Chemical kinetics textbook treatment

After an introductory chapter, phenomenological kinetics is treated in Chapters 2, 3, and 4. The theory of chemical kinetics, in the form most applicable to solution studies, is described in Chapter 5 and is used in subsequent chapters. The treatments of mechanistic interpretations of the transition state theory, structure-reactivity relationships, and solvent effects are more extensive than is usual in an introductory textbook. The book could serve as the basis of a one-semester course, and I hope that it also may be found useful for self-instruction. 

There are two principal chemical concepts we will cover that are important for studying the natural environment. The first is thermodynamics, which describes whether a system is at equilibrium or if it can spontaneously change by undergoing chemical reaction. We review the main first principles and extend the discussion to electrochemistry. The second main concept is how fast chemical reactions take place if they start. This study of the rate of chemical change is called chemical kinetics. We examine selected natural systems in which the rate of change helps determine the state of the system. Finally, we briefly go over some natural examples where both thermodynamic and kinetic factors are important. This brief chapter cannot provide the depth of treatment found in a textbook fully devoted to these physical chemical subjects. Those who wish a more detailed discussion of these concepts might turn to one of the following texts Atkins (1994), Levine (1995), Alberty and Silbey (1997). 

There is a large literature describing experimental methods for finding empirical rate expressions and analyzing rate data. Comprehensive treatments can be found in volume 8 of the Weissburger series [2] and in volume 1 of the Comprehensive Chemical Kinetics series [3]. In addition, almost every textbook on kinetics has material on this subject. See, for example, the texts by Espenson [4], Laidler [5], and Steinfeld et al [6]. This book is devoted to detailed chemical kinetic modeling of chemical reactions, and is concerned primarily with elementary reactions. 

There are a number of textbooks on chemical reaction engineering. Davis and Davis (Fundamentals of Chemical Reaction Engineering, McGraw-Hill, 2003) provide a lucid discussion of kinetics and principles. A more comprehensive treatment together with access to... 

Essentially all of the quirks and imperfections that make solid-state systems interesting— point defects, dislocations, grain boundaries, inclusions, voids, surfaces—fall within the scope of materials kinetics. This focus on solid-state processes and heterogeneity—what many would call microstructural development—is what makes materials kinetics unique. In order to tackle this topic, we will need to borrow a lot of concepts from chemical reaction kinetics, which we will cover in Chapter 3 of this textbook, but we will also learn many other concepts that are not usually covered in traditional chemical-based treatments of kinetics. In particular, we will spend a lot of time on solid-state diffusion and transport (Chapter 4). Compared to the gas and liquid phases, transport of matter in the solid phase tends to be slower and more difficult thus, atomic transport processes such as diffusion become much more important in determining kinetic behavior in solid-state systems. 

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