Advanced Chemical Thermodynamics and Kinetics

Advanced Chemical Thermodynamics and Kinetics

This course will cover classical, macroscopic, and statistical thermodynamics and kinetics, which have been created to explain a wide range of physicochemical processes with applications in Chemistry. The lectures will be pitched at the level of advanced undergraduates (senior-level) as well as graduate students, and the course is planned as an advanced level course in the broad domain of thermodynamics and kinetics.

Chemical Thermodynamics Course Layout

Week 1: A review of classical thermodynamics: entropy, Gibbs free energy properties, phase equilibrium of one and two-component systems, mixtures, and chemical equilibrium.
Week 2: Molecular interactions: Dipole moment, Electrical polarisation, Charge-dipole, Dipole-dipole, and Dipole-induced dipole interaction, and Dispersion interaction
Week 3: Viscosity and Diffusion in Transport Phenomena (Fick’s law)

Week 4: Chemical Kinetics Review: Reaction Mechanism and Kinetic Measurements
Week 5: Advanced subjects in chemical kinetics: introduction to photochemistry, multi-component system kinetics: combustion, and atmospheric chemistry.
Week 6: Molecular partition function and Boltzmann distribution as an introduction to statistical thermodynamics.

Week 7: Potential energy surface and transition state theory are introduced to bimolecular reaction dynamics.
Week 8: Single-molecule reactions (Lindemann-Christiansen model) (Introduction to Hinshelwood and RRK/RRKM models).

Week 9: Introduction to solution-phase reaction dynamics: the cage effect, diffusion regulated reactions, polar solvation, and the Marcus theory of electron transfer.

Week 10: Non-ideal solutions, ion activity (Debye-Huckel theory).
Week 11: Electrochemistry: Ionic conductivity and insights into electrode operations.
Week 12: Demonstration of a laboratory (with illustrations): 1) Transport phenomena: viscosity coefficient, 2) Chemical Kinetics: Ester hydrolysis, 3) Photochemistry: Dye degradation, 4) Femtosecond pump-probe spectroscopy for reaction dynamics

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