General Chemistry I

What you'll learn

• Classify matter and its properties, use SI units and prefixes, report measurements with correct significant figures, convert units by dimensional analysis, and read GHS labels and safety data sheets under WHMIS or the OSHA Hazard Communication Standard before working with chemicals.
• Explain how the laws of chemical combination led to atomic theory, describe the experiments that revealed the electron and the nucleus, determine the subatomic particles in atoms and ions, and calculate average atomic masses and isotopic abundances.
• Use the mole, the Avogadro constant and molar mass to convert between mass, amount and numbers of particles, determine empirical and molecular formulas from percent composition and combustion analysis, and name simple ionic compounds, molecular compounds and acids.
• Write and balance chemical equations, classify common reaction types, predict precipitation with solubility rules and write net ionic equations, and assign oxidation numbers to identify oxidation, reduction and the agents involved.
• Carry out stoichiometric calculations for reactions, including limiting reactants, theoretical and percent yield and atom economy, and apply molarity, dilution and titration to solution stoichiometry.
• Relate the wavelength, frequency and energy of electromagnetic radiation, explain the photoelectric effect and line spectra, calculate hydrogen energy levels and emission wavelengths, and describe orbitals with the four quantum numbers.
• Write ground-state electron configurations and orbital diagrams for atoms and ions using the Pauli principle, the aufbau principle and Hund’s rule, explain shielding and effective nuclear charge, and relate configurations to the structure of the periodic table.
• Explain and predict periodic trends in atomic and ionic radius, ionization energy, electron affinity, electronegativity and metallic character, and use successive ionization energies to identify valence electron counts.
• Describe ionic bonding and lattice energy, calculate lattice energies with a Born–Haber cycle, characterize covalent and polar bonds, and draw Lewis structures using formal charge, resonance and the exceptions to the octet rule.
• Predict molecular shapes and bond angles with VSEPR theory, determine molecular polarity, describe σ and π bonds and hybridization with valence bond theory, and use molecular orbital diagrams to find bond orders and magnetism of diatomic molecules.
• Apply the gas laws and the ideal gas law, including gas density, molar mass, gas stoichiometry and partial pressures, explain gas behavior with the kinetic molecular theory and Graham’s law, and describe deviations of real gases.
• Identify intermolecular forces and relate them to boiling points, vapor pressure and the properties of liquids, interpret heating curves and phase diagrams, classify solids and calculate densities from cubic unit cells, and combine the course’s methods to identify an unknown substance.