The main aim of this module is to equip students with an understanding of basic kinetics and thermodynamics as they relate to chemical reactions in biological systems.

By the end of the module students should be familiar with, and be able to make appropriate use of:

• Basic ideas of energy changes in chemical reactions
• Ideas relating to the rates of chemical reactions

Lecture Material

Thermodynamics [mostly energy changes in chemical reactions]

• ideal gas equation, including definitions/units of pressure, temperature, mole and standard conditions (& use of PV=nRT in context of le Chatelier, as in H&C, with "reminders" of K_c and K_p)
• conservation of energy, including heat & work vs internal energy (state function)
• definition of enthalpy, plus formation & combustion reactions, Hess' law cycles, and so on
• qualitative idea of entropy (and of its variation from solid to liquid to gas) and the idea of a "natural" direction of change
• definition of Gibbs energy; various examples of ΔG for reactions; relationship of ΔG to K
• pH and pKa

Kinetics

• Idea of rates of chemical reactions and of factors that determine them
• Orders of reactions; 0th order 1st order and (simple) 2nd order reactions, including how data are manipulated
• initial rates
• half life, using traditional 1st order examples
• activation energy barriers and effect of temperature
• kinetic isotope effects
• elementary step, rate-determining step & reaction mechanism
• catalysis; Lineweaver-Burke plots & Michaelis-Menten model (enzymes).

Tutorial Material

• The lecture course will be supported by fortnightly tutorial (workshop) sessions designed to give students an opportunity to practice solving kinetics and the rmodynamics problems

The module will consist of 8 lectures on thermodynamics, 8 lectures on kinetics, and 3 tutorials (2 hour sessions). There will be a class test towards the end of the course, to which students may bring their lecture notes.

All material is covered in Chang's Physical Chemistry for the Biosciences and in the 3rd edition of Housecroft & Constable (H&C). There are to be no integrations and no use of partial derivatives. In particular, students will subsequently be expected to be able to use various formulae [integrated rate laws, temperature dependence of rate constants and equilibrium constants, and so on] without ever having been shown derivations.

Students will have the opportunity in tutorial (workshop) sessions to work through problems that relate to the principles covered in the lecture course, with tutors available to help. Outline answers will be available in VITAL.

Physical Chemistry for the Biosciences, R.Chang, University Science Books 2005.
Chemistry, C.E.Housecroft and E.C.Constable, 3rd Edition, Prentice Hall, 2006.