PCC-12303 General Chemistry 1

Course

Credits 3.00

Language of instruction:

Dutch

Contents:

Many disciplines in the fields of life sciences, environmental sciences and technology build on concepts from physics and chemistry. The courses General Chemistry 1 and 2 intend to make you familiar with these general concepts. Among the concepts are matter and energy, size and scale, quantization of energies, driving forces, change and equilibrium. The starting point for the exploration of the various concepts is observation of the world we live in. From there, a journey is undertaken in search of the physical and chemical laws that govern the world around us. Concepts are worked out both theoretically and experimentally in tutorials and practical classes within themes and contexts from various fields. In General Chemistry 1 the emphasis is on the concepts of size and scale, probability distributions, thermal motion, Boltzmann distribution law, driving forces behind processes, equilibrium and change, adsorption, acids and bases, and kinetics of reactions.

Learning outcomes:

After successful completion of this course students are expected to be able to:

- do calculations on and interpret the molecular kinetic theory of gases and relate it to quantities like pressure and temperature;
- do calculations on equilibrium constants for chemical reactions and predict shifts in equilibrium as a result of changed conditions;
- identify driving forces behind processes and calculate equilibrium constants of chemical reactions from thermodynamic data;
- calculate the pH of solutions of (weak) acids, (weak) bases and mixtures of these;
- do calculations that relate to reaction rates for zero-, first- and second-order reactions;
- calculate the energy of activation using Arrhenius' equation;
- understand adsorption and apply the Langmuir adsorption isotherm;
- handle physical and chemical units and dimensions;
- execute experiments in the domain of general and physical chemistry following a given protocol, and analyse experiments.

Activities:

- participation in lectures;
- participation in tutorials;
- participation in practicals;
- independent study.

Examination:

Written exam with multiple choice questions . All practical exercises need to be completed successfully (go/no go). Partial results are valid for six years.

Literature:

Syllabus and practical manual are available at the WUR-shop.