Hello! The past two weeks covered the topics of kinetics and nuclear chemistry. I am relatively comfortable with these two topics, and have actually seen both of them in other classes before, so luckily I did not have as much trouble as I would have had otherwise had I just been exposed to them.
Kinetics is simply the time analysis of a reaction’s completion. I saw this type of stuff when I took AP Chemistry back in high school. Back then I was not as mathematically talented as I am now, and I can vividly remember struggling with calculating rate laws and rate coefficients. Now, after seeing some examples and completing the homework, I finally understand that the rate coefficient is simply related to the regression of concentration of a compound over time. I also see that rate orders can be easily calculated with respect to each compound in a reaction by simply taking the ratio of their kinetic rates. After completing the practice exam, I am not as confident as I once was, however. I tended to slip up on some of the kinetic questions, like ‘Reaction intermediates differ from transition states in that:’. While I have a fairly good grasp on the mathematical concepts of kinetics, I am still struggling with the conceptual. Perhaps some focus on this will help in the exam.
Nuclear chemistry is the study of how atoms interact with other subatomic particles. Atoms can have a number of things happen spontaneously – namely beta decay, alpha decay, positron emission, electron capture, and gamma decay. I have seen this type of chemistry in a modern physics class, which had an entire exam period dedicated to nuclear interactions. In this physics class, however, the actual fundamental and conceptual processes were not covered as heavily as in chemistry. The physics class was namely concerned with the subsequent energy released after a heavy nucleus underwent alpha decay. I found it interesting, though, that there actually exists a ‘Stable isotope Valley’ for which the nucleus will always try to converge to if it has a potential deficit or surplus. I found it very helpful in predicting the decay modes for neutron-deficient or neutron-heavy nuclei. With the help of a note card to explain each of these modes, I should be ready for the test! Thank you so much for reading! Wish me luck!
CHEM1810 Journal 