catalysis. The content of this text is delivered as one-semester course in the second year at Griffith University (Nathan, Australia) and intended for students in the disciplines of chemistry, biochemistry, engineering and neighbouring disciplines. Table of Contents I Physico-chemical data and resources 4 1 Periodic table of the elements 4 2 Resources and databases 5 3 Units and constants 6 4 Summary of important formulae and equations 10 II Thermodynamics 13 1 Motivation, revision and introduction of basic concepts 13 2 Free energy 34 3 Properties of real systems 43 III Mixtures and phases 49 1 Why do or don't things mix 49 2 Liquids 52 3 Phase equilibria 57 4 Thermodynamic aspects of phase transitions 65 5 Mixtures of volatile liquids 75 IV Solutions of electrolytes 89 1 Fundamental concepts 89 2 Electrochemical reactions 96 3 Electrolytes in solution 109 V Molecules in motion 125 1 Transport processes 125 2 Molecular motion in liquid solutions 133 VI Kinetics 142 1 Introduction 142 2 Reaction rates, rate constants and orders of reaction 144 3 Rate equations 148 4 Determination of the rate law 154 5 Temperature dependence of reaction rates 165 6 Linking the rate laws with reaction mechanisms 167 7 Polymerisation kinetics 175 8 Collision theory 179 9 Reactions in solution 185 10 Diffusion control 187 11 Transition state theory 188 VII Catalysis 191 1 Homogeneous catalysis 191 2 Heterogeneous Catalysis 198 3 Methods to investigate surfaces and surface processes 204 VIII Mathematical appendix 209 1 Basic algebra and operations 209 2 Differentials 210 3 Integration 214 4 Data visualisation and fitting 216 IX Bibliography 219 X Index 220

Hide more