CHEM 366(S) Physical Chemistry: Thermodynamics
The thermodynamic laws provide us with our most powerful and general scientific principles for predicting the direction of spontaneous change in physical, chemical, and biological systems. This course develops the concepts of energy, entropy, free energy, temperature (and absolute zero), heat, work, and chemical potential within the framework of classical thermodynamics. The principles developed are applied to a variety of problems: chemical reactions, phase changes, energy technology, industrial processes, and environmental science. Laboratory experiments provide quantitative and practical demonstrations of the theory of real and ideal systems studied in class. Format: lecture, three hours per week; laboratory, four hours per week. Evaluation will be based on problem sets, laboratory work, exams, and an independent project. Prerequisites: Chemistry 155 or 256, a basic knowledge of applied integral and differential calculus such as provided by Mathematics 104, 105, and some basic mechanics such as provided by Physics 131 or 141. No enrollment limit (expected: 20).