Practical Chemical Applications

Chemistry in our Everyday Life

Introduction for reactions

• Cooking is chemistry
• Introduction to acid-base reactions - why does baking soda cause things to rise?
• Oxidation-reduction (redox) reactions - how do batteries work?

Why do we need a match to start a fire?

• Reaction rates
• Elementary reactions
• Catalysis

Why can a battery explode?

• Endothermic and exothermic processes
• Heat transfer and thermal equilibrium 

What the heck is pH, and why should we care?

• Introduction to acids and bases
• pH and pOH of strong acids and bases
• Weak acid and base equilibria
• Acid-base reactions and buffers
• Acid-base titrations
• Molecular structures of acids and bases
• pH and pKa
• Properties of buffers

Why does my room get messy all by itself?

• Introduction to entropy
• Absolute entropy and entropy change
• ‍Free energy and equilibrium

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