Instructor: Lawrence T. Sein, Ph.D.
Office Hours: 5:30 PM - 6:30 PM Monday, 5 PM - 6 PM, Wednesday. other times by arrangement. Note that I am always accessible for questions by e-mail.
We will meet for the first lab period on 3 September 2003; however, no experiment will be performed that evening.
Since there are 3 main areas of the courses - thermodynamics, chemical equilibria, and kinetics, three "hands-on" experiments will be performed from each of these areas, as well as one computer-based experiment.
Because of the size of the class, the students will be divided into groups, each of whom will perform a different experiment on a given week. This is done to to make the most efficient use of the available space and equipment.
Both the lecture and the laboratory will make use of software - some commercial software, and the rest written by the instructor.
Part I - Thermodynamics
09/03 - Introduction to the Lab - no experiment
09/10 - Experiment 1 (Group A), Experiment 2 (Group B), Experiment 3 (Group C)
09/17 - Experiment 1 (Group B), Experiment 2 (Group C), Experiment 3 (Group A)
09/24 - Experiment 1 (Group C), Experiment 2 (Group A), Experiment 3 (Group B)
10/01 - Experiment 4 (Groups A, B, and C).
Part II - Phase Equilibria
10/08 - Experiment 5 (Group A), Experiment 6 (Group B), Experiment 7 (Group C)
10/15 - Experiment 5 (Group B), Experiment 6 (Group C), Experiment 7 (Group A)
10/22 - Experiment 5 (Group C), Experiment 6 (Group A), Experiment 7 (Group B)
10/29 - Experiment 8 (Groups A, B, and C).
Part III - Kinetics : For a cool site on kinetics, go here
11/05 - Experiment 9 (Group A), Experiment 10 (Group B), Experiment 11 (Group C)
11/12 - Experiment 9 (Group B), Experiment 10 (Group C), Experiment 11 (Group A)
11/19 - Experiment 9 (Group C), Experiment 10 (Group A), Experiment 11 (Group B)
11/26 - No experiment - Thanksgiving recess.
12/03 - Final due date for lab reports, final laboratory recitation
12/11 - Review
Group A is John and Jeff.
Group B is Gennaro, Denise, and Mike.
Group C is Surju and Heather.
All student will be required to possess and wear safety glasses when working in the lab
Since there are nine students currently enrolled in the course, three lab groups of three persons each will undertake each experiment. To maximize the efficent use of equipment, each group will conduct a different experiment for the other groups each week in lab. The exception will be for computer-based exercises, will be done in unison on 10/01, 10/29, 12/03.
Even for these computational experiments, the three groups will be expected to work independently.
Experiment #1 - Bomb Calorimetry - see Experiments in Physical Chemistry, Garland, Nibler, and Shoemaker, pp. 152 - 158.
Useful fact - heat of combustion of benzoic acid is -26.41 kJ / gram. Use this to find the calorimetry constant C, from the equation ΔH = C ΔT. Then use C to find ΔH for naphthalene.
Experiment #2 - Solution Calorimetry
For the solutions, use the same heat capacity as water.
Experiment #3 - Solution Calorimetry #2 - see Experiments in Physical Chemistry, Garland, Nibler, and Shoemaker, pp. 167 - 171
For the solutions, use the same heat capacity as water.
Experiment #4 - Hess's Law using Quantum Mechanical software
Experiment #5 - Phase Diagrams, see also Atkins, pp. 198-203
Experiment #6 - Measurement of Viscosity, see also Atkins, pp. 748-749
Experiment #7 - Conductance of Electrolyte Solutions - see Experiments in Physical Chemistry, Garland, Nibler, and Shoemaker, pp. 228 - 238, see also Atkins, pp. 833-835. See online
Experiment #8 - Computer Exercise
Experiment #9 - Iodine Clock Experiment.
Experiment #10 - Kinetics, Alkaline Hydrolysis of Esters
Experiment #11 - Decomposition of Hydrogen Peroxide Catalyzed by Potassium Iodide
© 2003 by Lawrence T. Sein. All rights reserved.
Send questions to: lseinjr@hotmail.com