[5.09] All Kinds of Bondage

Chemical bonding in all its many varieties can be a confusing field of exploration. However, I have found a webpage which actually tries to explore all the main kinds of bonding. Of special note is the teasing little mention of two of my favourite chemical entities - the bifluoride and the triiodide ions.

I suppose that since the hint provided eliminates obvious ways of drawing these entities, students should look up things like 'resonance' and '3c-2e bonding'. The more advanced might want to look up 'Walsh orbitals'. And if even more advanced, might want to take a nap and prepare to study something else. Like this, for example. Heh heh.

[5.01/5.09] Organic Chemistry as a Second Language

Sometimes, I wonder why we teach organic nomenclature as if it were some sort of esoteric sub-discipline. It is a second language, one which is eminently rational, and mostly consistent - unlike English, for example.

Here is an HTML version of IUPAC's Recommendations on Nomenclature of Organic Chemistry(1979 & 1993). You have to admire the orderly manner in which this is handled. You don't really need a textbook or a teacher if you examine this ruthlessly to the end of each hierarchical sequence.

The only quibble I have is the use of the word 'recommendations'. IUPAC is the authority on pure and applied chemistry - whatever it says goes, and so it should not be 'recommendations', but 'directives' (or at weakest, 'guidelines'). It's a small quibble.

[5.01/5.09] Physical Chemistry

Here is a link to ChemGuide's page on physical chemistry - mainly reaction kinetics and equilibria. You will be surprised as to how easy the ChemGuide people make it look. As of course, it should be.

Please read the Phase Equilibria section for the week ahead.