budullewraagh

Yeah, I apologize; the latex didn't work out for me. Actually, the integral I was looking for was available at sosmath.com; I was computing an expectation value for the radius of the He+ cation for my physical chemistry course. Thanks anyway for your help!

Does anyone know where I can find integral tables for QM? I tried a few, but they cannot be solved as indefinite integrals that give rise to noninfinite quantities. Example: [math] r=\int_{0}^{\infty} (&\X\Psi*(x))(&\X\Psi(x))*4*&\X\pi*r^2*dr [/math] <r>=(integral, 0 to infinity) (psi(x))*(psi*(x))dr Using integration by parts gives a solution that goes to infinity. Can anyone help me find some tables? Thanks, Clark

I'm trying to make gold nanoshells and had an idea, but am unsure as to whether gold would be able to undergo oxidative insertion to add between a Si-Cl bond. My idea was to take silica nanospheres, react with oxalyl or thionyl chloride to turn the hydroxyls (on the outside of the SiO2) into chlorides and then have the gold insert to form Si-Au-Cl. Furthermore I was wondering as to whether a reducing solution of HAuCl4 and NaBH4 would continue to add gold to form Si-Au-Au-Cl, Si-Au-Au-Au-Cl, etc. The most obvious problem with this is that I can't think of too many divalent gold compounds. Apparently the oxidation state exists, but is only existent in "rare complexes." The only one I know of is [AuXe4]+2 but that is unstable and at +2 already. Are there any that are either at ground state or +1? Also a possibility would be a +1 gold salt such as AuCl, but I'm not sure that it would insert well. Also, does anyone here have any thoughts on my proposal?

It should be noted that Grignards can be made by addition of magnesium to alkyl halides and that organolithium reagents can be made by addition of n-butyl Lii, sec-butyl Li and tert-butyl Li, though the latter is most applicable and most dangerous. Also, trimethylaluminum is commonly used as a catalyst for such reactions as the Weinreb amidation of esters. Also, organocuprates (Gilman reagents) are often used to favor 1,4 addition over 1,2 addition to a,b-unsaturated carbonyls and are generated in situ by reaction of the corresponding organolithium with CuI to form R2CuLi.

According to that explanation phosphines (P being less electronegative than N) would be more basic (less in control of their electrons) than the corresponding amines. Trivalent phosphorus isn't at all a hard base because its lone pair is in a far larger probability cloud than that of nitrogen. As a result, the orbitals don't align well and phosphines aren't good at deprotonating anything.

I'll vouch for the reaction of KI and H2SO4 yielding H2S. That was a botched experiment on my part, but hey, I was really young and naive. As for acid production from salts and other acids, the rule is to use acids that are stronger than the conjugate acid of the salt used. H2SO4 is both cheap and the strongest common acid, so we can make any organic or mineral acid from the reaction of it and a salt. As Woelen said, however, there are some exceptions concerning the oxidizing power of H2SO4.

I think he wanted to reduce the carbonyl not to the alcohol, but to the alkane.

I think you're thinking of thioacetal formation and reduction with Raney nickel. The thioacetal formation does require acidic conditions, however, but the reduction itself requires neutral conditions. Plus, it should be noted that the acidity required should be less than that required for Clemmenson and far less harsh than the obscenely basic conditions required for Wolff-Kishner. Carbonyl--(HSCH2CH2SH/H+)-->Thioacetal--(H2, Raney Ni)-->Alkane+Ethane+2NiS

How could it have been handled successfully? Well, frankly I would have been more in support of saving Darfur than the Iraqi people because the former really is a more dire humanitarian crisis. That said, assuming that the elimination of Saddam Hussein's government and a replacement is the goal, my idea would be to attempt to (not very actively) get the Iraqi public to rise up against the government. Look at what's happening in Iran; university students protest all the time, which is far beyond what we saw in Iraq. In order to cause successful regime change it's important to win public approval. They need to be willing to die for the cause of changing their government. The US could have helped bring them to this level of passion. Once the citizenry was to revolt, even if it took 5, 10 or 15 years, the US could have aided them by neutralizing the Iraqi army and allowing the Iraqi people to do the actual overthrowal and replacement of officials. Consider the recent coup in Thailand; not a shot was fired if I recall and it went fairly smoothly. This sort of thing was possible in Iraq, but we blew it.

Just to put things in perspective: Merck spent $1.2 billion and several years developing a drug, the name of which I have forgotten since hearing about it during an o-chem class. The drug did everything but pass as safe for the public. Many years and $1.2 billion lost means Merck has to raise prices for other things in order to stay in business. As well, there's also the problem of people rape-suing companies to death. It's for this reason that no pharmaceutical company currently is trying to make drugs specifically for the pregnant and elderly. After making out like bandits (more like trying to pull a profit) for a few years, every pharmaceutical company in existence replicates it and the prices all reduce to nothing.

I strongly agree with Woelen on this one. I remember when high school AP chem students used to try to call me out on bonding rules after I had taken organic I and II and read Pauling's Nature of the Chemical Bond. They believed in their arguments very strongly and I couldn't help but explain to them how wrong they were. Personally I think that, for example, the concepts of orbital overlap applied to simple molecules could be a very useful supplement to resonance and the inductive effect that polarizes molecules.

Encipher, it doesn't really matter. Consider the extreme lack of orbital overlap between Cs and F as well as Li and I. Who cares that there is a finite positive degree of overlap? The point is that CsF and LiI are extremely hygroscopic to the point of deliquesence. As for "covalent" bonds not being "completely" covalent, yes, this is true with many compounds that inept high school chem teachers call "covalent." However, we only really notice the "polarization" of the C-H bond in methane when running NMR with molecules that only show the inductive effect. Yes, the protons are waay upfield. Yes, the carbon is more shielded than it would be if the alkyl chain were more substituted, but what difference does it make in the chemistry of the molecule? It is at all nucleophilic? No. Electrophilic? No. Concerning the previous response you gave that such atoms as aluminum are commonly found in +3 ionic or "semi-ionic" or "very polar covalent" states, I must respectfully disagree. Trivalent (NOT ionic) aluminum is a very useful Lewis acid and such reactions as the Weinreb amidation would not proceed without this property. As well, the reduction of amides, esters, and carboxylates would not proceed if not for the fact that Al is not at all inclined to be in a cationic state. Moreover, it generally takes on a negative forma charge and in fact, its acidity can be observed by its reaction with water: 2AlCl3+3H2O-->6HCl+Al2O3