To apply the concepts of chemical kinetics to homogenous catalysis, reaction at surfaces and molecular reaction dynamics.
Kinetics and mechanism of atom and radical combination reactions, kinetics of solid state reactions, polymerization reaction, electron transfer reactions. Fast reactions: introduction, study of different techniques for fast reactions, flow techniques, relaxation techniques (including derivations), flash photolysis, shock tubes.
General catalytic mechanism: equilibrium treatment, steady state treatment, activation energies for catalyzed reactions.
Acid-base catalysis: mechanism, catalytic activity and acid base strength, acidity functions.
Enzyme catalysis: Michaelis menten mechanism, influence of substrate concentration, influence of pH, influence of temperature, transient phase kinetics.
Micellar catalysis, phase transfer catalysis, kinetics of inhibition.
Competitive adsorption, non-ideal adsorption, thermodynamics and statistical mechanics of adsorption, structures of solid surfaces and adsorbed layers, mechanism of surface reactions, unimolecular surface reactions, bimolecular surface reactions, transition state theory of surface reactions.
Molecular dynamical calculations: Reaction of H + H2, reaction of Br + H2. Chemiluminescence. Potential energy surfaces: selective enhancement of a reaction, disposal of excess energy, gradual and sudden surfaces, influence of rotational energy. Molecular beams: principle of crossed molecular beams, molecular encounter and principle parameters e.g. impact parameter, collision cross-section, reaction cross section and relation between reaction cross section and reaction rate (single velocity).
Photochemical reactions: photochemical primary process, law of photochemical equivalence, fate of the excited molecules. Photophysical kinetics of unimolecular processes, delayed fluorescence, effect of temperature, bimolecular collisions in gases and solutions, mechanism and kinetics of quenching: Stern-Volmer equation, concentration dependence of quenching and excimer formation.