| Staff |
Short CVWalter has been in the academic environment for the last 23 years. He obtained his Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry. Hy teaches mainly Analytical Chemistry on different levels in the department.
He has been promotor and co-promotor for a number of Masters- and Ph.D. students. He was also a visiting lecturer at the University of North Texas, in Denton Texas for a year where he taught Chemistry and did research in photolysis and nano-seconds kinetics. Walter published a number of articles in international journals and also contributed a number of papers at national and international conferences. His research interest includes the study of the reaction kinetics of organometallic and inorganic substances in organic and water mediums as well as the quantification and identification of different elements in natural minerals and ores.
Walter was also involved in a number of industrial research projects for SOMCHEM, Textile Unit of the CSIR, short term insurance companies as well as for ESKOM. Area of Expertise
- Kinetics
- Synthesis of organometallic complexes
- Crystallography
- ISO 17025
- Method develpment and Statistic validation
Current research
The Analytical Chemistry group is currently involved in a number of analytical and inorganic projects. The analytical projects involve the dissolution, quantification and method validation of a number of inorganic and ore samples such as zircon, tantalite and columbite. These projects involve the establishment of methods to accurate identify and quantify the different elements in these samples. Some of these projects are done in close cooperation with industrial partners such as NECSA (AMI) and Thuthuka Group Limited. Microwave and acid dissolution procedures are employed while ICP(OES), AA(GFAAS), UV/visible and IR spectroscopy are used for the identification and quantification of the different elements, with ISO 17025 criteria as benchmark. Techniques such as XRD, XRF (Geology Dept), DSC and TGA were also used during these studies. Elements which are currently being investigated are niobium, tantalum, zirconium and rhodium.
In another project the removal of heavy metal contamination (especially arsenic) from natural water sources by means of natural and synthetic zeolites is been investigated and which is partially funded by the Water Management in Water-Scarce Areas Cluster at the UFS.
The group is also involved in different inorganic chemistry projects. Currently we are involved in kinetic and structural studies of organometallic complexes of Ir(I) and Rh(I) oxidative addition reactions, kinetic and structural studies of Re(V) and Os(VI) cyano complexes as well as some Co and Cr aqueous chemistry. All these studies made use of XRD, IR UV/vis, NMR and computational methods.
Courses Presented
- Analytical Chemistry
- Inorganic Chemistry
- Cyanide complexes
- Photochemistry
- Chromatography
- Spectrometry
- ISO 17025
- Statistics
Publications (Short List)He is the author of more than 60 articles in International Chemistry Journals. These articles cover a wide variety of research topics in the field of coordination chemistry, amongst other structural and kinetic studies of octahedral substitution reactions and oxidative addition reactions.
List of Publications
Visser, H.G; Purcell, W.; Muller, A.; Janse van Rensburg, J.M. and Molosia, P., di-Potassium bis-{(2-hydroxo)(N,N-bis(carboxymethyl)d,l-leucinato) cobalt(III)} tetrahydrate Acta Cryst, Section E, E63, m2998-m2999 (2007).
Coetzee, M.; Purcell, W.; Visser, H.G. and Venter, J.A., Acetylacetonato-k2O,O')carbonyl[diphenylphospino)pyridine-kP]rhodium(I) Acta Cryst, E63, m3165 (2007).
Mtshali, T.N.; Purcell, W.; Basson, S.S. and Visser, H.G.: Kinetic study of the reactions of [ReN(H2O)(CN)4]2- with quinoline-2-carboxylate and pyridine-2,3-dicarboxylate anions, Transition Metal Chemistry, 33 (4), 481-491, (2008).
Mtshali, T.N.; Purcell, W.; Basson, S.S. and Visser, H.G.:A novel rhenium-aqua structure: The synthesis and structural characterization of (PPh4)4-[ReN(H2O)(CN)3-(m-2-CN)-ReN(CN)4]*5H2O, Transition Met. Chem., 33, 711-716 (2008).
Purcell, W. and Visser H.G., Tris(1,2 diaminoethane)-cobalt(II)cis-(2-cyano)- aqua-bis (1,2 diaminoethane)-heptacyano-cobalt(II) molybdenum(IV) dehydrate Acta Cryst, Section E: Structure Reports Online, Volume 64, Part 11, m1438-m1439 (2008).
Visser, H.G. and Purcell, W., Cobalt(III)hexamine hexacyanomolybdate(III), Acta Cryst, Section E: Structure Reports Online, Volume 64, Part 11, i76 (2008).
Grobbelaar, E., Lötter, S., Visser, H.G., Conradie, J., and Purcell, W.,
Investigation of the electron density of Iridium(I) Vaska-type complexes using DFT calculations and structural results: Structure of trans-carbonyl-chloro-bis(tricyclohexylphosphine)-iridium(I), Inorg. Chim. Acta, 362, 3949 – 3954 (2009).
Lötter, S., Purcell, W. and Nel, J.T., Die vertering en kwantifisering van onsuiwerhede in sirkoon en plasmagedissosieerde sirkoon (pdz), SA Tydskrif vir Natuurwetenskap en Tegnologie, 28, 252 -253, (2009).
J.A. Venter, J.A., Purcell,W., Visser,H.G. and Muller,T.J. Carbonyl(N-nitroso-N-oxide -1 –naphtylamine-k2O,O’)(triphenylphosphine-kP)rhodium(I) acetone solvate, Acta Cryst, Section E65, m1578.
Venter, J., Purcell, W. and Visser, H.G., Di-m-iodido-bis(4-methyl-2,6,7-trioxa-1-phosphabicyclo[2.2.2]octane)(N-nitroso-N-oxidoanalinekO,O)-rhodium(III)] Acta Cryst, Section E, Structure Reports Online E65,m1528-m1529 (2009).
Muller, A.J., Conradie,J., Purcell,W., Basson,S.S. and Venter,J.A. , Characterisation and oxidative addition reactions of different rhodium and iridium triazolato complexes, SA Journal of Chemistry, accepted (2009).
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