General Chemistry I

Recommended Prerequisites

Secondary school Chemistry (preferably 12th year) and basic English.

Teaching Methods

Teaching is based on lectures, encouraging student participation and discussion of topics, and exercise-solving classes aimed at analysing and obtaining the solution for problems, while encouraging, once again, the participation of students, now gathered  in smaller groups.

Learning Outcomes

This course provides the foundations to be developed along the course in later subjects.
Establishes the scales (from microscopic to macroscopic) of the relevant systems, and defines, in a simple way, their relationship.
Promotes a reasoning aiming at integrating complementary subjects.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

1. General aspects
Quantities and units; representation of numeric values; notions of dimensional analysis; mass and chemical reactions.
2. Structure of matter: atomic theory
Atoms, molecules and ions, quantum theory and atomic structure, the periodic table.
3. Molecules
Chemical bonding, molecular geometry and symmetry.
4. Gases, liquids and solids
Laws and properties of gases; real gases; intermolecular forces and condensed states.
5. Phase equilibria and solutions
Changes of state. Phase equilibria. Phase diagrams. Phase rule. Ideal solutions. Partial molar quantities. Raoult's law. Henry's Law. Colligative properties. Real solutions and activities.

Head Lecturer(s)

Alberto António Caria Canelas Pais

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Resolution Problems: 10.0%
Mini Tests: 20.0%
Exam: 70.0%

Bibliography

1. R. Chang, Chemistry, 8th Ed., McGraw-Hill (New York, 2004);
2. P. Atkins and L. Jones, Chemical Principles: the quest for insight, 5th Ed., Freeman (New York, 2010).