Physical Chemistry: Thermodynamics, Structure, and Change, Tenth Edition

From the author (PA): This new edition is the product of a thorough revision of content and its presentation. Our goal is to make the book even more accessible to students and useful to instructors by enhancing its flexibility. We hope that both categories of user will perceive and enjoy the renewed vitality of the text and the presentation of this demanding but engaging subject. The text is still divided into three parts, but each chapter is now presented as a series of short and more readily mastered Topics. This new structure allows the instructor to tailor the text within the time constraints of the course as omissions will be easier to make, emphases satisfied more readily, and the trajectory through the subject modified more easily. For instance, it is now easier to approach the material either from a ‘quantum first’ or a ‘thermodynamics first’ perspective because it is no longer necessary to take a linear path through chapters. Instead, students and instructors can match the choice of Topics to their learning objectives. We have been very careful not to presuppose or impose a particular sequence, except where it is demanded by common sense. We open with a Foundations chapter, which reviews basic concepts of chemistry and physics used through the text. Part 1 now carries the title Thermodynamics. New to this edition is coverage of ternary phase diagrams, which are important in applications of physical chemistry to engineering and materials science. Part 2 (Structure) continues to cover quantum theory, atomic and molecular structure, spectroscopy, molecular assemblies, and statistical thermodynamics. Part 3 (Change) has lost a chapter dedicated to catalysis, but not the material. Enzyme-catalysed reactions are now in Chapter 20, and heterogeneous catalysis is now part of a new Chapter 22 focused on surface structure and processes. As always, we have paid special attention to helping students navigate and master this material. Each chapter opens with a brief summary of its Topics. Then each Topic begins with three questions: ‘Why do you need to know this material?’, ‘What is the key idea?’, and ‘What do you need to know already?’. The answers to the third question point to other Topics that we consider appropriate to have studied or at least to refer to as background to the current Topic. The Checklists at the end of each Topic are useful distillations of the most important concepts and equations that appear in the exposition. We continue to develop strategies to make mathematics, which is so central to the development of physical chemistry, accessible to students. In addition to associating Mathematical background sections with appropriate chapters, we give more help with the development of equations: we motivate them, justify them, and comment on the steps taken to derive them. We also added a new feature: The chemist’s toolkit, which offers quick and immediate help on a concept from mathematics or physics. This edition has more worked Examples, which require students to organize their thoughts about how to proceed with complex calculations, and more Brief illustrations, which show how to use an equation or deploy a concept in a straightforward way. Both have Self-tests to enable students to assess their grasp of the material. We have structured the end-of-chapter Discussion questions, Exercises, and Problems to match the grouping of the Topics, but have added Topicand Chapter-crossing Integrated activities to show that several Topics are often necessary to solve a single problem. The Resource section has been restructured and augmented by the addition of a list of integrals that are used (and referred to) throughout the text. We are, of course, alert to the development of electronic resources and have made a special effort in this edition to encourage the use of web-based tools, which are identified in the Using the book section that follows this preface. Important among these tools are Impact sections, which provide examples of how the material in the chapters is applied in such diverse areas as biochemistry, medicine, environmental science, and materials science. Overall, we have taken this opportunity to refresh the text thoroughly, making it even more flexible, helpful, and up to date. As ever, we hope that you will contact us with your suggestions for its continued improvement.