Learning objectives
To provide the basis knowledge of chemistry needed to face the subsequent chemistry-based disciplines, as well as the first tools for evaluating the chemical composition/charatcteristics relationship of a food.
Course unit content
<p>Matter: states of the matter, elements, compounds, mixtures (homogeneous and heterogeneous), atoms and isotopes, atomic mass, ion, mole. <br />
Electronic structure of the atom: electromagnetic spectrum, interactions between light and matter (brief accounts), atomic model (Bohr), quantum atomic model (introduction), atomic orbitals (s, p, d, f), electronic configuration of the elements, the periodic table. <br />
Periodic properties: ionization potential, electronic affinity, electronegativity, atomic radius, ionic radius. <br />
Chemical bond: ionic bond, characteristics of the ionic compounds; covalent bond (omopolar and heteropolar), Lewis structures, bond properties (order, length, strength), resonance structure, radicals, VSEPR theory, polarity of the molecules, valence bond theory, hybridization (sp, sp2, sp3), hybridization of the carbon atom, MO theory (brief accounts); hydrogen bond, consequences on the physical-chemistry properties of water, importance in biological systems (brief accounts). <br />
Stoichiometry: oxidation states; chemical formulae and nomenclature of the main inorganic compound classes. <br />
Chemical reactions in acqueous solution: acid-base reactions, precipitation reactions, reaction which occur with evolution of a gas, red-ox (brief accounts), combustion reactions. <br />
Gas: particle description of a gas; gas laws (Boyle, Gay-Lussac, Charles, Avogadro); ideal behaviour of a gas; gas density; gas diffusion; kinetic theory (Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution and Graham law); identification of the aromatic profile of a food (brief accounts); real gases (Van der Waals equation); partial pressure of a component of a gaseous mixture. <br />
Liquids: particle description of a liquid; intermolecular interactions (ion-dipole, permanent dipole-permanent dipole, permanent dipole-induced dipole, instantaneous dipole-instantaneous dipole), consequences of the physical properties of a substance, consequences on some physical properties of the substances (evaporation and boiling of water); vapour pressure, evaporation and boiling (dependence on T e P); supercritic fluid, CO2 decaffeination; surface tension of a liquid; capillarity. <br />
Solids: particle description of a solid; crystal and amorphous solids; crystal lattice, unit cell and symmetry (brief accounts); classification of crystal solids (ionic, covalently bound crystals, molecular, metallic); liquid crystals (brief accounts). <br />
Physical changes: heat transfer during ice melting and boiling water, superheated steam, thermal capacity of water; state diagram of a substance (H2O and CO2); lyophilization. <br />
Solutions: solute-solvent matching (polarity); dissolution processes (complete dissociation, partial dissociation, solvation); miscibility of gases; miscibility of liquids, dispersions (emulsions, foams, suspensions, fogs and smokes), colloidals, Tyndall effect; ways to indicate the concentration of a solution (weight percent, volume percent, ppm, molar fraction, molarity, molality); water as beverage, hardness of water, classification of mineral water on the basis of its saline content; alcoholic solutions; concentration or dilution of a solution. <br />
Solubility: saturated solutions; dependence on T, exothermic and endothermic dissolutions (industrial uses for the preparation of "instant beverages"); Raoult laws and ideal solutions; deviation by the ideal behaviour; distillation of an ideal mixture; distillation of a water-ethanol mixture (azeotrope); how to obtain absolute ethyl alcohol (drying agent); solubility of a gas into a liquid (Henry law), dependence on T; colligative properties (changes in vapour pressure, boiling point elevation, freezing point depression, osmosis and osmotic pressure); inverse osmosis; brain (uses). <br />
Chemical equilibria: reversibility of a chemical reaction; equilibrium constant; disturbing a chemical equilibrium (Le Chatelier's Principle). <br />
Acids and bases: water autoionization, ionization constant for water; pH, how to determine the pH of a water solutions (pH indicators, pHmeter); strength of an acid (base), dissociation constants for weak acids and bases, correlation between Ka and Kb; calculation of pH of water solutions of strong acids (bases), weak acids (bases), salts (acid or alkaline hydrolysis); calculation of pH of aqueous solutions of acids containing more than one proton or of bases containing more than one hydroxide ion; buffer solutions. <br />
Thermodynamic: system and surroundings; open or isolated system; heat transfer from system and surroundings; in finding a criterion for the spontaneity of a chemical process; enthalpy; exothermic and endothermic processes; entropy, processes entropically favoured or disfavoured; free energy of Gibbs, correlation with the heat reaction, entropy variation and T; thermodynamically favoured processes. <br />
Kinetic: reaction rate, parameters which influence the reaction rate (structure of the reagents, contact between the reagents, T, concentration of the reagents), kinetic law and reaction order (introduction); collision theory, activated complex and activation energy; kinetically favoured (unfavoured) processes (kinetic-thermodynamic correlation), catalyst and enzyme (introduction). <br />
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Bibliography
Chemistry, Kotz and Treichel, EDISES <br />
Lecture notes covering the entire program will be furnished <br />
Teaching methods
<p>During lessons some topics will be discussed in terms of simple exercises (moles. stoichiometry, solutions chemistry).</p>
<p>The written exam is constitueted by ten questions covering the entire program which admitts, once passed, to an oral session regarding the mistakes found in the written elaborate.</p>
