Students

Chemistry 123: Thermodynamics, Kinetics and Organic Chemistry

Course Level: 
First Year
Academic Year: 
2024/2025

Description:

CHEM 123 is a 4-credit hour course (3 lecture; 1 lab) that focuses on the fundamentals of chemical reactivity: thermodynamics; kinetics; organic chemistry, including stereochemistry; applications relevant to modern society.

 

Instructors:

Dr. Gren Patey,

Dr. Katherine Ryan,

Dr. Laura Stirchak,

Dr. Ilsa Cooke,

Dr. Kayli Johnson,

Dr. Richard Kil,

Dr. David Perrin,

 

Outline: (Subject to Change)

Week 1 - Admin, Acid-Base Review

Week 2 - Intro to Thermodynamics, State Variables, Systems, Surroundings, Ideal Gases, First Law, Internal Energy, Paths and Processes, Pistons

Week 3 - Measuring Heat and Work, Heat Capacities, Calorimetry, Intro to Enthalpy, Standard States, Hess’s Law, Entropy, Second and Third Laws of Thermo

Week 4 - Spontaneity, Gibbs Free Energy, Equilibrium, van’t Hoff plots, Intro to Kinetics, Rate Laws, Rate Constants, Reaction Orders, Method of Initial Rates

Week 5 - Integrated Rate Laws and Graphical Analysis, Half-life, Overall Reactions, Mechanisms, Elementary Reactions, Reaction Coordinate Diagrams, Intermediates and Catalysts, Transition States

Week 6 - Multi-Step Reaction Mechanisms, Rate Determining Step, Rate Laws from Mechanisms, Steady-State Approximation, Michaelis-Menten Enzyme Kinetics, Temperature-dependence of k (Arrhenius Equation)

Week 7 - Intro to Organic, Representing Organic Molecules, Nomenclature/Functional Groups, Electronic Structure

Week 8 - Bonding and Resonance, Curved Arrow Notation, Organic view of Acid-Base Chemistry

Week 9 - Conformational Analysis, Cyclic Alkanes (cyclohexane)

Week 10 - Alkenes (E and Z), CIP Rules, Stereochemistry, Chirality, (R and S), Relationships between Compounds (Enantiomers, Diastereomers, etc.)

Week 11 - Relationships between Compounds (cont.), Meso Compounds, Properties of Chiral Compounds, Optical Rotation, Fischer Projections

Week 12 - Fischer Projections (cont.), Substitution Reactions: SN2 and SN1, Review