Physical Chemistry of Molecules and Materials (F1701)

15 credits, Level 4

Spring teaching

In this module, you’ll explore the properties of materials and molecules in terms of energetics, structure and kinetics.

Thermodynamics determines the final destination of chemical and physical change. You’ll encounter the major thermodynamic quantities, including entropy, the Gibbs function and enthalpy. You’ll use these to describe the chemical composition of a system, through the quantitative description of the point of equilibrium.

You’ll also look at the rate of chemical change using elementary reaction, the reaction order and the activation energy. In addition, you’ll explore the physical chemistry of materials and their applications in the real world.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 150 hours of work. This breaks down into about 32 hours of contact time and about 118 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2024/25. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.