This four credit hour course is designed for chemistry, biology, and pre-professional majors. The basic principles of chemistry will be discussed, including stoichiometry, chemical bonding and structure, thermochemistry, chemical equilibrium, and kinetics.

A four credit hour course designed for chemistry and biochemistry majors. After a brief introduction into quantum mechanics, thermodynamics will be introduced alongside of statistical mechanics. Statistics will provide the link between the microscopic view of matter (atoms and molecules with discrete energy levels) and the traditional macroscopic view of matter measured in terms of temperature, pressure and enthalpy. The course will finish with a discussion of chemical equilibrium.

The lab will begin with a study of gases, including a measurement of the Joule-Thomson effect and the heat capacity ratio in a series of gases. You will be given the opportunity to build your own experimental apparatus to determine the heat released by a chemical reaction. Other labs include a study of the structure of soap, an analysis of a simple second order reaction, and the equilibrium that exists in a laser dye solution. With the high-field NMR spectrometer, you will determine ordering and the phase transition temperature of a liquid crystal.