20241 Chemical Kinetics
Credits: 3 intermediate credits in Chemistry
Prerequisites: none
Required: Computer Applications for the Sciences, Fundamentals of Physics I + Fundamentals of Physics II, General Chemistry1 or General Chemistry I, and Differential and Integral Calculus I (or Infinitesimal Calculus I). The ability to read scientific texts in English is required.
Recommended: Atoms, Molecules, and the Properties of Matter
The course is based on Fundamentals of Chemical Kinetics, by S.R. Logan (Longman, 1998).
Chemical kinetics deals with the rates of reactions. The course focuses on central questions in the field, including factors that affect reaction rate; how to find the reaction mechanism; ways to control reaction rates.
Topics: Reaction order and the dependence of rate on temperature; Kinetics of radioactive reactions; Experimental methods for measuring reaction kinetics; Simple mechanisms – parallel, consecutive and opposing reactions; Unimolecular reactions and the Lindemann mechanism; Chain reactions and explosion reactions; Heterogeneous catalysis – Langmuir adsorption isotherms and Langmuir-Hinshelwood mechanisms; Enzyme catalysis – the Michaelis-Menten mechanism and enzyme inhibitors; Photochemistry; Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution and collision theory.
1or General Chemistry (20477 or 20487), which is no longer offered.