CM3191 - Chemical Synthesis Experiments

Academic Year 24/25 - Semester 2

Assessments:​​

• Risk Assessment: 5% 

• Lab Safety: 5%

• Inorganic Lab Reports (1 pro-forma + 1 long report): 30%

• Organic Lab Reports (1 pro-forma + 1 short report + 1 long report): 30%

• Lecture Test: 30%

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Lecturer: Dr Edith Chan (Inorganic Chem Part) & Dr Zhang Sheng (Organic Chem Part)

Lab Instructor: Dr Edith Chan (Inorganic Chem Part), Dr Zhang Sheng & Dr Foo Maw Lin (Organic Chem Part)

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No. of Responses : 1​

Course Difficulty (1-5): 4​

Time for learning content (hrs): 8

Time to complete assignments (hrs): 10

Course Pace: Just right

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REVIEWS

What advice would you give to someone considering taking this course?

Anonymous: Best is to not overload with this course. Expect to spend almost the full lab duration of 6 hours for most of the experiments. You must do your pre-lab preparation, such as watching youtube videos on column chromatography, rewatching lecture recordings, read the lab manual etc. If not, you will be very lost during the experiment.

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What did you enjoy or find most useful from this course?

Anonymous: Synthesis lab skills taught were new and interesting, even though some are difficult and require very careful preparation and techniques such as column chromatography. These skills are very important if you are going into Research & Development (R&D) field for work, or for your UROPS/FYP that involve synthesis.

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What aspects of the course did you find most challenging, and why?

Anonymous: Some lab skills require extreme carefulness and alertness in the lab as some lab experiments, mainly the first few inorganic lab experiments, are moisture/air sensitive, meaning you cannot let air/water go into your set up. Some techniques such as column chromatography requires extreme attention to detail, and carefulness. Also, another thing to note, is that the deadlines for the lab reports (Inorganic Lab reports in week 12 and Organic Lab reports in week 13) are all in the last few weeks of the semester, which is when the workload is very high and is the most stressful period of the semester due to exams. So, you must not slack and wait till the later weeks of the semester to start doing your lab report. Start doing the lab reports as soon as possible once you have completed the experiment. As for the exam in week 13, as long as you have paid attention to the lectures, and know what you were doing, like the reason behind each step and the safety risks of each step in the procedure, in the lab sessions, the exam questions would be manageable as the questions are mainly testing what you have done in lab. Although, there will be some theory questions, but they are covered in the lectures.

 

What resources did you find most helpful in helping you better understand the course material?

Anonymous: Both lecturers explain the concepts and the procedures for lab very well during lectures. Other than that, YouTube videos on lab techniques like column chromatography are extremely helpful.
 

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What resources did you find most helpful in helping you better understand the course material?

Anonymous: CM3111 (Best is before, because you would have learnt the concepts of MO of ferrocene in the later weeks of CM3111 and you will know how to craft your lab report well) and CM3121 (concurrently due to the overlap in content of Diels-Alder's reaction and Sonogashira Coupling reaction).