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Lecture

Advanced General Chemistry I: Atomic Structure

In course

CH-110: Advanced general chemistry I

Le cours comporte deux parties. Les bases de la thermodynamique des équilibres et de la cinétique des réactions sont introduites dans l'une d'elles. Les premières notions de chimie quantique sur les électrons et les liaisons chimiques, exemplifiées en chim ...

Description

This lecture delves into the advanced concepts of atomic structure, focusing on the emission spectrum of the hydrogen atom, wave functions, separation of variables, and radial wave functions. It explores the mathematical demonstrations behind the electron's wave function, the relationship between Cartesian and spherical coordinates, and the probability density of finding an electron at different distances from the nucleus.

Instructors (7)

Marinella Mazzanti

Philippe Schwaller

Anne-Clémence Corminboeuf

Beat Fierz

Jacques-Edouard Moser

Jacques-Edouard Moser is titular professor in physical chemistry and is currently directing the Group for Photochemical Dynamics (Moser Group) of EPFL. He is a graduate of the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, where he received a diploma degree (MSc) in chemical engineering in 1982. After two stays in 1984 and 1985 at Concordia University in Montréal (Canada), he earned in 1986 his Ph.D. in physical chemistry at EPFL (Michael Grätzel, thesis advisor). In 1986, he joined the Eastman Kodak Corporate Research Laboratories at Rochester (NY, USA) as a postdoctoral fellow and was later associated with the NSF Center for Photoinduced Electron Transfer at the University of Rochester. Returning to Switzerland, he was appointed as a lecturer of physical chemistry at EPFL in 1992 and was awarded the habilitation and the venia legendi in 1998. He is titular professor since 2005.His research activity focuses on the study of the dynamics of photoinduced electron transfer and charge carrier separation at donor-acceptor heterojunctions and in nanostructured semiconductors. He is the author and co-author of ca 200 scientific papers (H-index 75). He currently teaches general physical chemistry to freshmen students in chemistry. He gives two classes on general- and redox photochemistry in the MSc program in chemistry and chemical engineering and the doctoral programs in energy and photonics. Jacques-E. Moser presided the Swiss Society of Photochemistry and Photophysics (1995-1998) and chaired the jury of the Grammaticakis-Neumann international prize in photochemistry (1999-2001). He was a member of the board of the Swiss Chemical Society (2007-2012). He served as a member of the standing committee of the European Photochemistry Association (1992-2000) and of the executive committee of the division for fundamental research of the Swiss Chemical Society (1999-2014). He was the director of the Section of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering of EPFL and a member of the direction of the School of Basic Sciences from 2007 to 2015.

Jérôme Waser

Jérôme Waser biography and CV's are available on the following website: http://lcso.epfl.ch/waser

Official source

Ontological neighbourhood

Physics

Atomic physics: Topics in atomic physics

Related concepts (32)

Wave equation

The (two-way) wave equation is a second-order linear partial differential equation for the description of waves or standing wave fields - as they occur in classical physics - such as mechanical waves (e.g. water waves, sound waves and seismic waves) or electromagnetic waves (including light waves). It arises in fields like acoustics, electromagnetism, and fluid dynamics. Single mechanical or electromagnetic waves propagating in a pre-defined direction can also be described with the first-order one-way wave equation, which is much easier to solve and also valid for inhomogeneous media.

Quantum number

In quantum physics and chemistry, quantum numbers describe values of conserved quantities in the dynamics of a quantum system. Quantum numbers correspond to eigenvalues of operators that commute with the Hamiltonian—quantities that can be known with precision at the same time as the system's energy—and their corresponding eigenspaces. Together, a specification of all of the quantum numbers of a quantum system fully characterize a basis state of the system, and can in principle be measured together.

Principal quantum number

In quantum mechanics, the principal quantum number (symbolized n) is one of four quantum numbers assigned to each electron in an atom to describe that electron's state. Its values are natural numbers (from 1) making it a discrete variable. Apart from the principal quantum number, the other quantum numbers for bound electrons are the azimuthal quantum number l, the magnetic quantum number ml, and the spin quantum number s. As n increases, the electron is also at a higher energy and is, therefore, less tightly bound to the nucleus.

Hydrogen atom

A hydrogen atom is an atom of the chemical element hydrogen. The electrically neutral atom contains a single positively charged proton and a single negatively charged electron bound to the nucleus by the Coulomb force. Atomic hydrogen constitutes about 75% of the baryonic mass of the universe. In everyday life on Earth, isolated hydrogen atoms (called "atomic hydrogen") are extremely rare. Instead, a hydrogen atom tends to combine with other atoms in compounds, or with another hydrogen atom to form ordinary (diatomic) hydrogen gas, H2.

Wave function

In quantum physics, a wave function (or wavefunction), represented by the Greek letter Ψ, is a mathematical description of the quantum state of an isolated quantum system. In the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, the wave function is a complex-valued probability amplitude; the probabilities for the possible results of the measurements made on a measured system can be derived from the wave function. The most common symbols for a wave function are the Greek letters ψ and Ψ (lower-case and capital psi, respectively).

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