Advanced Inorganic & Coordination Chemistry Certification
Symmetry, ligand fields, spectra, mechanisms, organometallics and catalysis — the transition metals at graduate level
Key facts
- Level: Expert
- Field: Chemistry
- Estimated study time: about 46 hours
- Credential price: $399
- Exam: 90 questions · 150 minutes · pass mark 75%
About the Advanced Inorganic & Coordination Chemistry certification
An expert-level certification for chemists who already command general and physical chemistry and now need to reason about the transition metals the way a research inorganic chemist does. You begin with molecular symmetry: symmetry elements and operations, assigning point groups with the decision flowchart, reading character tables, reducing reducible representations into irreducible ones, predicting IR and Raman activity (including the rule of mutual exclusion) and building symmetry-adapted linear combinations. You then build the bonding picture of coordination compounds from the ground up — IUPAC nomenclature and geometric, optical and linkage isomerism; crystal field theory for octahedral, tetrahedral and square-planar complexes with crystal field stabilisation energies, pairing energies, high- and low-spin states and the spectrochemical series; and full ligand field / molecular orbital theory with sigma donors, pi donors and pi acceptors, plus the Jahn–Teller effect. Electronic spectroscopy and magnetism follow: Russell–Saunders term symbols, Orgel and Tanabe–Sugano diagrams with fully worked d² and d⁶ band assignments, the Laporte and spin selection rules, LMCT and MLCT charge-transfer bands, spin-only and orbital contributions to the effective magnetic moment, and susceptibility by the Evans NMR method. Reaction mechanisms cover kinetic lability and inertness, dissociative, associative and interchange substitution, activation volumes, the trans effect and trans influence (with the classic cisplatin synthesis), and inner- versus outer-sphere electron transfer with the essentials of Marcus theory. Organometallic chemistry develops the 18-electron rule with both covalent and ionic counting, metal carbonyls and IR evidence of back-bonding, metallocenes, oxidative addition, reductive elimination, migratory insertion and beta-hydride elimination. Finally you apply everything to catalysis and real systems: Wilkinson hydrogenation, hydroformylation, Suzuki and Heck cross-coupling and Grubbs olefin metathesis; hemoglobin, cytochrome P450, nitrogenase and platinum anticancer drugs; and band theory and metal–organic frameworks in materials chemistry. Every module is built around worked problems, real spectra and data, and exact, purpose-drawn figures.
What you will learn
The official Advanced Inorganic & Coordination Chemistry study course covers:
- Symmetry and Group Theory — Symmetry elements and operations, assigning point groups with the flowchart, reading character tables, reducing representations, IR and Raman selecti…
- Bonding in Coordination Compounds — Nomenclature and isomerism, crystal field theory for octahedral, tetrahedral and square-planar complexes (CFSE, pairing energy, high and low spin, th…
- Electronic Spectra and Magnetism — Russell–Saunders term symbols, the splitting of free-ion terms in ligand fields, Orgel and Tanabe–Sugano diagrams with worked d² and d⁶ assignments,…
- Reaction Mechanisms of Coordination Complexes — Kinetic lability and inertness, dissociative, associative and interchange substitution with activation parameters, square-planar substitution with th…
- Organometallic Chemistry — The 18-electron rule with covalent and ionic counting, metal carbonyls and the IR evidence for back-bonding, phosphines and metallocenes, and the ele…
- Catalysis and Applications — Homogeneous catalytic cycles — Wilkinson hydrogenation, hydroformylation, Suzuki and Heck cross-coupling and Grubbs olefin metathesis — then bioinorg…
Prerequisites
Frequently asked questions
- Is the Advanced Inorganic & Coordination Chemistry certificate verifiable?
- Yes. Every issued Hootix Academy certificate carries a unique credential code that anyone can verify online.
- How is the Advanced Inorganic & Coordination Chemistry exam structured?
- It is a 150-minute ID-verified multiple-choice exam of 90 questions; you need 75% to pass.
- Do I need to buy the course to take the exam?
- Each certification is sold three ways: the exam on its own, the online course on its own, or both together as a Course + exam bundle (the bundle price is the course price plus the exam price).
- How long does the Advanced Inorganic & Coordination Chemistry course take?
- About 46 hours of self-paced study.