PHISICAL CHEMISTRY
Academic year and teacher
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- Versione italiana
- Academic year
- 2017/2018
- Teacher
- PAOLA GILLI
- Credits
- 6
- Didactic period
- Primo Semestre
- SSD
- CHIM/02
Training objectives
- The course intends: - to provide a fundamental understanding of the theoretical principles of physical chemistry; - to make students able to express the thermodynamic or kinetic behavior of the chemical systems in mathematical terms and, in general, to apply the principles of physical chemistry to chemical and biochemical problems.
Prerequisites
- Concepts of general chemistry, mathematics and physics taught in the 1st-year courses.
Course programme
- Thermodynamics - Ideal gases and kinetic theory. Intermolecular forces: electrostatic interactions, dispersion forces, hydrogen bonds. Real gases (virial equation, van der Waals equation, principle of corresponding states). First law of thermodynamics: heat and work. Thermochemistry. The thermodynamic and the statistical mechanics definition of entropy. Reversible and irreversible changes. Clausius inequality. The Carnot cycle. Second and third laws of thermodynamics. Helmholtz and Gibbs free energies and chemical potential. The chemical equilibrium. Effect of the temperature and pressure on the equilibrium constant. Nernst equation. Physical transformations of pure substances: Gibbs’ phase rule, Clapeyron and Clapeyron-Clausius equations. The thermodynamic description of ideal and real mixtures. Raoult's law. Henry's law. Thermodynamics of ideal solutions. Colligative properties. Phase diagrams. Colloidal systems: Classification, preparation and physico-chemical properties. Surface tension and tensioactives. Sedimentation in the ultracentrifuge, osmotic pressure, diffusion, viscosity measurements. The electrical double layer. Electrophoresis. The Donnan effect.
Chemical kinetics - Reaction rate for zero-, first- and second order reactions. Equations for half lives. Temperature dependence of reaction rates: Arrhenius equation, collision theory, activated complex theory. Kynetic isotope effect. Catalysis. Langmuir isotherm. Reaction mechanisms. Kinetics of complex reactions. Enzyme kinetics. Experimental methods in kinetic studies. Didactic methods
- The course consists of 48 hours of lectures in the classroom.
Learning assessment procedures
- One single oral examination, aimed at testing the understanding of the fundamental concepts treated and the level of achievement of the learning objectives previously indicated. The final score will be based on the outcome of a series of questions of increasing difficulty moving from the main concepts of thermodynamics and kinetics towards more complex subjects. The student is required to master the main functions and equations not barely mnemonically but also showing the capability of connecting and comparing different aspects covered through the course and in other classes.
Reference texts
- Raymond Chang – Chimica Fisica (vol. 1 e 2)- Ed. Zanichelli
Peter Atkins, Julio De Paula - Elementi di Chimica Fisica - Ed. Zanichelli
