Teaching
Chemistry Fundamentals

Chemistry Fundamentals

Academic Year 2024/2025

I teach for the Solving Problems Sessions together with Dr. Gerard Pareras Niell. Course responsible: Ricard Gelabert Peiri

Academic Year 2023/2024

I teach for the Solving Problems Sessions together with Dr. Gerard Pareras Niell. Course responsible: Ricard Gelabert Peiri

Contents

Part I: Basic Concepts

  • Unit 1: Matter and Chemical Compounds. Matter and substance. Properties of matter. Measurement of properties. Basic laws of chemistry. Mole. Isotopes. Molecular mass. Compossition. Empirical and molecular formulae. Solutions. Oxidation states. Naming and formulation of inorganic compounds.

  • Unit 2: Introduction to Chemical Reactions. Chemical reactions. Equation balancing. Stoichiometric calculations. Limiting reagent. Electrolytes. Precipitation and acid-base reactions. Strong and weak acids and bases. Conjugate acids and bases. Redox reactions. Balancing of redox reactions in acid and basic media.

Part II: Atomic Structure

  • Unit 3: The Hydrogen Atom. Concepts of classical physics. Waves and particles. Electromagnetic radiation. Historic background to quantum mechanics. Planck’s, Einstein’s and de Broglie’s hypotheses. Wave-particle duality. Atomic models. Quantum mechanical description of the hydrogen atom. Hydrogenoid orbitals. Quantum numbers. Energy quantization. Energy degeneracy. Representations of the hydrogenoid orbitals. Radial distribution function. Electron spin.

  • Unit 4: Many-Electron Atoms. The many-electron problem. Orbital approximation. Pauli exclusion principle. Electron shielding and effective nuclear charge. Orbital penetration. Electron configuration: Aufbau principle. Hund’s rule. Periodic variation of element properties: atomic and ionic radii, ionization energy, electron affinity. Electronegativity. Magnetic properties.

Part III: Molecular Structure

  • Unit 5: Chemical Bond. Covalent, ionic and metallic bonding. Approximate treatment of the covalent bond: Lewis’theory. Lewis structures. Ressonance. Molecular geometry: Valence Shell Electron Pair Repulsion (VSEPR) theory. Dipole moment. Bond distance. Bond energy. Quantum mechanical description of chemical bonding: Molecular orbital theory. The Linear Combination of Atomic Orbitals (MO-LCAO) approximation. Diatomics. Ionic bond. Metallic bond. Annex: some concepts of valence-bond theory.

  • Unit 6: Intermolecular Forces. Intra- and intermolecular forces. Origin of intermolecular forces. Ion-ion, ion-permanent dipole, permanent dipole-permanent dipole, and permanent dipole-induced dipoleforces. Dispersion forces. Hydrogen bonds. Effects of intermolecular interactions: phase change temperatures, solubility.

Part IV: Solid State.

  • Unit 7: Solid State. Amorphous and crystalline solids. Crystalline systems. Unit cell. Cell parameters. Metallic solids. Packing systems: close packing and non-close packing. Ionic solids. Ionic crystal structures. Radius ratio rule. Lattice energy. Covalent solids. Molecular solids.