Courses

Courses

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CHEM 531 Advanced Physical Chemistry

This course will teach classical physical chemistry including basic thermodynamics and an introductory discussion of calorimetry and its application in material science.

Instructor: Xiaofeng Guo

Topics to be covered:

• Thermodynamics, Introduction
• The First Law of Thermodynamics
• The Second Law of Thermodynamics
• Material Equilibrium
• Standard Thermodynamic Functions of Reactions
• Ideal Gas Reaction Equilibrium
• One Component Phase Equilibrium
• Real Gases and Solution
• Selective Topics in Calorimetry

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CHEM 537 Advanced Topics in Physical Chemistry

This course provides an overview of the structure, stability, and properties of inorganic materials, with an emphasis on oxides and silicates.

Instructor: Xiaofeng Guo

Topics to be covered:

• Crystalline, amorphous, and nanophase materials.
• Relations among fundamental structural features (local coordination and polyhedral linkages) and their properties.
• Relations among different structures.

Applications:
The course covers applications ranging from ceramics to nanomaterials, energy, and minerals.

Key Features:
Advanced materials characterization techniques will be introduced, discussed, and taught.

This course is designed for first- and second-year graduate students.

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CHEM 331 Physical Chemistry

This course will teach undergraduate-level thermodynamics with an introduction to statistical mechanisms.

Instructor: Xiaofeng Guo

Topics to be covered:

• Thermodynamic postulates
• Equilibrium conditions
• Formal relations (Euler forms and Gibbs-Duhem relations)
• Ideal gas equation of states
• Legendre transformations
• Maxwell Relations
• Stability and phase transitions
• Statistical Mechanisms in entropy representation

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CHEM 105 Principles of Chemistry I

Chemistry 105 fulfills three credits of Inquiry in the Physical Sciences [PSCI] and one credit of laboratory as part of the WSU Common Course Requirements (UCORE).

As with all UCORE courses, Chemistry 105 is designed to advance students toward the WSU Learning Goals, especially Scientific Literacy, Critical and Creative Thinking, Quantitative Reasoning, Information Literacy, and Writing and Communication.

Instructor: Paul Buckley and Xiaofeng Guo

Topics to be covered:

• Develop an understanding of the concepts, models, and theories that form a foundation for the field of chemistry (the understanding of how the behavior of matter is determined by the properties of atoms and molecules)
• Remember the basic vocabulary of chemistry, the metric prefixes and the names of the most common elements
• Apply standard algorithmic calculation procedures to relate macroscopic properties—such as mass, volume, pressure, and temperature—of substances. Demonstrate the ability to:
• Balance chemical reactions
• Relate the amounts of reactants and products to associated energy changes
• Connect macroscopic properties (e.g., mass and volume) with atomic-level properties, including the number of atoms and molecules, chemical formulas, and molecular structures
• Apply models of bonding to predict and describe the structure of molecules including their physical properties
• Create procedures to solve problems by applying single and multiple concepts to new situations
• Apply chemical procedures and evaluate experimental results to develop an appreciation for the experimental basis of chemical knowledge and experimental methods through laboratory work
• Write effectively about scientific experiments by describing laboratory procedures and results, and then evaluating and presenting a discussion of these results in the manner of a scientific report