Notes on General Chemistry
http://quantum.bu.edu/notes/GeneralChemistry/index.html
Updated
Monday, August 16, 2010 3:51 PM
Copyright © 2008 Dan
Dill (dan@bu.edu)
Department of
Chemistry, Boston University,
Boston MA 02215
A printed, coil-bound version of the complete set of notes on general chemistry at the introductory college level is now available: Notes on General Chemistry, 3e, by Dan Dill (W. H. Freeman and Company, 2008, ISBN 1-4292-2705-2, 402 pages). Here are PDF selections from the printed version. The notes can be ordered from the publisher warehouse, at 888-330-8477.
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What's new or updated here:
- Lecture slides
- Hybrid AOs & Polyatomic MOs, 12/2/2009 (new)
- Half-life example calculations, 10/14/2009 (new)
- Carbonic acid equilibria, 10/9/2009 (new)
- Limiting reagent calculations, 10/6/2009 (new)
- Factors affecting solubility, 9/29/2009 (new)
- Blue bottle reaction, 4/15/2009 (new)
- Chemical equilibrium calculations, 4/3/2009 (new)
- Buffer action challenge question, 3/30/2009 (new)
- Recipe for molecular orbitals in polyatomic molecules, 12/10/2008 (new)
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The notes treat the following topics.
Tools
- Math review: page 1, page 2, page 3 , and page 4.
- Significant figures in numerical calculations (4 pages)
- Approximating with logarithms (6 pages)
- Rises and runs, slopes and sums: tools from calculus, (12 pages)
Stoichiometry
- The Stuff of Chemistry (20 pages) discusses atoms and atomic theory; the mole concept; and chemical compounds, chemical equations and their stoichiometry.
Origin of atoms
- Balancing nuclear reactions, updated 10/18/2007, 19 KB / 1 page, show one way to identify the missing component of a nuclear reaction, using the requirement that the total atomic number Z, mass number A, and total charge Q must balance between reactants and products.
- Energy change in
nuclear reactions , updated 10/24/2005, 37
KB / 2 pages, discusses how to calculate the energy of an atom
relative to its free electrons, protons and neutrons, and thereby
the energy change in a nuclear reaction. The trend of nuclear binding
energy per nucleon accounts for the peak at iron in the relative
cosmic abundance of the elements.
Quantum aspects of light, atoms, and molecules
- Road map of quantum aspects of general chemistry, updated 10/24/2007, 2 pages, 23 KB.
- Atoms, light, and their interaction,
updated 1/22/2008, 94
KB / 12 pages, presents the quantum nature of atoms and how they
interact with light.
- Quantum aspects of light and matter (34 pages) introduces key features of the interaction of light with matter and how their interaction is used to sort out what is going on inside matter.
- Quantum aspects of atoms, updated 10/4/2004, 912
KB / 13 pages, explores the wavefunctions and relative energies
of electrons in atoms.
- Wavefunction tomography: One-electrom atom, updated 6/20/2006. It is a challenge to visualize three dimensional wavefunctions. One way to do it is to look at the wavefunction values on a plane, analogous to anatomical slices provided in medical computer aided tomography. Try your hand at identifying particular s, p or d wavefunctions of an electron in a hydrogen atom.
- Why atoms don't collapse, updated 11/19/2004, 60 KB / 5 pages, explores how the balance of kinetic and potential energy in an atom keeps its electrons from collapsing into the nucleus.
- Fermi holes and Fermi heaps (14 pages) . Many-electron wavefunctions must change sign when the labels on any two electrons are interchanged. This property is called antisymmetry, and its essential consequence is that electrons either stay out of one another's way, forming what is called a Fermi hole, or clump together, forming what is called a Fermi heap. Since electrons repel one another electrically, Fermi holes and Fermi heaps has drastic effects on the energy of many-electron atoms. The most profound result is the periodic properties of the elements.
- Animation of carbon atom 1s2py and 2px2py Fermi holes and Fermi heaps, updated 5/8/2003
- Molecular shapes, updated 3/17/2004, 233
KB / 22 pages, are notes by Professor
Golger, kindly provided by
him from his general chemistry lab manual, on Lewis structures, formal
charge, molecular
shapes
and dipole moments.
- Peering Through the Gates of Time, an interview, by Dennis Overbye of the New York Times, with physicist John Archibald Wheeler about the "great smoky dragon" that is the quantum nature of reality. You may need to register (free) to gain access to the article.
- Discussing the Nature of Reality, Between Buffets, a report, by Dennis Overbye of the New York Times, on the March 15, 2002, conference at Princeton on the "secrets of the universe," organized to honor the 90th birthday of Dr. John Archibald Wheeler, the Princeton and University of Texas physicist known for his poetic characterizations of the mysteries of the universe. You may need to register (free) to gain access to the article.
- Atomic wavefunction family album, updated version of Chapter 3.1 of Dill, Notes on General Chemistry, 2e (revised), W. H. Freeman, 2007, ISBN 1-4292-1443-0. 103
KB / 8 pages.
- Visual method to assign formal charge, new 9/7/2008. 34
KB / 2 pages.
- SOE: Symmetry - Overlap - Energy, new
12/3/2007. Atoms interact by overlap of their atomic orbitals (AO's).
The relative symmetry, amount of overlap, and relative energies determine
which AO's interact most strongly to form chemical bonds, 224
KB / 7 pages.
- Recipe for
π bonds in polyatomic molecules,
revised 12/20/2007. Bonding in polyatomic molecules (molecules with
more than two atoms) is treated in two parts. The first part accounts
for the connectivity of the atoms, that is the bonds between the
atoms. This is treated as a framework of (localized) sigma bonds
built from overlapping hybridized AO's. The second part accounts
for multiple bonds. This is treated as a framework of π MO's
built from overlapping unhybridized AO's. 114
KB / 5 pages.
- Recipe for molecular orbitals in polyatomic molecules, new 12/10/2008. 670 KB / 24 pages.
- Esterfication,
updated 2/6/2008. Acetic acid reacts with methyl alcohol to form the ester
methyl acetate and water. The reaction can be analyzed by following
the flow off electron pairs to make non-zero formal charges zero. The
steps in the process are shown on successive pages of the PDF. 697
KB / 10 pages. Professor John Snyder, who teaches Intensive Organic Chemistry CH211/2 here at Boston University commented that in the rearrangement of the reaction intermediate formed by nucleophilic attach of acetic acid by methanol, the step showing C with five bonds (pentavalent) is better represented as the simultaneous ("concerted") shift of charge from one O to another, maintaining four bonds to C throughout. This alternative picture is shown in the alternative sequence shown at PDF. 686
KB / 10 pages.
With respect to either sequence, please keep in mind that in reality all of the electron movements take place together. We separate the electron movements into steps as a device to systematically sort out how the products are formed from the initial reaction intermediate.
Such "electron pushing' is a very powerful tool for predicting reaction outcomes. you will learn much more about electron pushing should you take organic chemistry.
Gases
Thermodynamics, electrochemistry and kinetics
- Diagrams illustrating the relationship between energy change, ΔE, and enthalpy change, ΔH,
according to whether
(1) products have more or less energy than reactants, and
(2) work is done on the system or on the surroundings, updated 2/20/2006, 24
KB / 1 page.
- Units of free energy and electrochemical cell potentials, 3/15/2006, 42 KB / 3 pages. The usual textbook expression, ΔG = R T ln(Q/K) should in fact be ΔG = mol R T ln(Q/K), since ΔG is an extensive quantity. These notes trace the origin of the missing unit "mol".
- Counting distinguishable arrangements, updated 3/14/2006, 62 KB / 7 pages, explores quantifying molecular and energy dispersal, and the temperature dependence of entropy change.
- Examples of spontaneity in terms of increased spatial arrangements, 3/8/2007, 51 KB / 6 pages, illustrates how spontaneous changes we are familiar with trace to an increase in the number of arrangements of particles. In this way the formula for osmotic pressure is derived.
- Half life simulation using coin flips, updated
10/21/2004, 36
KB/3 pages.
- Half-life calculations, new 10/18/2007, 39
KB/3 pages.
- Study questions on Nernst equation, new 4/10/2008, 24
KB/2 pages.
- Blue bottle reaction, new 4/15/2009, 162
KB / 2 pages, is PowerPoint slides making the connection between the blue bottle reaction and oxidation-reduction coupling in aerobic metabolism.
Chemical equilibrium
- Chemical equilibrium calculations, new 4/3/2009, 144
KB / 4 pages, is PowerPoint slides illustrating typical calculations.
- Buffer action challenge question, new 3/30/2009, 32
KB / 3 pages, illustrate the different effect on pH adding strong acid or strong base to a buffer and to water.
- Acid-base equilibria (20 pages)
- Acid-base titration recipes, updated 1/19/2002, 149
KB / 4 pages, is a summary collection of how to do acid-base
equilibrium calculations, as developed in the previous supplement.
These
recipes will be most helpful if you are able to derive them on your
own, using the methods developed in the previous supplement.
- Solubility of ionic solids in water, new 10/18/2007, 43 KB / 5 pages, explains the factors that determine whether an ionic solid is soluble in water, and collects the results into a set of solubility rules.
- Energy pathway of an ionic solid forming an aqueous solution, updated 10/04/2007, 20 KB / 1 page.
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http://quantum.bu.edu/notes/GeneralChemistry/index.html
Updated
Monday, August 16, 2010 3:51 PM
Dan
Dill (dan@bu.edu)