Web
http://www.chem.ualberta.ca/~orglabs/Interactive%20Tutorials/hnmr/ HNMRmain.html (accessed Apr 2010). 5. For examples involving a combination of IR and NMR spectroscopy, see (a) Merlic, C. A.; Fam, B. C. http://www.chem.ucla.edu/~webspectra/ (accessed Apr 2010). (b) Bogdal, D. http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/local/nmr/problem.html (accessed Apr 2010). (c) Hunt, I. http://www.chem.ucalgary.ca/courses/351/spectroscopy/index.html (accessed Apr 2010). 6. (a) Bridgeman, A. http://www.hull.ac.uk/chemistry/spectroscopy/dd.php (accessed Apr 2010). (b) Bridgeman, A.
r 2010 American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.
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http://assign3.chem.usyd.edu.au/spectroscopy/dd.php (accessed Apr 2010). (c) Anderson, M. http://www.chem.ox.ac.uk/vrchemistry/grouptheory/intro.htm (accessed Apr 2010). 7. Adobe Flash, http://www.adobe.com/products/flash/ (accessed Apr 2010)
Supporting Information Available Web-based spectroscopy tutorial requiring Flash 4 or higher. This material is available via the Internet at http://pubs.acs.org.
pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc
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Vol. 87 No. 7 July 2010
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Journal of Chemical Education
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