The Molecule of the Week: A Didactic Tool for Teaching General Chemistry

Abstract

The molecule of the week is regularly used by the author in his first-semester course General Chemistry I (Inorganic Chemistry) to illustrate, exemplify, and deepen fundamental aspects and concepts treated in the course. Pure sulfuric acid and its autoprotolysis is used to introduce the concepts of protochemical window and superacidity. The drug Auranofin serves at showing fundamental aspects of gold redox and coordination chemistry and the widely used disinfectant trichlo- roisocyanuric acid (TCICA) exemplifies redox processes with organic compounds.