A visually attractive interconnected network of ideas that helps general and second-year inorganic chemistry students make sense of the descriptive inorganic chemistry of the main-group elements is presented. The eight network components include the periodic law, the uniqueness principle, the diagonal effect, the inert-pair effect, the metal–nonmetal line, the acid–base character of metal and nonmetal oxides in aqueous solution, trends in reduction potentials, and dπ–pπ bonding involving elements of the second and third periods. dπ–pπ bonding is advocated for these courses in lieu of an extensive presentation of molecular orbital theory. Each component is given its own colorful icon and a distinctive visual image that is added atop and among the fabric of the periodic table. This colorful, iconographic, and symbolic building process makes it easier to organize the many facets of descriptive inorganic chemistry in a meaningful and memorable manner. When a new group of elements is presented, students can place the group data in perspective and integrate it into their own expanding network of interconnected ideas for understanding the periodic table.

The complex, dichloro(triphenylphosphine){1-[N,N-α-dimethylaminoethyl]-2-diphenylphosphinoferrocene}ruthenium(II), prepared from RuCl2(PPh3)3 by ligand displacement, catalyzes the hydrogenation of terminal olefins under mild conditions. The experimental rate-law for hydrogenation of hexene-1 in n-butanol at 40 °C shows a first-order dependence on both olefin and hydrogen, and an inverse dependence to added triphenylphosphine. The dependence on ruthenium goes from first- to half-order with increasing metal concentration. The kinetic data, together with spectroscopic data, and studies on reactivity of the complex toward hydrogen, are interpreted in terms of catalysis via a ruthenium(I) complex that dissociates a phosphine ligand to generate the active species.

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In order to facilitate an investigation of water structure, the Raman spectra of binary and ternary solutions involving H2O, N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF), NaClO4, NaNO3, Zn(ClO4)2, and Zn(NO3)2 have been studied. The resolution of the OH stretching region of these solutions has been attempted using both three and four band analyses. Only the four band resolutions (∼3623, 3542, 3430, and 3265 cm−1 for non-zinc-containing solutions) are successful for all six series of solutions. The four bands are interpreted in terms of hydrogen-bonded and non-hydrogen-bonded OH oscillators rather than (1) a mixture of water molecules with varying numbers of hydrogen bonds per molecule or (2) a continuum model for water structure. Evidence for hydrogen bonds among H2O molecules and between H2O molecules and the DMF, ClO4−, and NO3− species has been obtained through an analysis of the trends in the relative intensities of the four components of the OH stretching region of H2O as the concentrations of the above species vary. The trends observed in the vibrational modes of DMF, ClO4−, and NO3− are interpreted in terms of interactions of the above species with H2O molecules and zinc cations. In addition, interactions between zinc cations and H2O molecules are indicated by a general downward shift (15–20 cm−1) of the OH stretching frequencies.

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