A Complex Molecular Symmetry Analysis of Silsesquioxane Catalysts for Inorganic Students

Teaching symmetry point groups to introductory inorganic chemistry students is often complicated by the difficulties students face with mental manipulation of complex molecules. Additionally, most textbooks provide practice in the form of random two-dimensional molecules or figures of little significance. As an alternative, an assignment is proposed that analyzes the symmetry of borylated cubic silsesquioxane-based catalysts, which can be modeled as simple cubes with differing vertices that depend on boron loading. This assignment challenges students to explore how adding substituents to a highly symmetric molecule affects the symmetry of the molecule and gives rise to spectroscopically equivalent positions.