Physical Chemistry Essentials - Hofmann A. 2018

Preface

This text provides an introduction to physical chemistry, covering the fundamentals of thermodynamics, kinetics and quantum chemistry. The selection of contents was guided by the concept of a two-semester course delivering thermodynamics and kinetics (Chaps. 1 — 8 ) and quantum chemistry (Chaps. 8 — 13 ) throughout the second year of undergraduate studies in the disciplines of chemistry, biochemistry, engineering and neighbouring disciplines.

The compilation of this text was based strongly by teaching and examination experience of this subject. This includes an appreciation of the fact that students taking this course might have varying background knowledge and need to be guided through physical chemistry concepts in a step-by-step manner. Furthermore, while mathematical analysis is an integral part of physical chemistry, many students taking this subject are not mathematicians. Particular care has therefore been taken in the presentation of the algebraic parts of physico-chemical concepts that should allow the reader to rework the relevant discussion with pen and paper during study time.

Each chapter includes a selection of numerical exercises that serve to revise particular key concepts as well as apply these concepts to physico-chemical problems. Detailed solutions for all exercises are included at the end of this text.

I sincerely thank colleagues for their generous provision of images, in particular Dr Lutz Hammer (Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany), Prof Chris Rayner (University of Leeds, UK), Prof Anne Simon (Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, France), Ms Elysia Cave-Freeman and Dr Agatha Garavelas.

I am most grateful to the editorial team at Springer, Heidelberg, for their advice during compilation and their efforts with producing this text. Manuscript and figures for this book have been compiled entirely with open source and academic software under Linux, and I acknowledge the efforts by software developers and programmers who make their products freely available.

Constructive comments from all students who use this book within their studies and from teachers and academics who adopt the book to complement their courses are most welcome.

Andreas Hofmann

Brisbane

November 2016