CHEM 3510 Fall 2006
Unit I
Introduction
A. Introduction to Physical Chemistry
1. Physical Chemistry is the part of chemistry dealing with application of
physical methods to investigate chemistry.
2. Physical Chemistry main subdivisions are:
a. Quantum Mechanics
□ deals with structure and properties of molecules
b. Spectroscopy
□ deals with the interaction between light and matter
c. Computational Chemistry
□ deals with modeling chemical properties of reactions using
computers
d. Statistical Mechanics
□ deals with how knowledge about molecular energy levels (or
microscopic world) transforms into properties of the bulk (or
macroscopic world)
e. Thermodynamics
□ deals with properties of systems and their temperature dependence
and with energetics of chemical reactions
f. Electrochemistry
□ deals with processes in with electrons are either a reactant or a
product of a reaction
g. Chemical Kinetics
□ deals with the rates of chemical reactions or physical processes
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