Welcome to the Smith College Department of Chemistry web page. News of the department, of people in chemistry, and of chemical ideas are on this page.
Department News
What's New in Chemistry
Lunchbag Schedule
Seminar Schedule
ACS CVS Student Symposium
For applicants for the temporary physical/analytical position at Smith College Chemistry Department:
Applicants are encouraged to submit their application materials via email to hmcqueen(at)email.smith.edu.
Please use the following format:
1. Send your cover letter, CV, and statement of teaching philosophy as attachments. We prefer PDF files.
2. Include your full name, email address, and mailing address in the body of your email.
3. Put "Physical Chemistry Application" in the subject line.
Transcripts and letters of recommendation may be mailed to:
Heather McQueen
Chemistry Department
Clark Science Center
Smith College
44 College Lane
Northampton, MA 01063
What's New in Chemistry?
- Most materials expand when they are heated. Generally the expansion is small, with the coefficient of thermal expansion ((1/V)(δV/δT)) ranging from 0 to 20 x 10-6 K-1. Ag3(Co(CN)6) is a striking exception. In the solid state, this material has alternating layers of Ag+ ions and Co(CN)6-3 ions, with the silver ions bonded to the N end of a one cyanide ion in each of the two adjacent layers. Goodwin and co-workers at the University of Cambridge find that when heated the silver ions expand, causing expansion parallel to the layers; at the same time, the silver ions pull the Co(CN)63- in the two adjacent layers toward each other, causing a large compression in the direction perpendicular to the layers. The magnitude of the coefficient of thermal expansion for these motions is the order of 150 x 10-6, nearly ten times the normal value. Science, 2008, 319, 794-797.
- Students in organic chemistry learn that Grignard reagents and LiAlH4 cannot be used in the presence of water. Bowden and co-workers at the University of Iowa have tinkered with that idea. They have constructed thimbles of polydimethylsiloxane, PDMS, [ (CH3)2SiO repeating unit ] which, because of the hydrophobic interior of the polymer, do not allow water to diffuse through the material, although nonpolar molecules can. They can take the PDMS thimble and fill it with a hexane solution of the ethylene glycol ketal of acetophenone, add water and an acid to this solution, and then immerse the PDMS thimble into a hexane solution of LiAlH4. The aqueous acidic solution decomposes the ketal to give the ketone, which then diffuses through the PDMS barrier and there reacts with the hydride to form the alcohol. So much for THAT incompatibility. Angew Chemie, 2007, 47, 935-939.
What's Happening at Smith?
- Julie Olsen ('10) has been awarded a David L. Boren Undergraduate Scholarship for study abroad next year in Tanzania
- Erin Davis ('07) has just be awarded a Fulbright fellowship for study in Germany. Congratulations to Erin!
- Fadzai Chinyengetere and Professor Betsy Jamieson recently published, "Impact of the Oxidized Guanine Lesion Spiroiminodihydantoin on the Confirmation and Thermodynamic Stability of a 15-mer DNA Duplex " in Biochemistry 2008, 47, 2584-2591.