last updated Friday, November 14, 2003

Meeting 14 (Ferrocene)

ATTN: answers to the below questions are due at the start of your lab period; these answers should be part of your pre-lab write-up

Important Announcements:

1. Final exam: December 4, 2003 from 1-3 pm in Knudsen 1200B.

2. Review session: tuesday, December 2, 6-8 pm in Geology 3656

3. Proposal: due on November 18, 2003 (If you have problems please see me asap!)

4. Oral Presentation: December 4 and 5 in during the lab section (group presentation, but everybody has to speak!)

Homework assignments

1. Ferrocene is thermodynamically very stable. Explain briefly why.

2. Ferrocene dissolves very well in non-polar solvents like hexane, but not well in polar solvents. For potassium cyclopentadienide, the situation reverses. Explain briefly.

3. When handling KCp, the presence of water and air should be minimized. Why?

4. Cyclopentadiene is not commercially available. It has to be obtained from its dimer. How is this accomplished and which precautions have to be taken when obtaining the monomer?

5. Why are cyclopentadienyl complexes of titanium iof special interest to chemists?

6. Why is it important to close the flask in the recrystallization step?