Standard syllabus
Physical Chemistry II · Undergraduate · Chemistry
Topics
Quantum mechanics foundations
- Historical background: blackbody radiation, photoelectric effect, Bohr model
- Wave-particle duality and de Broglie wavelength
- Schrödinger equation: time-independent form
- Operators, observables, and eigenvalue equations
- Postulates of quantum mechanics (overview)
- Born interpretation of the wavefunction
- Heisenberg uncertainty principle
- Particle in a box: energy levels and wavefunctions
- Quantum tunneling through barriers
- Hermitian operators and expectation values
Atomic and molecular structure
- Hydrogen atom: quantum numbers and radial/angular solutions
- Atomic orbitals: shapes, nodes, and quantum numbers
- Spin and the Pauli exclusion principle
- Aufbau principle and periodic table structure
- Hartree–Fock approximation (conceptual overview)
- Born–Oppenheimer approximation
- Molecular orbitals: LCAO-MO method
- Homonuclear and heteronuclear diatomics
- Hybridization and valence bond vs molecular orbital perspectives
- Computational chemistry preview: basis sets and SCF
Spectroscopy
- Electromagnetic spectrum and interaction with matter
- Rotational spectroscopy of diatomics
- Vibrational spectroscopy: harmonic oscillator and anharmonicity
- IR selection rules and normal modes
- Raman spectroscopy (introduction)
- Electronic spectroscopy: Franck–Condon principle
- UV-Vis absorption and Beer–Lambert law (quantum view)
- NMR from a quantum mechanical perspective (overview)
- Lasers and stimulated emission (introduction)
- Time-resolved spectroscopy methods (overview)
Molecular symmetry and group theory
- Symmetry elements and operations
- Point groups and character tables (introduction)
- Symmetry labels for molecular orbitals
- Selection rules from symmetry arguments
- Applications to vibrational and electronic spectroscopy
- Symmetry in crystallography (preview)
- Molecular symmetry in chemical reactivity (overview)
- Woodward–Hoffmann rules preview
- Computational symmetry analysis
- Group theory as a tool for simplifying quantum problems
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