Preparatory material for incoming students: physical chemistry

1. All of the physical chemistry tutorials at St Edmund Hall are given by Prof. David Manolopoulos.

2. There will be three first year physical chemistry tutorials in the Michaelmas term, one in week 1, one in week 3, and one in week 6.

3. The physical chemistry lectures in the Michaelmas term are as follows:

The Physical Basis of Chemistry: The role of chargeDr N.J.B. Green4 lectures

The Physical Basis of Chemistry: Properties of gases and classical mechanicsProf. M.I. Wallace8 lectures

Foundations of Physical Chemistry: Chemical ThermodynamicsProf. D.E. Manolopoulos13 lectures

The first two of these lecture courses are regarded as physics for chemistry and will be covered in classes with a doctoral student. The third is a major physical chemistry course which will be the focus of the first terms tutorials.

4. To prepare yourself for these courses, please buy a copy of Atkins Physical Chemistry, by Peter Atkins and Julio de Paula (10th Edition, Oxford University Press, 2014, available from amazon.co.uk for 44.99), study Chapter 1 on the properties of gases and Chapter 2 on the first law of thermodynamics, and answer the 5 questions on the next page before you arrive in Oxford. We shall go through these questions in the tutorial in week 1.

5. Atkins Physical Chemistry is the only physical chemistry textbook you will need to buy for your first year at Oxford. It is quite expensive at 44.99 for the paperback version. However, please note that College Grant funds are available to support the purchase of essential course materials, currently at the rate of 300 per year, of which 50 may be used to purchase books.

DEM, 14 July 2016

Preparatory material for incoming students: inorganic chemistry

1. All of the 1st year inorganic chemistry tutorials at St Edmund Hall are given by Professor Philip

Mountford. Currently the 2nd and 3rd year tutorials are given by Dr Mike Laidlaw, a college

lecturer.

2. There will be two first year inorganic chemistry tutorials in Michaelmas term on the following

topics in weeks 4 and 7, respectively:

a) Atomic structure and periodic trends

b) The ionic model

3. The inorganic chemistry lectures in Michaelmas term are as follows:

a) Atomic Structure and Periodic Trends (6 lectures) by Professor C. R. Timmel

b) Ionic Model and Structures of Solids (5 lectures) by Professors A. L. Goodwin and M. A.

Hayward.

These lectures set up some of the basic principles you will use throughout your course. You can

see that the first two tutorials closely support (and are supported by) these lecture courses. A

further tutorial, Structures of Solids, early on in Hilary term completes the support of the

Michaelmas term lectures.

4. To help prepare for your first year courses please buy Inorganic Chemistry by M. Weller, T.

Overton, J. Rourke and F. Armstrong (2014, 6th edition, published by OUP ISBN 978-0-19-

964182-6, available from Amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/Inorganic-Chemistry-Mark-

Weller/dp/019964182X/ref=dp_ob_title_bk and read chapters 1 (Atomic structure) and 3 (The

structures of simple solids) in detail. This book is not cheap but will be a helpful starting point

for many of your inorganic chemistry topics for the first two years. You will be referred to a wide

number of specialist books for various topics throughout your course, and these will be available

in the college and university libraries. You will probably wish to buy several more of your own

books as time goes on. The Oxford chemistry course is one of the best and most rigorous in the

UK: you will find it goes beyond general one-stop university books almost all of the time. Note

that College Grant funds are available to support the purchase of essential course materials,

currently at the rate of 300 per year, of which 50 may be used to purchase books. Many

lecturers provide very comprehensive lecture handouts to accompany their courses.

1

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Inorganic-Chemistry-Mark-Weller/dp/019964182X/ref=dp_ob_title_bkhttps://www.amazon.co.uk/Inorganic-Chemistry-Mark-Weller/dp/019964182X/ref=dp_ob_title_bk

5. After having read Chapter 1 of Inorganic Chemistry please attempt the questions below. These

are taken from the first tutorial sheet that you will do in week 4. You do not need to hand these in

when you come up to Oxford.

a) What do the quantum numbers n, l, ml and ms represent ? What are their allowed values ?

b) What is meant by the terms "shielding", "penetration", "the inert pair effect" and "the

lanthanide contraction" ? Why are these important for understanding the Periodic Table?

c) Define the following terms: "ionisation energy", "electron affinity", "electronegativity". Give

examples of how these vary down a group and across a row of the Periodic Table.

d) Explain the variation in the orbital energies of the 2s and 2p orbitals in Li2+ and Li given in

the table below (hint: think about penetration and shielding effects).

2s (kJ mol-1) 2p (kJ mol-1)

Li2+ -2,951 -2,951

Li -520 -342

e) Explain the variations in the first ionisation energies for the elements Na to Ar shown in the

figure below. Be sure to think about the importance of exchange energy at the 3p3 and 3p6

maxima.

Philip Mountford

4 August 2016

2

St Edmund Hall Incoming 1st years Organic Chemistry

Your organic chemistry tutorials for the duration of your degree at Oxford will be given by Matt

Rattley. Ahead of arriving at Oxford, Id like you to do the following:

1) Revise the organic chemistry youve studied in school or college. While the content youve learned over the last few years will quickly be superseded, it helps to at least be completely

secure in the principles youve learned so far, since that is the foundation we build from.

That said dont spend time memorising reagents much better is to focus on the principles

of the things you have learned so far. Thats an approach that well be using from day 1 and

throughout your degree!

2) Get some key resources: a. The standard textbook that is used in Oxford is Organic Chemistry by Clayden,

Greaves and Warren (1st edition also with Wothers) usually just called Clayden

either the 1st or 2nd editions are fine and if you dont manage to get a copy before

you arrive then you can easily pick one up in bookstores here;

b. A fantastic resource for first years in particular is Keynotes in Organic Chemistry by Andy Parsons if you can master this book then you can expect to do very well in

your end-of-first year examinations. Again, 1st or 2nd editions are fine, and there are

copies available in Oxford as well;

c. In your first year in particular youll benefit greatly from a model kit. Any type of kit will do, and youre not going to need vast numbers of atoms and bonds just

something that you can use to construct simple shapes and small molecules. Organic

chemistry is a very 3D subject and becomes a lot easier if you can hold and

manipulate a model rather than just working on a 2D piece of paper.

You will probably need to get some more resources when you are here, but until you

arrive its impossible to say what books you will find helpful or need to use. Oxford has

one of the best libraries in the world, so Id recommend borrowing books from there,

and if theres a book you find yourself using all the time, it is probably worth buying your

own copy.

Bear in mind as well, since this can be very expensive especially at the beginning of the

year, the college offers a grant for purchasing key resources. This is currently 300, of

which 50 can go towards books.

3) Get a diary (paper or electronic) and put the following lectures into it. Lectures make up a huge amount of your teaching in Oxford and especially in first year, and you need to be

attending all of them. In organic chemistry, the timetable is:

a. Introduction to Organic Chemistry, Prof Steve Davies Mon 9am (weeks 1-4), Thu 9am (weeks 1-3);

b. Organic Spectroscopy I, Prof Tim Claridge Thu 9am week 4, Mon 9am week 5; c. Orbitals and Mechanisms, Prof Rob Paton Thu 9am (weeks 5-8), Mon 9am (weeks

6-8).

4) Attempt the tutorial sheet attached to this document. Ill be having tutorials with you in weeks 2, 5 and 8. The first sheet is on the fundamentals of organic chemistry; week 5 is on

organic acids and bases; and week 8 is on stereochemistry. These 3 topics form the

foundation for 95% of the rest of the organic chemistry course. Once you arrive in Oxford

youll have a meeting with your tutors, and well give you more information on the format of

these tutorials.

Organic Chemistry Tutorial 1: Introduction to Organic Chemistry Reading You should read the following to help you to answer the problems in this tutorial: Clayden, Greeves and Warren: Organic Chemistry, Chs. 2 (pgs. 15-42), 4 (pgs. 80-106), 5 (pgs. 107-124) and 7 (pgs. 141-162) You may also find Hornby and Peach: Foundations of Organic Chemistry (OUP Chemistry Primer #9) helpful if you can find a copy in a library, but it isnt essential reading and I dont suggest you buy it Summary Make sure you read up on and understand the following topics: Molecular Orbitals: Atomic Orbitals; Molecular Orbitals bonding, nonbonding, antibonding; Hybridisation, e.g. sp, sp2, sp3; The concept of Valence and the Octet Ru