In an increasingly online world, multimedia content for instructional use in chemistry is abundant. It can be difficult to discern a good resource from a poor one, even if the chemistry content in the video is accurate (which it may not be). Sound chemistry content alone does not guarantee that the videos were made with best principles in mind according to evidence-based research. Multiple authors have proposed guidelines for multimedia use and learning which are supported by research in cognitive and educational psychology. Herein we used Mayer’s Multimedia Principles (MMP) to evaluate instructional chemistry videos across three topics (Chemical Bonding, Acids and Bases, and Intermolecular Forces) from multiple YouTube content creators (51 in total). We found that most videos included extraneous images and sounds which may be distracting to the viewer, in direct violation of Mayer’s Coherence principle. For the three chemistry topics under study, no statistical differences were found in their adherence to MMP. However, there were significant differences regarding the use of extraneous images and sounds when disaggregated by content creator. This work has implications for both teachers and learners of chemistry in selecting multimedia that is cognitively supportive to learning.

In 1972 Jeffrey Schwartz of Massachusetts Institute of Technology published a seminal paper on the reaction of carbon monoxide with alkylcopper complexes to form symmetrical ketones (Schwartz, 1972). This was one of the earliest examples of the carbonylation of an organocopper reagent and gave a tantalizing glimpse into the possibility of forming copper acyl anion complexes. While that work examines alkylcopper reagents in some detail, no mention is made concerning the study of aromatic copper reagents. We were interested in exploring whether or not a similar approach could be used to carbonylate and convert arylcopper reagents into symmetrical aryl ketones thereby opening up this reaction to aromatic organocopper compounds. We now wish to report the successful carbonylation of phenylcopper tri-n-butylphosphine complex [PhCu . P(nbutyl)3] to produce the symmetrical ketone benzophenone: PhCu . P(n-butyl)3 + CO → Ph-C(O)-Ph