Exam Topics:  The list of possible topics can be found on each hourly exam study guide.  Any equations, tables, formulas, etc. that were provided on hourly exams will also be provided for the final exam if needed.

84.443/543 Final Exam Study Guide – 2015

First Section:

1. Be able to explain the trends of Zeff, and how orbital type impacts the effective nuclear charge.
2. Know the definitions of ionization energy and electron affinity and their periodic trends.  Be able to explain exceptions to the overall trends.
3. Know the trends in atomic size, as well as any exceptions to the overall trends.
4. Understand the relationship between hybridization and its relationship to bond angles and position of the central element on the periodic table.
5. Group Theory-  be able to obtain Γ_red to derive hybridization schemes.  Know how to reduce a representation and use the basis functions.  
6. Molecular orbital theory- know how to use the MO diagrams for diatomic molecules to obtain information about the molecule or ion, such as bond order.  Know the basic shapes of bonding and antibonding orbitals.

Second Section:

1.   Lewis Acids and Bases-  know the definitions, and factors affecting acid or base strength.  Know the general trends in hardness and softness.  Be able to predict the direction of equilibrium reactions involving lewis acids and bases.

2.      Metallic radii and ionic radii-  know how the values are obtained, and any problems in determining either type of radii.

3.      Ionic Crystals-  counting of ions within a unit cell, determining coordination number of atoms or ions, types of holes and their location within a cubic unit cell.

Third Section:

1. Transition metal complexes – naming of complexes. 
2. Structures and isomers of complexes.  Know how to identify optical isomers and provide the proper prefixes for both optical and structural isomers.
3. Determining LFSE and the number of unpaired electrons for octahedral and tetrahedral transition metal complexes. 
4. Be aware of the factors that contribute to high spin or low spin complexes.
5. Know the basis of the Jahn-Teller effect – what it is, when it occurs, and what the result of the effect is.
6. Know how the spectrochemical series relates to the type of ligand-metal bonding (π donor or acceptor, σ donor only).
7. Know the orbitals on the ligands that can interact with the d orbitals on the metal for sigma or pi bonding.     

New Material:

1. Be able to determine ground state term symbols for transition metal free ions or atoms.
2. Be able to assign the bands given the formula of the complex, its UV/VIS spectum, and the Tanabe-Sugano diagrams. (all cases but d² or d⁷) . Be able to determine Δ_o given a complex and its UV/Vis spectrum. (all cases but d² or d⁷) .
3. Know the selection rules for dàd transitions.
4. Be able to explain the difficulties in assigning the peaks for d² and d⁷ spectra.
5. Be able to identify the different types of charge transfer absorptions, given the formula of the transition metal complex.

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