CH 223 Chapter Guides

Chapter Guide Five: Overview | Resources | Practice

  Overview of Chapter Guide Five

This module has two portions. The first portion (covered in Chapter 16) extends our discovery of thermodynamics by introducing us to Gibbs Free Energy. The second portion (Chapter 17) examines electrochemistry and how we can use it to obtain information on equilibrium constants and more.

Chapter 16 continues our discussion of entropy to include a new thermodynamic quantity, Gibbs Free Energy. Of all the thermodynamic quantities, Gibbs Free Energy dictates if a reaction will occur or not, and we know this by the sign of ΔG. We shall see how ΔG can be extended to learn the value of the equilibrium constant and more.

For a complete list of important concepts in Chapter 16, see the Chapter 16 Study Guide.

Chapter 17 introduces us to electrochemistry which combines the theories of equilibrium, thermodynamics, and more to give a complete picture of a given chemical system. We shall see how the electrocell potential, E°, will dictate if a reaction can occur or not. By combining chemical species, we can make certain "product disfavored" reactions occur through the process known as electrolysis. The Nernst equation will help to understand electrochemical equilibrium under non standard conditions. We shall also explore batteries, the time capacity of electrochemical cells, and much more.

For a complete list of important concepts in Chapter 17, see the Chapter 17 Study Guide.

  Resources for Chapter Guide Five

For this module, you should read Chapter 16 and Chapter 17 in your textbook.

The following screencasts might prove useful to you as you study this chapter.

The Chapter 16 lecture notes and Chapter 17 lecture notes which accompany this lesson will be helpful to you when going through this section. These are Web versions of the lecture notes I use in my "normal" CH 223 class and should let you see what is important to me in this chapter. You can also view the Lecture Notes in presentation software for Chapter 16 (Keynote, PowerPoint) and Chapter 17 (Keynote, PowerPoint).

A variety of handouts are available from Chapter 16 and Chapter 17. Feel free to explore all of them or just the ones which give you difficulty.

Once you have mastered the concepts listed above, check out the Chapter Sixteen Concept Guide and the Chapter Seventeen Concept Guide for a series of worked problems relating to this module. They will help you to ensure the mastery of the knowledge from this section.

Finally, test yourself (and get extra-credit in the bargain!) on the following chemistry concepts. If you get 9 out of 10 correct (or some multiple thereof), submit the information to me to receive extra credit.

  1. Second Law Problems
  2. Using Free Energies
  3. Writing Redox Reactions
  4. Identifying Electrode Processes
  5. Balancing Oxidation Reduction Reactions
  6. Using the Electrochemical Series
  7. Calculating Eo
  8. Relating Eo, G and K
  9. Faraday's Laws
  10. Determining n for a Redox Reaction
  11. The Nernst Equation
  12. The Nernst Equation II

  Practice the Concepts of Chapter Guide Five

Please complete problem set #5 to further explore the Gibbs Free Energy and electrochemistry concepts. Problem set #5 covers several questions from Chapter 16 and Chapter 17, and it can be found here. We will discuss problems like these during recitation, so come prepared to ask and answer questions. This table of redox reactions (listed by decreasing voltage) might also prove useful this week.

For additional practice, try completing practice problem set #5 (with answers included at the end) and/orthe non-assigned problems in Chapter 16 and Chapter 17. Answers to many of those problems are listed in the back of your textbook.

If you need assistance on these problems, you have several options. You can visit the AVID / Learning Success Center located above the MHCC library on the Mt. Hood Community College campus; they have tutors available to help you with your chemistry homework. You can also contact me if you have any questions.

Test your mastery of the subject matter by trying the self quiz for Chapter 16 and the self quiz for Chapter 17. These are ungraded tests that you can use to gauge your comfort level with these concepts. This sample Quiz #5 (answers) (which was given during a previous year's CH 223 class) will help you understand the kind of questions that will be asked on the quiz.

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