This course aims to connect the principles, concepts, and laws/postulates of classical and statistical thermodynamics to applications that require quantitative knowledge of thermodynamic properties from a macroscopic to a molecular level. It covers their basic postulates of classical thermodynamics and their application to transient open and closed systems, criteria of stability and equilibria, as well as constitutive property models of pure materials and mixtures emphasizing molecular-level effects using the formalism of statistical mechanics. Phase and chemical equilibria of multicomponent systems are covered. Applications are emphasized through extensive problem work relating to practical cases.

Students explore materials engineering by modifying the material properties of water. Specifically, they use salt to lower the freezing point of water and test it by making ice cream. Using either a simple thermometer or a mechatronic temperature sensor, students learn about the lower temperature limit at which liquid water can exist such that even if placed in contact with a material much colder than 0 degrees Celsius, liquid water does not get colder than 0 °C. This provides students with an example of how materials can be modified (engineered) to change their equilibrium properties. They observe that when mixed with salt, liquid water's lower temperature limit can be dropped. Using salt-ice mixtures to cool the ice cream mixes to temperatures lower than 0 °C works better than ice alone.

Why does the Moon not always look the same to us? Sometimes it is a big, bright, circle, but, other times, it is only a tiny sliver, if we can see it at all. The different shapes and sizes of the slivers of the Moon are referred to as its phases, and they change periodically over the course of a lunar month, which is twenty-eight days long. The phases are caused by the relative positions of the Earth, Sun, and Moon at different times during the month.

Students work in teams of two to discover the relative positions of the Earth, Sun and Moon that produce the different phases of the Moon. Groups are each given a Styrofoam ball that they attach to a pencil so that it looks like a lollipop. In this acting-out model exercise, this ball on a stick represents the Moon, the students represent the Earth and a hanging lightbulb serves as the Sun. Students move the "Moon" around them to discover the different phases. They fill in the position of the Moon and its corresponding phase in a worksheet.

Students learn about the separation techniques of sedimentation and centrifugation and investigate whether blood is a homogeneous or a heterogeneous mixture. Working in groups as if they are biomedical researchers, they employ the scientific method and make observations about the known characteristics of urine, milk and blood. They probe further by analyzing research on the properties and fractionation modes of blood. As students learn about certain strange characteristics with the fractionation behavior of blood, they formulate hypotheses on the unique nature of blood. Using provided materials —olive oil, tomato juice and petroleum jelly—they design an experiment and construct a blood model. They test their hypotheses by conducting experiments on the blood model, and then propose theories for the nature of blood as a mixture—arriving at the theory of mixture dualism in blood—that blood is a complex mixture system. An activity-guiding handout and PowerPoint® presentation are provided for this student-directed, project-based activity.

In this course, the student will learn about the three laws of thermodynamics, thermodynamic principles, ideal and real gases, phases of matter, equations of state, and state changes. The student will also take a look at chemical kinetics--a branch of study concerned with the rates of reactions and other processes--as well as kinetic molecular theory and statistical mechanics, which relate the atomic-level motion of a large number of particles to the average thermodynamic behavior of the system as a whole. Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to: State and use laws of thermodynamics; Perform calculations with ideal and real gases; Design practical engines by using thermodynamic cycles; Predict chemical equilibrium and spontaneity of reactions by using thermodynamic principles; Describe the thermodynamic properties of ideal and real solutions; Define the phases of matter, describe phase changes, and interpret/construct phase diagrams; Relate macroscopic thermodynamic properties to microscopic states by using the principles of statistical thermodynamics; Describe reaction rates and then do calculations to determine them; Relate reaction kinetics to potential reaction mechanism; Calculate the temperature dependence of rate constants and relate that to activation energy; Describe a variety of complex reactions; Describe catalysis; Describe enzymatic catalysis. (Chemistry 105)