Hello! This will be the final learning journal. It is sad, isn’t it? I would like first to extend my thanks to professor Sorensen, who has been extremely helpful through every part of my chemistry journey thus far. Without her commitment and succinct organization, the class would be extremely difficult to keep up with in this online setting. I complete the final exam tomorrow, and I do not feel as confident as I would like because I have yet to completely look over the mock final.

Of course, as it is just now 9 o’ clock, I will be pushing to finish the mock final and get to bed so I can wake up early and take the final tomorrow as soon as the testing center opens. Just glancing once again at the syllabus, I can say that I am comfortable in most of the areas – especially the recent ones like thermodynamics, electrochemistry, coordination compounds, kinetics, and nuclear chemistry. I feel that my studying tonight should primarily be geared towards the acid-base equilibrium and organic chemistry nomenclature content. The first two exams were my lowest-scoring with the second being the absolute lowest. I know that I cannot expect to re-learn all of the acid base equilibrium material within the night, but I hope that the most important material of this chapter is covered in the mock final. I need to identify exactly what I am having trouble with and then learn how to properly handle such material. I also need to review the organic chemistry nomenclature, as I have mostly forgotten the rules required to name multi-chain carbon molecules. I expect my note card to mostly consist of materials related to these two topics. The remainder of the chapters will take up some room on the exam sheet, but will mostly be limited to equations and, in the case of nuclear chemistry, lists of decay modes.

All-in-all, I am confident with about three-fourths of the material that will be covered on the exam. If I can use the remainder of the night to push that three-fourths up, even the tiniest bit, I will be inexplicably happy. Once again, I would like to extend my thanks to our professor, and good luck to everybody else on the exam!

Hello! We are nearing the end of the semester and I feel like I have learned so much chemistry over the past fifteen weeks. We went from organic chemistry to electrochemistry in what feels like a second. Luckily, I have done my best to keep up and feel comfortable going into this final week. The latest chapter to be gifted to my brain is the section on coordination chemistry. I find this fascinating – as it has direct relation to my field of study in geophysics.

A lot of the time in chemistry, it feels like I am just going through the motions – doing the math, pulling out the answer for a solution that would be more applicable to someone designing batteries or someone in the pharmaceudical field. Coordination chemistry, however, is everywhere in mineralogy. Mineralogy is the study of minerals, namely their molecular crystal structures. In a mineralogy course I completed last semester at UNM, we were introduced to – more so thrown into – a crash course on coordination chemistry that dealt with multiple crystallographic sites being occupied by a range of transition metals and surrounded by accompanying elements like oxygen, hydrogen, etc. The class talked a lot about how the underlying coordination number relates to the overall crystal structure. If the unit cell of the crystal structure is orthorhombic (cubic) then it is likely that the mineral, as it grows, will also be orthorhombic. Or if the unit cell is hexagonal, the crystal will grow in a hexagonal form. A crystal’s symmetry has direct relation to its identification in rocks as well. In a tetragonal crystal system, the orientation of the crystallographic axes to a plane of polarized light will either act constructively or destructively, aiding in the characterization of growth patter of the mineral within a rock sample. Anyways, I could go on forever, but it was very interesting to see the material in this chemistry class actually call back on that previous mineralogy class. From first hand experience, I know exactly how complicated coordination chemistry can get, and I am glad that the chemistry portion just gave a ‘taste’ of it rather than going into too much detail. I also very much appreciated the lessons on nomenclature of these complex compounds.

I plan to take the exam tomorrow, and in Learning Journal number 6, I will continue my discussion on my confidence and readiness for the exam. Thank you so much for reading!

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!

Hello! We covered the topics of thermodynamics and electrochemistry these past two weeks. I will start with thermodynamics.

I love thermodynamics. Everything makes sense in this chapter – probably because I have completed an upper-division thermodynamics and statistical mechanics class in my physics major – but I did not have any questions, and I do not feel as if I struggled with anything in this section. For the most part, I was able to complete the homework without consulting the video lectures or the internet at all for that matter. Regardless, I feel that this is one of my more favorite concepts in chemistry.

I also love electrochemistry. I had the privilege of completing the electrochemistry lab prior to actually starting the homework, so I had a hands-on idea of the concepts behind the problems being presented. The math was undeniably easy in this section, (E_cell = E_cathode – E_anode) but I feel that the homework and lab prepared me more conceptually for the subatomic processes within the voltaic cell. Essentially, a voltage is induced between two electrodes which have been submerged in aqueous ionic solutions. The collective charge of ions results in the oxidation or reduction of a metal electrode, inducing a potential into which electrons will flow, thus creating a current and voltage between the two electrodes. Again, I am very comfortable with electrochemistry and cannot wait for the test.

As for the exam, I do not have much on my note card – just a few equations for calculating E cell in relation to Gibbs Free Energy and a diagram for the electrochemical cell lest I forget it. (The lab quiz and practice exam had a ‘Draw the setup for an electrochemical cell’ question on it, so I am assuming the test will have something similar) Again, I feel very comfortable with this material and I cannot wait to take that test soon because I know I am going to absolutely kill it! Anyways, thanks for reading and wish me luck!

Hello! Here we are again, a little further into the semester. We have really stepped up the game, and it is very apparent that this is not Gen Chem I anymore. This section of the semester covered Equilibrium concepts – and I am generally comfortable with the thought of chemical equilibrium. Equilibrium is defined as the the point at which the rate of formation of products equals the rate of formation of the reactants. What I will admit I am having trouble with, though, is the math.

I understand the need for an ICE Table, and while it would help if I actually knew what ‘ICE’ stood for, I find it to be relatively pointless. If the equilibrium constant is a function of products over reactants, why is it necessary to build a table of these values? I suppose it is a learning tool, but every time I see it being built I groan. I would much rather construct the equation under the knowledge of exactly how the equilibrium constant is formulated, that is; the concentrations of products raised to their respective mole ratios, over the concentrations of reactants raised to their respective mole ratios.

Sitting at a desk trying to solve these equations from given initial concentrations and given pH values does not do acid/base equilibria justice. I felt that the lab that correlated with this material helped tremendously more than the lecture. Doing the experiment in person makes much more sense than doing it on paper. I am not sure if I am the only one, but I would be so much happier if we could do a titration in the exam room than solve these equations on paper!

Another concept I am struggling with is the concept of a buffer. The internet says that a buffer solution’s pH will not change much when it is mixed with a strong acid or strong base. I do not understand this mechanism very well and feel that it is imperative I understand this prior to the exam.

Speaking of the exam, I am again waiting until the last possible day to take it – and for my own good given how confident I am with everything on acid-base and equilibrium right now. I have a pretty busy week, so I expect this exam to reflect my lowest grade, but luckily we will get to drop at least one exam by the end of the semester. Thanks for reading! Wish me luck!

Hello reader! Here we are at the beginning of the new semester in General Chemistry II. The first week of chemistry was primarily focused on getting me attuned to stoichiometric analysis and reviewing the concepts from General Chemistry I. The real challenge for me did not come until the 2nd week of class, where the nomenclature behind organic compounds was introduced.

Organic compound nomenclature is comfortable for me, in the regards that each functional group has a particular ‘rule’ to follow with the subsequent name. The trouble I am having is more focused on the finer details of the naming process – in particular at which carbon the actual naming process begins. Take, for example, a chain of five hydrocarbons with an OH bonded to the second-to-last carbon. The location of the aldehyde can either land on the 2nd carbon or on the 4th carbon, depending on the side that is deemed ‘the first carbon.’ Or, consider the case of a carbon ring: the first carbon could be any one of the carbons contained in the ring.

I am sure that there is a rule for these cases that has alluded me as of yet, and perhaps I should do some more research to find exactly what this rule is. My biggest question is how chemists decided on this nomenclature scheme – not only how, but why they agree on the location of the first carbon in any general organic molecule.

I plan to take Exam 1 on Tuesday and as of right now, I feel relatively comfortable with the material. I understand the review material and can mostly work my way through the equations with a little dimensional analysis. Again, my biggest struggle at this point is the organic compound nomenclature. To help, I have a side of the note card that we are allowed to take in dedicated to the functional groups, carbon chain nomenclature, and special cases (like trans- vs cis- structures). As far as the practice exam is concerned, it appears to be very much organic compound naming, which worries me a ton because that is not my strong suit. Even with my note card, I am not at the point now that I can go into the exam and feel confident about naming these things.

Luckily, I have a few days to prepare and hopefully answer all of my questions. Anyways, thanks for reading, and wish me luck!