In-person teaching activities at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus were curtailed in the midst of a semester as a result of the global shutdowns imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. All instruction shifted online, and this rapid transition to emergency remote teaching had negative impacts on student learning, engagement, and mental well-being. This phenomenological study describes the results of surveys and interviews used to assess the emergency remote teaching experiences of students enrolled in second-year chemistry courses. Major student challenges included issues with motivation and engagement, personal scheduling, faculty communication, and increased stress and anxiety. This research recommends clear communication and flexible teaching and assessment methods to accommodate the assorted complications faced by our students.

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Air- and moisture-sensitive Fe(NO)(3)(eta(1)-PF(6)) (1) may be conveniently prepared by treating Fe(NO)(3)Cl with 1 equiv of [Ag][PF(6)] in CH(2)Cl(2) or by reacting [NO][PF(6)] with excess iron filings in MeNO(2). Complex 1 is thermally sensitive both as a solid and in solutions, and is best handled below -20 degrees C. To isolate 1 reproducibly from MeNO(2) solutions it is necessary to remove all traces of propionitrile, which often occurs as an impurity in MeNO(2), because it reacts with Lewis-acidic 1 to form [Fe(NO)(3)(EtCN)][PF(6)] (2). If trace H(2)O is present during the synthesis of 1, some of the PF(6)(-) is converted to PO(2)F(2)(-), which is sufficiently Lewis basic that it captures two Fe(NO)(3)(+) fragments and forms [(ON)(3)Fe(mu-PO(2)F(2))Fe(NO)(3)][PF(6)] (3). Finally, Fe(NO)(3)(eta(1)-BF(4)) (4) can be obtained as a green microcrystalline powder by employing the same synthetic methodologies used to prepare 1. The new complexes 1-4 have been characterized by conventional spectroscopic methods, and the solid-state molecular structures of 2, 3, and 4 and their parent compound, Fe(NO)(3)Cl, have been established by X-ray diffraction methods. The iron centers in the Fe(NO)(3) fragments in all these structures exhibit approximately tetrahedral coordination geometries, and the Fe-N-O linkages are distinctly nonlinear with bond angles in the range of 159 to 169 degrees. DFT calculations on Fe(NO)(3)(eta(1)-BF(4)) (4) confirm that its bent Fe-N-O links have an electronic origin and need not be attributed to other factors, such as packing forces in the crystal. Interestingly, the bending of the NO ligands results in an increase in the energy of the HOMO, relative to the linear case, but at the same time causes a decrease in energy of the HOMO-1 and the HOMO-2 molecular orbitals. This more than compensates for the higher energy of the HOMO, resulting in a lower energy structure.