Molecular Physical Chemistry

The course introduces elementary quantum mechanical models for different kinds of molecular motion, for instance translation, rotation and vibration. In turn, these models provide a basic understanding of:

1) Atomic and molecular properties, chemical bonding and intermolecular interactions.

2) Important spectroscopic methods such as UV/Vis, IR, MW and NMR.

In addition, by using statistical thermodynamics it is demonstrated how molecular properties obtained from simple quantum mechanical models and spectroscopic data, can explain macroscopic thermodynamical properties, primarily for ideal gases and their reactions and equilibria.

The course also includes a few simple examples from topics like adsorption, surface phenomena and macromolecules.

Freely available software is used for visualisation and calculation during the course.

After completing the course KJEM140 the student will have the following:

Knowledge:

The student

• knows about important quantum mechanical principles
• knows about basic principles for selected spectroscopic methods

Skills:

The student

• is able to describe the quantum mechanical properties of simple modes of motion
• is able to discuss atomic electronic structure theory, chemical bonding models, and intermolecular forces
• is able to explain how molecular information can be obtained using spectroscopic methods on simple system
• is able to explain how statistical thermodynamics connects molecular properties and macroscopic thermodynamical features

Competences

The student

• can perform simple quantum mechanical calculations for selected molecular systems
• can perform simple statistical calculation on assemblies of small molecules in the gaseous phase