Physical Chemistry Notes Website: Pomona

Physical Chemistry Notes

Website: Pomona University "MolData:" Physical Chemistry Resources

No hard data contained on this website, but links provided to any different databases and tables with an abundance of technical information pertaining to atoms and physical chemistry

Contains links to information on spectroscopic, nuclear, and atomic data, as well as tables of chemical and physical constants, as well as information on the physical and chemical propertied of many compounds and substances, including historical information regarding the discovery of many elements and other substances and their uses

Contents of the site provide a cursory overview of the wide range of topics that fall under physical chemistry, and shows the common link between them as being the atomic/molecular-level reactions and changes that take place to allow larger observed reactions

Book: The World of Physical Chemistry by Keith James Laidler

Provide more of an overview of many physical chemistry topics than the website, and less pure data

Discussions of physical chemistry facts provides deeper insights into the uses and applications of physical chemistry, as well as the processes of discovery that have led to the advancements of physical chemistry and its identification as a scientific discipline altogether

Different chapters/sections devoted to the various disciplines within physical chemistry

Provides both a broad overview of many physical chemistry concepts and applications and specific information regarding many of the different branches within physical chemistry

Stresses the necessity of understanding physical chemistry concepts for a true understanding of physics, and explains the application of physics to the movements and interactions of atoms, molecules, and sub-atomic particles in an easy-to-follow manner

News Article: "Nanotube Structures Could Improve Electric Motors" from Science Daily

Provides information on one groundbreaking new application for the science of physical chemistry, which also illustrates the fine line between physics and chemistry that occurs in the science

New carbon nanotubes have been developed that exhibit a high elasticity and durability, as well as a high conductivity of heat and electricity, reflecting the inseparability of physical and chemical properties of a substance, especially at the atomic level

These nanotubes have been tested as brush contacts to replace the carbon/copper brush contacts used in many electrical switches, and show a ninety-percent reduction in energy loss

This article shows the ongoing practical applications of this particular scientific discipline

Physical Chemistry

Of all the many fields and topics in the broad ranging science of chemistry, the one that interests me the most is physical chemistry. In reality, physical chemistry is also a broad ranging discipline, covering such diverse areas as quantum mechanics, nuclear chemistry, and thermodynamics, among many others (MolData). These topics all deal with matter at the very smallest level, which is one of the most exciting frontiers of physics, chemistry, and science in general. Despite the recent setback at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, there is still a belief in the scientific community that we may soon detect the elusive Higgs boson particle. This particle could help explain the origins of the universe, and even the very nature of matter itself.

What makes physical chemistry so exciting is its attempt to explain, ta the most basic level, the way our universe behaves. or, to put it another way, "chemistry carried out with the primary object of investigating the workings of nature is what we now call physical chemistry" (Laidler, 5). This has made the distinction between physics and chemistry at this frontier very difficult to define. This fuzzy distinction is also one of the things that makes the discipline of physical chemistry so interesting -- it cannot deny the complete interweaving of scientific disciplines.

Physics and chemistry lay out the foundation and explain the mechanisms of all other sciences, and the field of physical chemistry is the closest unification of these two sciences. All biological and astronomical processes only occur because of reactions and interactions at the molecular and atomic level, and physical chemistry attempts to explain these underlying principles (Laidler, 9). Though the nature of energy and matter is still not fully understood, physical chemistry is approaching better and better explanations of the way the universe is constructed.

One of the most interesting disciplines within physical chemistry is the field of quantum mechanics. This is an attempt to explain the way subatomic particles, particularly electrons, move, and was first proposed following the development of quantum chemistry in 1924 (Laidler, 330). Niels Bohr's theory of the atom was in large part responsible for the development of quantum mechanics; the Bohr atomic model was one of the earliest and best explanations of a physical construction of the atomic that explained the various chemical properties noticed in different elements and molecules, including the way atoms bond to form molecules (Laidler, 328). This makes it one of the foundations of the science of physical chemistry; though it was far from the first attempt at explaining the "why" of many observed chemical and physical phenomenon, it was among the first to be largely successful in its description.