User:Smokefoot

About me

I mainly edit pages describing chemical compounds, especially inorganic, organometallic, and organic species. My favorites contain sulfur. I am a highly imperfect copy editor, so I am not bothered by having my English polished and especially welcome having my chemistry corrected.

My continuing focus remains on industrially significant compounds and boring topics like laundry detergents and waxes and related goopy stuff. Such themes are often overlooked since most editors are more familiar with academic topics, whereas our society and environment are more strongly influenced by the industrial-scale applications, for better or worse. Much of my content comes from Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry, which appears to be authoritative and objective. Another interest is specialty reagents, with an eye toward increasing the value of Wikipedia for the synthetic chemist.

I am professionally associated with technical journals and book series, many of which are cited in my editing, but these relationships result in no financial rewards (unfortunately) to me. If editors have concerns that my edits "cross the line," please say so. Only rarely have I cited my own work or work by colleagues and friends.

Teaching chemistry through Wikipedia

Thinking about using Wikipedia as part of your chemistry course? Doing so gives students experience integrating chemical knowledge and in copy-editing, both relevant to their professional development. In terms of implementation, here are my observations based on several years of experience.

• The most important step is the selection of topics that allow students to contribute new content. The instructor should make sure that good general sources exist on the assigned topics, preferably reviews and textbooks. A major part of the learning experience comes from students re-describing or summarizing what they read from these broad sources.
• Learning Wikipedia techniques is almost irrelevant to the educating students. To this end, it can be useful for the instructor to set up new articles with examples of linking and reference format. Students can then readily add to this article, even without registering as a user.
• Students should be graded on the quality of their content, not the quantity.
• Peer review (by fellow students) is a joke, how can a fellow student critique an article on topics that they barely fathom, not to mention dealing with conflict of interest in grading their friends?
• Steer away from toxicity, environmental, or safety aspects. Tons of content on such topics are readily Google-able. Students learn little from parroting this material and can be poor judges of quality sources. Teach them chemistry - mechanisms, (bio)synthesis, structure, bonding, spectroscopy, reactivity, ... Help them sort notable from non-notable aspects.
• Bear in mind that editors at Wikipedia are not supposed to serve babysitters or graders for your class. Instructors need to be involved, but they could expect good cooperation from established editors.

Welcome, but be careful

Welcome to Wikipedia. Here are suggested readings: WP:SECONDARY and WP:COI. The gist of these guidelines are:

• Wikipedia prefers citations to reviews and books, not primary journal references (tens of thousands appear annually). Citing secondary sources is the encyclopedic style.
• Do not cite yourself or your colleagues. It's called conflict of interest. Many new editors cite themselves mainly. That behavior is unacceptable.

If you have questions, many editors can offer advice. Happy editing.-->

Templates, etc that I use

• C. Elschenbroich (2006). Organometallics. VCH. ISBN 978-3-527-29390-2.
• Atkins, Peter (1994). Physical Chemistry, 5th Edition. Freeman. ISBN 7167-2402-2. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: length (help)
• Silverstein, Robert M.; Webster, Francis X.; Kiemle, David J.; Bryce, David L. (2016). Spectrometric Identification of Organic Compounds, 8th Edition. Wiley. ISBN 978-0-470-61637-6.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Chemistry_citation_templates

• {{Holleman&Wiberg}} gives Holleman, Arnold Frederik; Wiberg, Egon (2001), Wiberg, Nils (ed.), Inorganic Chemistry, translated by Eagleson, Mary; Brewer, William, San Diego/Berlin: Academic Press/De Gruyter, ISBN 0-12-352651-5
• {{RubberBible87th}} gives Lide, David R., ed. (2006). CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics (87th ed.). Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press. ISBN 0-8493-0487-3.
• {{Greenwood&Earnshaw2nd}} gives Greenwood, Norman N.; Earnshaw, Alan (1997). Chemistry of the Elements (2nd ed.). Butterworth-Heinemann. ISBN 978-0-08-037941-8.
• {{March6th}} gives Smith, Michael B.; March, Jerry (2007), Advanced Organic Chemistry: Reactions, Mechanisms, and Structure (6th ed.), New York: Wiley-Interscience, ISBN 978-0-471-72091-1
• {{Lehninger4th}} gives Nelson, David L.; Cox, Michael M. (2005). Principles of Biochemistry (4th ed.). New York: W. H. Freeman. ISBN 0-7167-4339-6.
• {{Ullmann's}} gives Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry, 2005, Wiley-VCH, Weinheim.
• {{OrgSynth|author=Whitmore, F. C.|author2=Hanson, E. R.|year=1925|title=o-Chloromercuriphenol|volume=4|pages=13|collvol=1|collvolpages=161|prep=CV1P0161}} gives Whitmore, F. C.; Hanson, E. R. (1925). "o-Chloromercuriphenol". Organic Syntheses. 4: 13; Collected Volumes, vol. 1, p. 161.

• {{cite book |doi=10.1002/0470084960|title=March's Advanced Organic Chemistry: Reactions, Mechanisms, and Structure |year=2006 |last1=Smith |first1=Michael B. |last2=March |first2=Jerry |isbn=9780470084960 }}

• Hartwig, John (2010). Organotransition Metal Chemistry: From Bonding to Catalysis. New York: University Science Books. p. 1160. ISBN 978-1-938787-15-7.

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Small/simple form

To use, simply copy and paste the left column into the document, filling in whatever you can, or type {{subst:Chembox subst small}} and press save:

{{Chembox | ImageFile = | ImageSize = | ImageAlt = | IUPACName = | OtherNames = |Section1={{Chembox Identifiers | CASNo = | CASNo_Comment = | CASNo1 = | CASNo1_Comment = | PubChem = | SMILES = }} |Section2={{Chembox Properties | Formula = | MolarMass = | RefractIndex = | Appearance = | Density = | MeltingPt = | MeltingPt_notes = | BoilingPt = | BoilingPt_notes = | Solubility = }} |Section3={{Chembox Hazards | MainHazards = | FlashPt = | AutoignitionPt = }} }}

Formulas, charges, equations

Formulas (without charge) are just written:

• {{chem2|CH3(CH2)5CH3}} → CH₃(CH₂)₅CH₃
• {{chem2|Fe3S2(CO)9}} → Fe₃S₂(CO)₉
• {{chem2|C_{''n''}H_{2''n''+2}|}} → C_nH_2n+2

Charges are written inside parentheses:

• {{chem2|SO4(2-)}} → SO2−4
• {{chem2|S19(2+)}} → S2+19

Charges +1 and −1 can be written plain:

• {{chem2|Na+}} → Na⁺
• {{chem2|O2-}} → O−2

equals {{chem2|O2(-)}}

Chemical equations:

• {{chem2|2 S + 3 O2 + 2 H2O -> 2 H2SO4}} → 2 S + 3 O₂ + 2 H₂O → 2 H₂SO₄
• {{chem2|2S + 3O2 + 2H2O -> 2H2SO4}} → 2S + 3O₂ + 2H₂O → 2H₂SO₄

The arrows can be written as -> or just →. All characters (and unicode markup) are valid input except \, = (Mediawiki use it), _ and - (endash etc.)

• {{chem2|2 H2_{(g)} + O2_{(g)} -> 2H2O_{(g)}|}} → 2 H_2(g) + O_2(g) → 2H₂O_(g)
• {{chem2|NH2RCHCO2H <-> NH3+RCHCO2-}} → NH₂RCHCO₂H ⇌ NH+3RCHCO−2

Hapticity and mu:

• {{chem2|W(CO)3(PiPr3)2(\h{2}H2)}} → W(CO)₃(PiPr₃)₂(η²-H₂)
• {{chem2|auto=yes|W(CO)3(PiPr3)2(\h{2}H2)}} → W(CO)₃(PiPr₃)₂(η²-H₂)

Semi-useless attention magnets

Attracting regular editing attention, many of these compounds have some or all of these characteristics: not used for anything, weakly characterized:

• Fluoroantimonic acid
• Dimanganese heptoxide
• titanic acid
• xenon hexafluoroplatinate