PCC-13803 General Chemistry 2 MLS

Course

Credits 3.00

Language of instruction:

Dutch

Assumed knowledge on:

PCC-12303 General Chemistry 1.

Continuation courses:

ORC-12803 Organic Chemistry I; PCC-21802 Introductory Thermodynamics and PCC-20806 Soft Matter.

Contents:

Many disciplines in the field of molecular life sciences 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 2 the emphasis is on physical and chemical properties of atoms, ions and molecules. Subjects treated within this course include transport under the influence of concentration gradients, redox reactions and redox potentials, atomic and molecular structure, quantization, intramolecular interactions and spectrophotometry. In addition, this MLS variant also addresses the link between the microscopic and macroscopic world: statistical mechanics is introduced in order to use spectroscopic data to actually calculate macroscopic quantities.

Learning outcomes:

After successful completion of this course students are expected to be able to:
- analyze and examine aspects of chemical mass transport (friction, drift, flux, diffusion, ionic mobility) and apply these to topics like Fick’s first law, membrane potentials and electrical conductance of a solution;
- analyze and examine aspects of electrochemistry (half reactions, electrochemical cells oxidation numbers, Nernst equation) and apply these to topics like spontaneity of chemical reactions, electrode potentials, equilibrium constants of electrochemical reactions and concentration measurements;
- outline the principles of the quantum mechanical model for single and multi-electron atoms and connect these to trends in the periodic table of elements and topics like the aufbau principle, atomic orbitals and energy levels in atoms;
- construct Lewis structures of simple inorganic molecules and classify their shapes using the VSEPR model;
- apply Lambert Beer's law and understand absorption and emission of electromagnetic radiation;
- apply the concepts of energy levels, partition functions and corresponding molar quantities to molecules;
- execute experiments in the domain of general and physical chemistry following a given protocol and analyze the outcomes.

Activities:

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

Examination:

- Written exam with open and/or multiple choice questions.
All practicals need to be completed successfully (go/no go). Interim results are valid for six years.

Literature:

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