610-211 Physical Chemistry IIB

Note

Credit Points

Coordinator

Prerequisites

One of Chemistry 610-141 or 610-161 AND one of 610-142 or 610-162. 100-level Mathematics and 100-level Physics are recommended. Concurrent enrolment in 610-215 is strongly 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, visible/ultraviolet and radiowave 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 written examination at the end of semester and assignments not exceeding six pages.

Prescribed Texts

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