Questions tagged [physical-chemistry]
The study of chemical systems using the laws and concepts of physics. This usually requires the techniques of thermodynamics, statistical mechanics and quantum mechanics.
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Can an atom have more than 8 valence electrons? If not, why is 8 the limit?
According to some chemistry textbooks, the maximum number of valence electrons for an atom is 8, but the reason for this is not explained.
So, can an atom have more than 8 valence electrons?
If ...
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Unit of the equilibrium constant: contradiction of Bridgman's theorem?
The following equation is standard in thermodynamics:
$$
\Delta G^\circ=-RT\log(K)
$$
where $K$ is the equilibrium constant. In dimensional analysis, Bridgman's theorem tells us that the argument ...
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What exactly is hydrogen bonding (and does it really need fluorine, oxygen, or nitrogen)?
I'm not satisfied with the rationale for the intermolecular attraction known as hydrogen bonding. In my book, it states that
Hydrogen bonding is a special type of intermolecular attraction between ...
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What is Sodium Chloride like in gas state?
Since sodium chloride is sodium and chlorine atoms bonded as a lattice and there are no discrete molecules, doesn't that mean in gas state, sodium chloride is simply sodium and chlorine atoms separate ...
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Why is it important to use a salt bridge in a voltaic cell? Can a wire be used?
I was learning about voltaic cells and came across salt bridges. If the purpose of the salt bridge is only to move electrons from an electrolyte solution to the other, then why can I not use a wire?
...
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Which equilibrium constant is appropriate to use?
I have learnt that the standard free energy change is related to the equilibrium constant of a reaction by,
$$\Delta G^\circ = -RT \ln K$$
Here, does $K$ refer to $K_p$ or $K_c$?
Also, please give ...
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The last element's atomic number
I was just thinking what can be the last atomic number that can exist within the range of permissible radioactivity limit and considering all other factors in quantum physics and chemical factors.
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Positive or Negative Anode/Cathode in Electrolytic/Galvanic Cell
In a galvanic (voltaic) cell, the anode is considered negative and the cathode is considered positive. This seems reasonable as the anode is the source of electrons and cathode is where the electrons ...
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Why are solids and liquids not included in the equilibrium constant? What about in a reaction rate calculation?
Take for instance the reaction
$$\ce{H2(g) + I2(s) <=> 2HI(g)}$$
The equilibrium constant would not include the solid $\ce{I2}$, but why is this? I have read that its concentration is a ...
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How does volume contraction in solvent mixing work?
I recall seeing chemistry demonstrations where a significant amount of a solute is dissolved in a solvent and the solution volume barely changes. Questions regarding this:
1) How is this possible?
2)...
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Is there a reason for the mathematical form of the equilibrium constant? [duplicate]
Why are the two molarities multiplied and not added, and why is each raised to the power of the coefficient rather than multiplied by it? What is the reasoning behind this form? Was it simply ...
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What is the pKa of the hydronium, or oxonium, ion (H3O+)?
Although the wikipedia page on Hydronium indicates a $\mathrm{p}K_\text{a}$ of −1.74, I noticed in the discussion of this page that the subject seems debated (cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:...
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Can the change in internal energy be nonzero if temperature is constant?
I have learnt that internal energy, $U$, is a state function and it only depends on temperature... So if $\Delta T = 0$ then $\Delta U = 0$.
However when I was studying exothermic and endothermic ...
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Why do dianions (such as malonate) bind cations more strongly than anions?
Why does a dianion (such as malonate) bind cations more strongly than its equivalent anion (acetate)?
Is it simply because of the proximal availability of another $\ce{O-}$ group that can bind to ...
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Why does radium have a higher first ionisation energy than barium?
I'm wondering why radium appears to buck the general trend that first ionisation energies decrease as you move down a group in the periodic table: barium (the group 2 element preceding it) has a first ...
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Reason for inability to find the absolute value of internal energy
Today in my thermodynamics lecture, my teacher told me that it is not possible to find the absolute value of internal energy and so we have to calculate the change in internal energy.
So, my question ...
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What volume does one mole of an ideal gas occupy?
This has been bugging me for a while now...
Obviously, to calculate the volume/space occupied by a mole of (an ideal) gas, you'll have to specify temperature ($T$) and pressure ($P$), find the gas ...
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What are the maximum number of electrons in each shell?
In my textbook, it says that the maximum number of electrons that can fit in any given shell is given by 2n². This would mean 2 electrons could fit in the first shell, 8 could fit in the second shell, ...
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What would be the effect of the addition of an inert gas to a reaction at equilibrium?
Why does a dissociation reaction shift to the right with the addition of an inert gas?
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What are angular and radial nodes?
Nodes are the points in space around a nucleus where the probability of finding an electron is zero. However, I heard that there are two kinds of nodes, radial nodes and angular nodes. What are they ...
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Hypothetical: What happens to water as pressure increases to infinity? [duplicate]
I've asked a similar question here but the answer given shows the behaviour of water under general conditions.
I'd like to know what the behaviour of water is like as pressures increase towards ...
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Why can't helium be solidified at 'ordinary' pressures?
According to the UC Davis ChemWiki Chemistry of Helium, helium has a comparatively unusual property, specifically:
Helium is the only element that cannot be solidified by lowering the temperature ...
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Why do 3d orbitals have lesser energy than 4s orbitals in transition metals? [duplicate]
This is quoted from Jim Clark's Chemguide
For reasons which are too complicated to go into at this level, once you get to scandium, the energy of the 3d orbitals becomes slightly less than that of ...
user5764
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How does intramolecular hydrogen bonding cause the molecules to be separated from each other?
I learnt about intramolecular hydrogen bonding today, which occurs between molecules such as ortho-nitrophenol. What I was told is that in case of intramolecular bonding, the molecules separate from ...
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Why are activities of solids and liquids taken to be unity?
First, I should mention that the question was already asked here: Why is active mass of a pure solid or liquid always taken as unity?
However, the treatment there is qualitative and I do not really ...
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What is known about liquid carbon?
The wiki tells me that if you heat carbon at atmospheric pressure it eventually turns directly into a gas without being liquid first. At what pressure can you make liquid carbon? Has anyone actually ...
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Why is snow white?
I know that this is a rather ambiguous question; but my question is, whenever we take water and freeze it in the freezer, it still tends to stay clear. Since snow is just frozen water, why is it white?...
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While filling electrons, we follow Aufbau principle, but not while removing them. Why is this so?
I recently came across a question Why is the vanadium(3+) ion paramagnetic?, where the asker is wondering how $\ce{V^{3+}}$ is paramagnetic (he used Aufbau in reverse to remove the electrons), while ...
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Relation between chemical kinetics and chemical equilibrium
In my chemistry book, the law of chemical equilibrium is derived from the law of mass action:
For a reversible chemical reaction $$\ce{aA +bB\rightleftharpoons cC + dD}$$ where $a$, $b$, $c$ and $d$ ...
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Why is active mass of a pure solid or liquid always taken as unity?
Active mass is defined as the molar concentration ie. number of Gram-moles per litre.
My book then wrote
Active mass of pure solid/liquid is always 1 .
The book reasoned that
Molar ...
user5764
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3
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How can the equilibrium shift, while Kc remains constant?
Consider the following reversible reaction.
$$\ce{Cr2O7^2-(aq) + H2O(l) <=> 2 CrO4^2-(aq) + 2 H+(aq)}$$
What will happen to the position of equilibrium and the value of $K_c$ when more $\ce{H+}$ ...
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What's the relationship between Van der Waals forces and hydrophobic interactions?
A question on a past exam for a course I'm studying for asks:
What's the relation between Van der Waals forces and hydrophobic
interactions?
From what I understand, Van der Waals forces are ...
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Why don't we see these lanthanide species?
For most lanthanide metals$^{[1]}$, the stable oxidation state is III. The general electronic structure$^{[2]}$ is $$\ce{[Xe] 4f^{0}^{-14} 5s^2 5p^6 5d^{0}^{-1} 6s^2}.$$
Elements that have the d-...
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Ozone is above, nitrogen is below
Ozone is heavier than nitrogen. Then why is ozone in stratosphere and nitrogen in troposphere?
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Electrical conductivity of graphite
On this Wikipedia page, the electrical conductivity of various materials are given in the third column ($\sigma \text{ (S/m) at 20}^\circ \text{C}$). I am interested in the entry for Carbon (graphite)...
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How to find the second order perturbation to wave function?
Today, I'm looking for how to find the 2nd perturbation to the base in Rayleigh Schrödinger Perturbation Theory (RSPT).
SETUP
Starting from the 2nd order perturbation in Dirac's notation:
\begin{...
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Why don't equivalent hydrogens cause splitting in NMR?
When doing NMR spectroscopy, it is an observed fact that equivalent hydrogens do not split one another. Why don't equivalent hydrogens split each other's signals? For example, why is the NMR spectrum ...
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Is activation energy temperature-independent?
I know that activation energy for a reaction is the extra energy given to the reactants to reach the threshold energy so that they can collide and react. But then, why is it said that the activation ...
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Do bare protons exist, even transiently, in aqueous solution?
Generally $\ce{H^+}$ ions in water remain in the form of hydronium ions ($\ce{H3O+}$), and not as "free" aqueous protons, as far as I've been taught.
My question: is this always the case, even when ...
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Destabilization of antibonding MO vs stabilization of bonding MO
My textbook writes that
The net energy stabilization due to the occupation of a bonding MO is equal to the net energy destabilization due to the occupation of the corresponding antibonding MO.
...
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Why is CO practically nonpolar?
This question was in my book. According to me CO should be polar as it should have a dipole moment.
But I found that the $\sigma$-electron drift from C to O is almost nullified by the $\pi$-electron ...
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Law of mass action & Collision Theory
I don't understand why the stoichiometric coefficients of reactants and products are expotentialized in law of mass action.
So I checked on Wikipedia. And this popped out:
In the 1879 paper[9] the ...
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Why does the equilibrium constant depend on the temperature but not on pressure and concentration?
According to my textbook (and intuitively) certain changes when the aforementioned 3 variables are altered occur in accordance with Le Chatelier's Principle. However, what I don't understand is what ...
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Scientific Reason for Salt Solution Gaining Volume
A little background to this question: my mom placed a glass with salt and enough water to just cover the salt in a room to "absorb negative energy" out of the room at her office. It obviously "worked"....
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Gibbs Free Energy and Maximum Work
I am a high school student and my professor mentioned that the Gibbs free energy is the maximum amount of work (or useful work) that a system can do, whereas entropy is a measure of the non-available ...
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What are the units of Kc and Kp?
They are both equilibrium constants as far as I know.
Kc is in terms of molarity and Kp is in terms of pressure. Also both of them are ratios of respective quantities [ ratio of molarity(s) in Kc and ...
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What exactly is happening when sodium, potassium, or other alkali metal explodes in water?
There are lots of videos on YouTube showing sodium, potassium, etc. exploding when dropped into water (this, for example).
I understand that when an alkali metal is exposed to water, a violent ...
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When is it true that more nodes equals higher energy?
Consider all the MOs of some isolated molecule. (It could be a single
atom too; I'll use MO to refer to AOs as well.) Number them in
increasing order of the number of nodes (node = surface where the ...
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Can magnetic fields affect a chemical reaction?
This question was asked recently in an interview and I just said that "Yeah, like if the reaction involves ions or paramagnetic species". But the interviewer went on and asked me to elaborate on HOW ...
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Why do branched chain compounds have lower boiling points than the corresponding straight chain isomers?
The branched chain compounds have lower boiling points than the corresponding straight chain isomers. For example,
$\ce{CH_3CH_2CH_2CH_2CH_3}$ -
No branching-Pentane (n-pentane) ($\mathrm{...
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