Learning outcomes

Students at the end of the course will have acquired a good knowledge of the concepts of atoms and
chemical bonds. They will be able to understand and use the fundamental principles which characterize the properties of matter and how it reacts. Moreover they will have acquired knowledge on the chemical equilibria and on the acid/base properties of the substances.
The student will also become aware of the experimental work and safety issues in the
laboratory.

Prerequisites

Basic knowledge of mathematics.

Teaching methods

Theory: Lessons held with the help of slides.
Laboratory: demonstrations and exercises

Syllabus

The course is divided into a theoretical part and a laboratory.
1) Theoretical part:
–Fundamentals of chemistry. Definition of Chemistry. Periodic table of the elements.
Atomic number, mass number, isotopes. Bohr model. Definition of atomic orbital. Quantum
numbers and energy levels. Electronic configurations. Atomic radius, first ionization energy,
electronic affinity. Covalent bond. Lewis formulas and molecular geometry according to VSEPR.
Valence bond theory (VB) and hybridizations. Molecular orbital theory (MO). Ionic bond and the properties of ionic solids. Metal bonds and the properties of metals. Electrolytes and ions, acids, bases and salts.

State of aggregation of the matter. Definitions of solution, solvent, solute and concentration.
Chemical formulas and percentage composition. Definition of mole. Balancing of chemical
equations. General information on carbon compounds: bonds, chains,functional groups and classes
of compounds.
2) Practical part.
–Laboratory lessons, seminars and visits. The student will participate in some simple practical laboratory experiments. Some seminars will be based on the practical and advanced aspects of chemistry and materials. These seminars will be connected to a visit to the research labs of the Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry (DCCI). A further visit to the Department of Chemical Engineering, Industrial Chemistry and Materials Sciences (DICCISM) will also be planned.

Bibliography

The lecture slides can be downloaded from the course website.
Additional materials can be found on the web site
The Chemistry LibreTexts library (https://chem.libretexts.org)
which is a US multi-institutional collaborative venture to develop open-access chemistry textbooks.

Assessment methods

Written tests at the end of both the theoretical and the experimental part.
Laboratory report