Chemistry 104

We briefly reviewed formal charge, then examined how oxidation numbers as an alternative scheme for deciding how the electrons (charge) is d...

Many transition metals react with bases (such as ammonia) to produce beautifully colored transition metal-ligand complexes. The word ligand...

There has been a lot news coverage lately about the abuse of chelation therapy for treating autism and other disorders. So what's a ch...

Chemists often don't show all the hydrogen atoms in a molecule, since they can clutter up the picture (and often aren't involved in ...

The glucose molecule shown at left has lots of OH's on it. Are these hydroxides ? Technically, no. Hydroxides are ions, individual OH...

We discussed how formal charges are a useful predictive tool, particularly for organic compounds. The charges are not real, in the sense th...

Penicillin was one of the first antibiotics in wide use. It was discovered in the late 19th century by a French medical student (Ernest Duc...

Our understanding of inorganic reactions also benefits from considering Lewis acid/base interactions. The ligand in a metal complex is acti...

Many organic chemistry reactions can be understood in terms of nucleophiles (molecules with lone pairs in search of partial positive charges...