Group for Physical Chemistry / Microreaction Technology

The lecture teaches the basics of physical chemistry. Starting from atomic structure and bonding, chemical thermodynamics for near-equilibrium processes is traditionally introduced first, covering terms such as internal energy, reaction enthalpy and chemical potential as well as determination and calculation of formation enthalpies. Phase transitions and their diagrams are discussed for binary systems with different properties. The lecture covers the fundamentals of gas theory, chemical kinetics, and thermally, photo- and electrochemically activated processes. Molecular excited states and the fundamentals of molecular spectroscopy are also discussed. With the discussion of the arrow of time in chemical processes, autocatalysis, bistability, chemical oscillations and structure formation, chemical processes far from equilibrium are introduced and their consequences for inanimate and living nature are explained.

The subject introduces the tasks, methods and instruments of analytics. Subject matter are procedures, devices and functional principles used in qualitative and quantitative analytics as well as for the elucidation of molecular structures. Among other things, the analytical significance of the interaction of substances with electromagnetic radiation from different sections of the spectrum and different methods of analytical spectrometry and spectrophotometry, but also analytical separation techniques such as different chromatographic techniques and mass spectrometry are covered.

Evolution of the universe, star formation, formation of chemical elements, molecules in the universe, organic material in the universe, formation of the earth, role of the second law of thermodynamics in evolution, momentum and self-organization, self-replication, molecular information storage, molecular evolution, molecular aspects of morphogenesis, evolutionary mechanisms.

Colloid science is a branch of physical chemistry. The subject is the physics and chemistry of highly disperse systems. The term "colloid" does not refer to a property of a substance, but to a state of matter. Colloidal particles typically have dimensions in the size range between 1 and 500 nm, which corresponds to about 10³ to10⁹ atoms. This results in large particle surface-to-volume ratios. The properties of colloidal particles are determined by the properties and processes at the particle surfaces. The description of interfacial properties as well as processes at the interface is therefore the focus of the lecture.