Introduce the students to the notions of Physical Chemistry in order to learn and understand: · The composition and internal structure of matter at equilibrium, · The relationships between the structure of matter and its different properties, · The conditions in which any physical and/or chemical transformations can take place.
At the end of the Teaching Unit, students will be able to:
• Rigorously present the formalisms (and demonstrations) of the course, explain their meaning (contextualize them) and specify their conditions of validity;
• Solve problems similar to those treated in tutorials and/or during the course;
• Interpret and/or produce any schema and diagram discussed/detailed during the course;
• Illustrate or propose applications, with examples from the course, of concepts, formalisms, methodologies in physical chemistry;
• Highlight and explain the links between the theoretical course and the practical labs associated with the course.
Introduce the students to the notions of Physical Chemistry in order to learn and understand: · The composition and internal structure of matter at equilibrium, · The relationships between the structure of matter and its different properties, · The conditions in which any physical and/or chemical transformations can take place.
At the end of the Teaching Unit (UE), students will be able to:
• Rigorously present the formalisms (and demonstrations) of the course, explain their meaning (contextualize them) and specify their conditions of validity;
• Solve problems similar to those treated in tutorials and/or during the course;
• Interpret and/or produce any schema and diagram discussed/detailed during the course;
• Illustrate or propose applications, with examples from the course, of concepts, formalisms, methodologies in physical chemistry;
• Highlight and explain the links between the theoretical course and the practical labs associated with the course.
After the Block 1 General Chemistry course, this first Physical Chemistry course consists of the study of matter at equilibrium seen at the macroscopic scale. It is made up of three parts: · Classical thermodynamics, · Changes of state of pure substances and mixtures as well as chemical equilibria, · Electrochemistry at equilibrium.
Chapter 1: Introduction: Matter and energy
Chapter 2: Gaseous state
Chapter 3: First law of thermodynamics
Chapter 4: U and H as quantities of state
Chapter 5: Expansion of a gas
Chapter 6: Second and third principles of thermodynamics
Chapter 7: Combination of the first and second principles of thermodynamics
Chapter 8: Changes of state: Pure materials
Chapter 9: Changes of state: Simple mixtures
Chapter 10: Changes of state: Phase diagrams of binary and ternary mixtures
Chapter 11: Chemical Equilibrium
Chapter 12: Equilibrium Electrochemistry
Students benefit from tutorials (TD) and practical lab works (TP) sessions. They must prepare the manipulations they are going to perform in the laboratory and are questioned orally at the start of each manipulation. The students then have one week to write a laboratory report that includes a theoretical introduction, the presentation and discussion of the experimental results, a conclusion and bibliographical references. When the report is submitted, its content is discussed and defended with the assistant. The evaluation of the practical work is based on five main learning outcomes:
AA1: Write a theoretical introduction including a description of the concepts, relationships, apparatus and tabulated data useful for understanding the results.
AA2: Correctly process data collected during the practical work with the aim to determine quantities or relationships (applications of relationships between concepts, creation of graphs and data tables).
AA3: Discuss measured or calculated data and compare with tabulated or theoretical data, including consideration of the accuracy of the measuring instruments.
AA4: Correctly present a long report, with the formal quality that complies with the standards of university higher education (spelling, style, syntax, layout, bibliography).
AA5: Orally defend the written report: Answer questions related to concepts, relationships, equipment, measured or calculated data, discussions.
A 6th learning outcome on the preparation for experimental manipulations is also assessed but in a less systematic way.
Generalities
The evaluation consists in a written exam.
It is composed of a series of questions related to the different chapters of the course and to exercises similar to those seen in tutorials or in class.
To obtain the final Teaching Unit (UE) mark, a bonus/malus is added to the course mark, as explained below in the TPs section.
First session
The student can choose between:
A) Be evaluated for the entire lecture in June
B) Split the exam in two parts: the first part in January and the second one in June.
This choice is made when the registration for the January exams is opened.
If the student does not register for the evaluation of this lecture in January, he then chooses option A and will be evaluated on the whole course material in June.
If the student is registered for the evaluation in January, he then chooses (irrevocably) the option B and will be evaluated for part I in January and part II in June.
WARNING: If the student registers for this part in January, he chooses option B and he can no longer be questioned on part I in June. Any signature results in a zero for the first part of the material for the first session. In June, he will only be able to register for the second part of the exam.
Second session
The whole material (part I and II) is evaluated at the 2nd session.
WARNING: The exam of January is a partial exam only for the 1st session. We don’t take this exam (and its result) into account for the 2nd session. The whole material will be evaluated again. It is thus very important if the examen of January is successful to also perform on the second part in June, otherwise the result of January is lost.
TPs
The lab mark, communicated by the assistant to the teacher, is included in the final mark for the first and second session, at the rate of a maximum of 3 points to be added or subtracted depending on the number of learning outcomes validated during these practical lab works (TPs) (points will only be added if all the TP reports have been submitted).
If the student is required to retake the UE, an exemption from TPs can only be considered in the absence of a TP malus.
If the student has not completed all the practical lab works, or has obtained a penalty of -2 or lower, the UE will not be validated.
Alternative evaluation
If the student has to retake the UE, and if the overall mark is min. 9/20, the first session exam can be replaced by a work consisting of an oral presentation and a defence of a chapter of the course. In case of failure in this work, the entire course will be presented in the 2nd session.
Atkins' Physical Chemistry, P. Atkins and J. de Paula, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2018, 11th edition.
A syllabus for Prof. Liégeois' part of the course will be available at the Librairie des Sciences from the academic year 2022-2023.
A non-mandatory syllabus for the practical courses is available at the Science Bookshop.
| Training | Study programme | Block | Credits | Mandatory |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bachelor in Chemistry | Standard | 0 | 10 | |
| Bachelor in Chemistry | Standard | 2 | 10 |