Reactions are usually complex events. Bonds are broken, formed, stretched and atoms driven by enthalpy and entropy in their marvelous path. From reactants to products, and […]
Valence bond theory (VB) and molecular orbital theory (MO) help explain why and how electrons are shared between atoms although their approaches are quite different. Valence […]
Once again we explore the world of valence bond theory but this time only be concerned with molecules that have at least three adjacent p orbitals […]
Now that we have discussed hybrid orbital theory and resonance theory, let’s finally turn our attention to molecular orbital (MO) theory. The power of the MO […]
Setting the Scene – Back to Basics In order to understand the concept of thermal equilibrium (Chapter 1 section 1.4 of the physical chemistry textbook), we […]
Sci-fi authors often deal with a really big problem: how to obtain all the energy needed by spaceships to move? How can people obtain longer lives, […]
The foundations of quantum mechanics (Section 11.3) of the Physical Chemistry textbook, introduces the idea that electrons must be considered as both a particle and as […]
The discovery of atomic structure was the key that unlocked the door to modern understanding of structure and reactivity. Let’s take a moment to review a […]
Colligative properties have particularly interesting…well, properties! The most important of them is, as far as I understand from my students, their independence on the chemical nature […]