OpenPhysChem

About

This repository contains the resources on the undergraduate Physical Chemistry course covering thermodynamics, electrochemistry, statistichal thermodynamics and chemical kinetics.

The idea of the website is greatly inspired and largely based on another open source resource - the website of Prof. Eremin at Moscow State University Part 1 and Part 2. Unfortunately, some material is not reflected properly and the browsers often do a pretty poor job translating the website. Hence I'm putting this as a stand-alone resource.

In addition, this repository will include problems and teaching materials from other resources, including those generated by artificial inteligence (AI) tools. However, the AI-generated content is revised and curated by me to ensure the consistency of theory and problems/solutions.

Another distinctive feature of this repository is the used of Jupyter, to facilitate solving numerical problems.

Content

Module 1 - Thermodynamics

• Unit 1: Basic terminology and definitions of thermodynamics. Gas laws and equations of state for gases.

• Unit 2: Basic ideas of molecular-kinetic theory (MKT) of gases. Critical states. Math review: Differentiation.

• Unit 3: 1-st law of thermodynamics: work and heat, work of gases. Math review: integration.

• Unit 4: 1-st law of thermodynamics and thermochemistry: internal energy and enthalpies of phase changes and chemical reactions. Hess’s law.

• Unit 5: 2-nd law of thermodynamics: Entropy, Helmholtz, and Gibbs free energies. Spontaneous processes and their directionality. 3-rd law of thermodynamics: Absolute entropies.

• Unit 6: Thermodynamic potentials. Fundamental equations of Thermodynamics. Maxwell’s equations.

• Unit 7: Applications of thermodynamics: phase equilibria in 1-component systems. Clapeyron and Clausius-Clapeyron equations.

• Unit 8: Solutions of electrolytes and non-electrolytes. Raul’s law. Activities. Partial properties. Colligative properties. Solubility.

• Unit 9: Chemical equilibrium: principles, vant-Hoff’s equation, LeChatelier’s principle.

Module 2 - Electrochemistry

• Unit 10: Fundamentals of electrochemistry. Debye-Huckel theory. Redox reactions and electrochemical cells.

Module 3 - Statistical Mechanics

• Unit 11: Review of classical mechanics. Postulates of statistical mechanics. Liouville’s theorem and phase space dynamics.

• Unit 12: Partition function and its properties. Relation of the partition function to thermodynamic functions.

• Unit 13: Statistical mechanics in computational chemistry.

Module 4 - Chemical Kinetics

• Unit 14: Basic postulates and definitions of chemical kinetics. Kinetics of simple reactions.

• Unit 15: Kinetics of complex reactions. Experimental determination of the reaction orders. Dependence of reaction rates on temperature: Arrhenius equation and Vant-Hoff’s rule.

• Unit 16: Approximate methods of chemical kinetics: Quasi-equilibrium and steady-state approximations. Deriving rate laws from mechanisms of chemical reactions.

• Unit 17: Enzymatic and heterogenous catalysis. Michaelis-Menten equation and Langmuir and BET isotherms.

• Unit 18: Reactions in solutions. Photochemical reactions. Chain reactions. Charge transfer reactions.

• Unit 19: Theories of chemical kinetics: active collisions theory and activated complex theory.

Resources

The problems and examples given in the units use the following conventions for the relevant sources:

• Eremin : either this or this

• ChatGPT : made with the help of ChatGPT 3.5