CM3191 - CHEMICAL SYNTHESIS EXPERIMENTS
Academic Year 23/24 - Semester 1
Assessments:​
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Risk assessment(s) / Safety Test: 10%
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Lab Reports: 60%
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Closed-book Test: 30%
Lecturer: Dr Edith Chan & Dr Zhang Sheng
Lab Instructor: Dr Chong Yuan Yi, Dr Jeremiah Chen, Dr Edith Chan, Dr Zhang Sheng
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Course Overview:
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Synthesis and catalytic activity of ruthenium catalyst
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Synthesis of ferrocene
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Synthesis of jacobsen ligand
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Diels-Alder reaction
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Sonogashira coupling
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No. of responses : 2
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REVIEWS
What advice would you give to someone considering to take this course?
Flanders: CM3191 has lab sessions every week (from week 2 to week 11) and most experiments will NOT end early. Students are advised not to take CM3192 concurrently. The first half is inorganic synthesis. There are two experiments, which take 3 + 2 sessions. The second half is organic synthesis. There are 3 experiments, which take 2 + 1 + 2 sessions. In total, two pro-formas, two short reports, and one long report are submitted and they make up 60% of the grade. The spectral results likely significantly affect the marks obtained for each report (speculation), so it is important that students try to obtain a pure product every session. The yield is likely not as important as purity. All the reports are due in the last few weeks of the semester, so students should plan their time well to avoid last minute rushing. The weekly lectures are not recorded, and mainly involve the lecturer elaborating on the lab manual. Students may find the tips covered helpful, although the written lab manual is clear enough on its own. Another 30% is an exam on week 12, which tests on theory covered during lectures, such as NMR, electron counting, chirality, and spotting mistakes in a written procedure. The last 10% is lab safety.
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Anonymous: Don't take more than 1 lab module at once as lab reports usually take quite a long time to complete.
What did you enjoy or find most useful from this course?
Flanders: The synthesis techniques taught are useful, such as Thin Layer Chromatography, and Column Chromatography (Very important!).
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Anonymous: Organic experiments were more fun than inorganic ones. However, how much lab skills you pick up or improve on really depends on your lab TA and instructor.
What aspects of the course did you find most challenging, and why?
Flanders: Our first column chromatography was a difficult one as the components are colourless and not well separated. Due to the difficulty of the procedure, some students ended up staying in the lab until 7pm on the first column session.
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Anonymous: Ruthenium oxidation experiment thoroughly needs redesign as it just doesn’t work very well, and I am thoroughly confused about what is important to include in the lab report. Also, flash column is difficult for the uninitiated. Hence, guidance from your TAs is important.
What other courses do you think should be taken before or concurrently with this course?
Flanders: CM3111 and CM3121 has significant overlap in theory with the inorganic and organic parts respectively.
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