Chemistry 201: Introduction to Physical Chemistry

Recommended Textbook:
Physical Chemistry, P. W. Atkins and J. De Paula, W.H. Freeman, 9th Edition

Other Useful Textbooks:
Physical Chemistry, J.H. Noggle, Prentice Hall, 3rd Edition
Physical Chemistry, I. N. Levine, McGraw-Hill, 5th or 6th Edition

Outline

This course is in basic Physical Chemistry, particularly elementary chemical kinetics and thermodynamics. Its syllabus is as follows:

Part I. Thermodynamics ( 6 weeks)

1. Newton's 2nd law: Work, Energy and Pressure
2. The meaning of temperature
3. The ideal gas
4. Heat, enthalpy, and the 1st law of thermodynamics
5. Heat capacity
6. The Joule and Joule-Thomson experiment
7. The equation of state for an ideal gas
8. Nonideal gases and the van der Waals equation of state
9. Extensions to ideal gases of polyatomic molecules
10. Reversible P-V work
11. The Carnot heat engine
12. The second law of thermodynamics
13. Entropy
14. The statistical meaning of entropy
15. Irreversible processes and the approach of a system to equilibrium
16. Gibbs and Helmholtz free energies
17. The approach to equilibrium of a chemical reaction

Part II. Kinetics (6 weeks)

1. Reaction kinetics
2. Measurement of reaction rates
3. Integration of rate laws
4. Determination of rate laws
5. Rate laws and equilibrium constants for elementary reactions
6. Reaction mechanisms
7. Temperature dependence of rate constants
8. Unimolecular reaction
9. Chain reactions and free-radical polymerization
10. Catalysis
11. Enzyme catalysis

Laboratory:

1. A Homogeneous Catalytic Reaction
2. Kinetics of the Reduction of Hexacyanoferrate(III) by Ascorbic Acid
3. Thermochemistry: Enthalpies of Reaction and Formation
4. Vapour Pressure of a Binary Solution
5. Adiabatic Expansion of a Gas