Chemistry 201: Introduction to Physical Chemistry
Textbook: Ira Levine - Physical Chemistry (McGraw Hill, 5th edition). This text will also be used for Chemistry 304.
This course is in basic Physical Chemistry, particularly elementary chemical kinetics and thermodynamics. Its syllabus is as follows:
Part I. Thermodynamics ( 6 weeks)
- Newton's 2nd law: Work, Energy and Pressure
- The meaning of temperature
- The ideal gas
- Heat, enthalpy, and the 1st law of thermodynamics
- Heat capacity
- The Joule and Joule-Thomson experiment
- The equation of state for an ideal gas
- Nonideal gases and the van der Waals equation of state
- Extensions to ideal gases of polyatomic molecules
- Reversible P-V work
- The Carnot heat engine
- The second law of thermodynamics
- Entropy
- The statistical meaning of entropy
- Irreversible processes and the approach of a system to equilibrium
- Gibbs and Helmholtz free energies
- The approach to equilibrium of a chemical reaction
Part II. Kinetics (6 weeks)
- Reaction kinetics
- Measurement of reaction rates
- Integration of rate laws
- Determination of rate laws
- Rate laws and equilibrium constants for elementary reactions
- Reaction mechanisms
- Temperature dependence of rate constants
- Unimolecular reaction
- Chain reactions and free-radical polymerization
- Catalysis
- Enzyme catalysis
Laboratory:
- A Homogeneous Catalytic Reaction
- Kinetics of the Reduction of Hexacyanoferrate(III) by Ascorbic Acid
- Thermochemistry: Enthalpies of Reaction and Formation
- Vapour Pressure of a Binary Solution
- Adiabatic Expansion of a Gas