610-211 Physical Chemistry II B

Note

Credit cannot be gained for this subject and 610-210

Credit Points

Coordinator

Prerequisites

Chemistry 610-141+ 610-142 or, if an average mark of greater than 60% is obtained, 610-161 + 610-162 (or Pre 1998: 610-121 + 610-122). 100-level Mathematics and 100-level Physics are recommended.

Semester

Contact

Subject Description

Upon completion of 610-211 students should:

• understand the concepts of the laws of thermodynamics;
• be able to evaluate and make appropriate use of entropy and free energy for systems undergoing physical and chemical change;
• be able to use tabulated values of thermodynamic data to predict values for vapour pressure, equilibrium constants, cell potentials and related quantities at specified temperatures;
• be able to use the concept of activity in nonideal systems, including solutions of electrolytes;
• understand the relation between molecular characteristics and spectroscopic phenomena in microwave, infrared, invisible/ultraviolet and nmr regions;
• be able to derive quantitative molecular information from elementary spectroscopic measurements;
• be able to establish from experimental data the rate expression for a reaction; understand the concepts of collision and activation in the mechanism of reactions;
• understand the connection between a proposed mechanism for a reaction and its observed rate behaviour and to evaluate the proposal in simple cases.

The subject covers the topics: thermodynamics, kinetics, spectroscopy, phase equilibria, solid state chemistry.

Assessment

One 3-hour and one 2-hour written examination at the end of Semester 2 and assignments not exceeding six pages.

Prescribed Texts

• Atkins P. W., Physical Chemistry. (5th ed., OUP 1994).