A Life Scientist's Guide to Physical Chemistry

Marc R. Roussel is Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Lethbridge, Canada. His research on the dynamics of biological systems lies at the interface of chemistry, biology and mathematics. He has been teaching physical chemistry for the past fifteen years.

Preface; 1. Orientation: what is physical chemistry about?; A note on graph axis labels and table headings; Part I. Quantum Mechanics and Spectroscopy: 2. A quick tour of quantum mechanical ideas; 3. Spectroscopy; Part II. Thermodynamics: 4. Thermodynamics preliminaries; 5. The first law; 6. The second law of thermodynamics; 7. Free energy; 8. Chemical equilibrium and coupled reactions; 9. Non-ideal behavior; 10. Electrochemistry; Part III. Kinetics: 11. Basics of chemical kinetics; 12. Initial rate experiments and simple empirical rate laws; 13. Integrated rate laws; 14. Complex reactions; 15. Enzyme kinetics; 16. Techniques for studying fast reactions; 17. Factors that affect the rate constant; 18. Diffusion and reactions in solution; Appendix A. End-of-term review problems; Appendix B. Answers to exercises; Appendix C. Standard thermodynamic properties at 298.15K and 1 bar; Appendix D. Standard reduction potentials at 298.15K; Appendix E. Physical properties of water; Appendix F. The SI system of units; Appendix G. Universal constants and conversion factors; Appendix H. Periodic table of the elements, with molar masses; Appendix I. Selected isotopic masses and abundances; Appendix J. Exponentials and logarithms; Appendix K. Review of integral calculus; Index.