Physical chemistry

Physical chemistry is a combined science of physics, chemistry and mathematics, resulting in areas as thermodynamics, electrochemistry, biophysics, macromolecular chemistry, polymer chemistry, polymer physical chemistry, biochemistry, Theoretical chemistry, computational chemistry and quantum chemistry. Physical chemistry tries to describe observed chemically macroscopic phenomena by molecular-level explanations. Typically these are changes in temperature, pressure, volume, heat, and work done by or on systems in the solid, liquid, and or gas (but seldom plasma) phase are correlated to microscopic atomic and molecular interactions on chemical and not physical or nuclear level.

The relationships that physical chemistry tries to resolve include the effects of:

1. The behavior of elements according to the periodic table of elements.
2. The behavior of atoms and molecules on a physical scale.
3. Chemistry and temperature, thermodynamics.
4. Reaction kinetics on the reaction rate.
5. Chemistry and quantity, statistical chemistry, from order to chaos, entropy.
6. The chemistry of solids in solid state chemistry, crystals, radiation diffraction.
7. The molecular theory of solutions.
8. The behavior of colloids.
9. Tensile strength.
10. Chemistry of surfaces and boundaries.
11. Surface tension.
12. Plasticity and rheology.
13. Electricity, magnetism and chemistry.
14. Conductivity.
15. NMR.
16. Rotation and vibration in chemistry.
17. Spectroscopy.
18. Macromolecular chemistry.
19. Computational chemistry or theoretical chemistry.
20. Quantum chemistry.
21. Polymer chemistry.
22. Materials science.
23. Error analyses and data reduction.

Modern physical chemistry

Modern physical chemistry is firmly grounded upon physics and applied mathematics. Important areas of study include thermochemistry (chemical thermodynamics), chemical kinetics, statistical chemistry. quantum chemistry, statistical mechanics, electrochemistry, surface and solid state chemistry, and spectroscopy. Physical chemistry is also fundamental to modern materials science. Physical chemistry now strongly overlaps with chemical physics.

Importance of physical chemistry

During the late 19th century, physical chemistry played an important role in Wilhelm Ostwald's and Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff's work on chemical equilibrium. It also played an important role in Svante Arrhenius theory of ionization and redox-reactions. Many of the new materials created to produce better chips for the computer industry, or compounds for the aeroplane and rocket industry are a result of the closely related materials science. Lubricant, solvent, cleaning and plastic industries couldn't exist without physical chemistry and specifically macromolecular chemistry. A better understanding of biological systems comes from the combination of physics, (physical) chemistry and biology in fields such as biophysics, biochemistry, molecular genetics and molecular biology.

After 1900, chemists began to get valuable help from physics about the electrical nature of the atom. This knowledge led to improvements in X-rays diffraction and structural analyses and the assignment of atomic numbers to the elements, successively leading to a better systematic understanding of the elements, even to the point where new elements were predicted before they were actually created in laboratories. (1994) Compton's Encyclopedia C-Ch. Compton's Learning Company, 302. 

Important physical chemists

Willard Gibbs is considered one of the founders of physical chemistry because of his 1876 paper On the Equilibrium of Heterogeneous Substances, wherein he developed such cornerstones as free energy, chemical potential, and phase rule.

Svante Arrhenius Richard Bernstein E.J. Bowen Ludwig Boltzmann George Cowan Peter Debye Manfred Eigen Mostafa A. El-Sayed Richard R. Ernst Rosalind Franklin William Giauque J.W. Gibbs Fritz Haber Dudley R. Herschbach

Gerhard Herzberg Jaroslav Heyrovsky Cyril Norman Hinshelwood J.H. van 't Hoff Roald Hoffmann Erich Huckel Friedrich Kohlrausch Irving Langmuir Yuan T. Lee Gilbert N. Lewis Frederick Lindemann Rudolph A. Marcus Robert S. Mulliken

Walther Nernst Lars Onsager Wilhelm Ostwald Linus Pauling John Charles Polanyi Michael Polanyi Stuart A. Rice John Ross E. Bright Wilson Richard N. Zare Ahmed H. Zewail Richard P. Feynman Carl Friedrich Gauss Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier

See also

• Important publications in physical chemistry (chemistry),
• Important publications in physical chemistry (physics)
• Quantum chemistry

Literature

• Physical Chemistry, Peter Atkins, 1978, Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-7167-3539-3.
• Physical Chemistry, R. Stephen Berry, Stuart A. Rice, John Ross, 2000 (2nd edition), Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-510589-3.
• Introduction to Modern Colloid Science, R.J. Hunter, 1993, Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-855386-2.
• Principles of Colloid and Surface Chemistry, P.C. Hiemenz, R. Rajagopalan, 1997, Marcel Dekker Inc., New York. ISBN 0-8247-9397-8.
• Physical Chemistry, W.J. Moore, 1972 (5th edition), Longmans, London/Prentice Hall, NJ. ISBN 0-582-44234-6
• Physical Chemistry of Macromolecules, Charles Tanford, 1961, John Wiley & Sons, Inc, ISBN 0-471-84447-0