Physical chemistry courses order

These theories may have been covered (or at least mentioned) in your physical chemistry courses in statistical mechanics or kinetic theory of gases, but (mercifully) we will not go through them here because they involve a rather complex notation and are not necessary to describe chemical reactors. If you need reaction rate data very badly for some process, you will probably want to fmd the assistance of a chemist or physicist in calculating reaction rates of elementary reaction steps in order to formulate an accurate description of processes. 

I review the difficulties and opportunities that we need to consider when developing physical chemistry courses. I begin with a comparison of the structure of courses in the USA and the UK, then turn to the question of the order of the course quantum first or thermodynamics first 1 then consider the impact of biology on our courses and then turn to the role of multimedia and graphics. I conclude with an attempt to identify the key equations of physical chemistry. 

Arguments for the presentation of kinetic theory and chemical kinetics as the first topics taught in the initial physical chemistry course are presented. This presentation allows the first topic in physical chemistry to be mathematically more accessible, to be highly relevant to modem physical chemistry practice, and to provide an opportunity to make valuable conceptual connections to topics in quantum mechanics and thermodynamics. Preliminary results from a recent survey of physical chemistry teaching practice are presented and related to the primary discussion. It was found that few departments of chemistry have adopted this order of topical presentation. 

In order to fully appreciate the widespread application that molecular modeling can find in beginning organic chemistry, it is important to appreciate the fundamental relationship between molecular structure and chemical, physical and biological properties. So-called structure-property relationships are explored in nearly every college chemistry course, whether introductory or advanced. Students are first taught about the structures of molecules, and are then taught how to relate structure to molecular properties. 

The first question that comes to mind when considering the structure of a course in physical chemistry is its order. Broadly speaking, there are the camps inhabited by thermodynamics first (T-first) and those inhabited by quantum first (Q-first). I shall set out what I see as the advantages of each approach. 

At some institutions, however, external constraints prohibit changes in the order of topics, especially if Physical Chemistry I is a service course for other departments, most notably engineering. Further, there are no textbooks in which chemical kinetics is among the first topics, certainly among the most popular textbooks currently used. Our survey of physical chemistry teaching (/)... 

Teaching quantum mechanics first in physical chemistry gives the properly prepared and motivated student a presentation that best represents the most active areas of physical chemistry research. A thermodynamics first approach remains most consistent with the order found in most currently used textbooks avoiding the disorientation associated with skipping around in the textbook early in the course. However, we believe that a large segment of the chemistry major... 

Figure 2.34 Some characteristics of first-order and second-order transitions. Reprinted with permission from J. E. Mark, Physical Chemistry of Polymers, ACS Audio Course C-89, American Chemical Society, Washington, DC, 1986. Copyright 1986, American Chemical Society.

Physical chemistry is an upper-level course at most institutions and is generally only required for a few majors. As such, course enrollment is at least an order of magnitude below that of general chemistry, and sometimes much less. Thus, physical chemistry, and its associated laboratory component, where offered, have a small enough enrollment that it can be hard to justify the cost of specialized instrumentation such as spectrometers, lasers, computer controls, and other such equipment... 

The following work reproduces the lectures given by me at the University of Berlin, under the title of Selected Chapters in Physical Chemistry/ It really includes somewhat more, for in the strictly limited time it was only possible to pick out certain leading points, in order to cover the whole subject, in one-hour lectures, through the course of four semesters. So this little book may perhaps be a welcome guide to those who wish to possess themselves of the latest acquisitions of physical chemistry. 

The history of quantum mechanics, while fascinating, is too lengthy to di.scuss here, us is a full development of the theory. The goal of this chapter is to present (he concepts succinctly for readers who have never taken courses in physical chemistry, where lhe.se lopies are more fully developed. The emphasis is on following the logical order of concepts, not on the muthemalieui details, which means some relationships have been simplifted. With the fundamentals presented below, it is possible to understand the impact quantum mechanics has. and will continue to have, on medicinal chemistry. The sections (hat follow contain references to quantum mechanical applications in CADD. 

The text largely contains fundamental material and focuses on understanding the basic principles rather than learning factual information. Since it is impossible to include all branches of surface science in such an introductory book because of its wide and multidisciplinary scope, a specific and narrow topic, the interfacial interactions between solids and liquids, has been chosen for this book. For this reason, the ionic interactions, charged polymers, electrochemistry, electrokinetics and the colloid and particulate sciences cannot be included. Some fundamental physical chemistry subjects such as basic thermodynamics are covered, and many equations are derived from these basic concepts throughout the book in order to show the links between applied surface equations and the fundamental concepts. This is lacking in most textbooks and applied books in surface chemistry, and for this reason, this book can be used as a textbook for a course of 14-15 weeks. 

A modified version of the spectroscopy exercise could be conducted for physical chemistry laboratory courses, and could even be simplified to be used for honors freshman chemistry labs. In order to obtain frequencies that are accessible with radio telescopes, measurements have to be conducted at microwave or millimeter wavelengths. Spectrometers that operate in this range are not readily available to physical chemistry teachers however, a simple direct... 

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