DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY

***First-Year Seminar Courses are Not Open to General Enrollment***

Science Writing for a Non-Technical Audience (Fall 2019; Larry Trzupek)

In this course we will read and discuss works on technical subjects written for a general audience with no special scientific training; the authors we'll be reading include Sam Kean, John McPhee, Don Norman, Richard Rhodes, and Lewis Thomas.

Although the course is not targeted exclusively to science majors, students enrolling in it should have enough of a background in the fundamental sciences to feel comfortable writing about technical topics.

The Chemistry of Food (Fall 2019; Owen Priest)

In The Chemistry of Food we will explore the chemistry and science of nutrition, cooking, food preservation, flavoring, coloring, and aroma. We will explore the science of salt, sugar & high fructose corn syrup, leavening agents, microwaves, proteins, and fats. What is the science behind genetically modified foods and why is it so controversial? What is celiac disease and gluten sensitivity? Is gluten sensitivity real? What does the science say?

The Chemistry of Clean Water (Winter 2020, Will Dichtel)

Access to clean water for drinking, farming, and many other uses is a basic human need that is anticipated to become more expensive and difficult because of climate change, expanding populations, and resource depletion. We will learn this problem from both a chemical and practical perspective. What are common water sources and their common contaminants? How is drinking water and waste water treated today, and what are the limitations of these methods? What technologies are emerging or need to emerge to address these limitations? How does water relate to food production and energy consumption in regard to sustainability? We will answer these questions through literature research, studying current and recent problems in water systems, and by visiting local drinking water and/or waste water treatment facilities.

Sustainability Meets Environmental Justice (Spring 2020, Shelby Hatch)

In this course, we will explore how issues of race and class shape our views of these concepts. Northwestern University is currently about halfway through its first five-year strategic sustainability plan. This plan will serve as a starting point for discussing various issues of sustainability such as the built environment, transportation, and resource conservation. We will delve into the chemistry behind sustainable design with a particular eye toward how the 12 Principles of Green Chemistry and Green Engineering are applied.

Solution strategies for traditional word problems and their application to basic chemistry quantitative problems: dimensional analysis, chemical equations, stoichiometry, limiting reagents, gas laws, and thermochemistry. 

Students with an AP Chem score of 5 or an IB (HL) Chem score of 7 are not eligible to take this course.

Prerequisite: permission of department by Initial Chemistry Assessment. 

Please contact Dr. Fred Northrup at f-northrup@northwestern.edu regarding permission and/or access to the Initial Chemistry Assessment. 

Chemical analysis of real samples using basic laboratory techniques including titration, colorimetric analysis, density measurements, and atomic spectroscopy. Planning, data collection, interpretation, and reporting on these experiments. Must be taken concurrently with the Chem 151-0 lecture course.

Laboratory techniques for studying chemical analysis and chemical reactions relevant to environmental or materials research. Planning, data collection, interpretation, and reporting on experiments. Must be taken concurrently with the Chem 171-0 lecture course.

Basic concepts of structure, stereochemistry, and reactivity of organic compounds. The chemistry of hydrocarbons and alcohols. 

Prerequisite: Chem 103-0 and Chem 123-0 *or* Chem 172-0 and Chem 182-0 *or* Chem 152-0 and Chem 162-0 *or* Chem 132-0 and Chem 142-0 (C– or better in all listed courses) *or*  AP Chem 5 *or* IB (HL) Chem 7, *or* permission of department by placement exam.

Basic concepts of structure, stereochemistry, and reactivity of organic compounds. The chemistry of hydrocarbons and alcohols. 

Prerequisite: Chem 103-0 and Chem 123-0 *or* Chem 172-0 and Chem 182-0 *or* Chem 152-0 and Chem 162-0 *or* Chem 132-0 and Chem 142-0 (C– or better in all listed courses) *or*  AP Chem 5 *or* IB (HL) Chem 7, *or* permission of department by placement exam.

Synthesis, characterization, assembly, and physical properties of controlled dimensionality nanomaterials focusing on metals, semiconductors, oxides, and polymers. Topics will include interfacial phenomena and particle stability, nano-forms of carbon, and applications-driven material design.

Prerequisite: Chem 342-1 (Thermodynamics) or consent of instructor.

Taught with Chem 408. Undergraduates should enroll in Chem 308, unless they are officially completing the BA/MS program.

A contemporary course covering the diverse field of inorganic chemistry including all the elements of the periodic table. Topics include current concepts and models of chemical bonding, reactivity, structure, and properties of inorganic compounds.

Prerequisites: 2 units of 200- or 300-level chemistry.

Chemistry 350-1,2,3 is a full-year, 3-quarter laboratory course intended to be taken by all students in the junior year of the chemistry major program.

Roughly half of the Chem 350-1 course deals with the advanced analytical techniques mass spectrometry and NMR spectroscopy. The rest of this course deals with advanced techniques of synthetic organic chemistry, but you will be expected to use mass spectrometry and NMR spectroscopy, as well as the techniques of IR and UV/visible spectroscopy that you have learned previously, to characterize the compounds that you synthesize.

Prerequisites: Chem 220 and Chem 212-3 or equivalent.

The materials science and chemistry of soft nanomaterials for myriad applications including nanomedicine. Preparative and synthetic approaches to organized, assembled, discrete nanomaterials will be described. Course will include an in depth discussion of advanced characterization techniques and strategies for this class of material. 

The class covers techniques for preparing and characterizing complex nanomaterials mostly generated from polymers. The course will include a brief summary of synthetic approaches to designed, engineered polymers and how to access precision materials at the nanoscale from these polymers. A large portion of the class will include exciting new developments in the characterization of these materials including scattering methods and advanced electron microscopy including liquid phase and cryogenic TEM. 

Prerequisites: Chem 210-1 or Mat Sci 331

Co-listed with Mat Sci 395 and BMD ENG 395

This course is intended to establish the foundations of quantum mechanics at the graduate level.

*Topics Covered*

•  Two-slit experiment
• Stern-Gerlach experiment
• State space
• Operators and observables
• Matrix representation
• Angular momentum
• Heisenberg equation of motion
• Density matrix
• Liouville equation
• Harmonic oscillator (classical and quantum)
• Generalized two-level system
• Second quantization
• Quantum statistical mechanics
• Special topics (if time allows)

No description available.