- Docente: Claudio Degli Esposti
- Credits: 5
- SSD: CHIM/02
- Language: Italian
- Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
- Campus: Bologna
- Corso: First cycle degree programme (L) in Chemistry and Materials Chemistry (cod. 8006)
Learning outcomes
The course provides the basic physicochemical concepts for the study of reaction rates and electrochemical processes, and an overwiev of the main experimental techniques employed. The students will learn how a reaction kinetics can be experimentally studied, and in which way the corresponding measurements must be analysed.
Course contents
Empirical chemical kinetics. Dependence of the reaction rates on reactant concentrations. The main experimental methods used to determine the order of reactions and rate constants. Dependence of the rate constants on the temperature. Transition-state theory. Elementary and composite reactions. Mechanisms of consecutive, simultaneous, and chain reactions. Homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis. Adsorption. Reactions on solid surfaces. Applications of heterogeneous catalysis. Electric conductivity of ionic solutions. Thermodynamical basis of electrochemistry. Reversible and irreversible electrochemical cells. Cell reaction. EMF of a cell and thermodynamical parameters. EMF and standard electrode potentials. Concentration cells. Polarization and overvoltage. Electrolysis. Combustion cells. Rechargeable batteries.
Readings/Bibliography
P.W. Atkins, Chimica Fisica, Zanichelli Ed., Bologna, 1997.
Teaching methods
Lessons in the classroom (4 CFU) and practical work in the laboratory (1 CFU), made by 2-4 students groups.
Assessment methods
Oral examination at the end of the semester, and written laboratory reports during the semester.
Teaching tools
Projector for transparencies and slides in the classroom. Personal computers and several chemical-physics instruments in the laboratory.
Office hours
See the website of Claudio Degli Esposti