CM2133 - FOUNDATIONS OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY

Brief Overview: 

CM2133 combines content from the previous 2 Physical Chem modules from the previous curriculum (CM1131 and CM2101). The first half of the module is taught by A/P Tan. He covers quantum mechanics and various spectroscopy techniques including NMR, IR, UV-Vis. Other lesser-used spectroscopic techniques such as Raman, EPR is briefly covered. While Prof Tan covers some of the "derivation" of the concepts he teachers, most of it is for supplementary knowledge and does not require rigorous mathematical knowledge to understand. The second half of the module is taught by Dr Xu. Topics include first, second, third law, calorimetry, chemical potential, Gibbs free energy, phase equilibra (pure substances + simple mixtures) and chemical kinetics.

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How did you find the assessments:

First 2 quizzes were MCQ only and were relatively doable as long as you know the content well. Last 2 quizzes had short answer and numerical calculation questions and were relatively harder. One had to ensure that one's understanding of the concepts is clear and accurate to do the questions.

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Apart from the assessments, how was your experience with this module: 

This module differs from regular introductory physical chemistry courses by introducing the principles of different spectroscopic techniques right from the outset instead of introducing basic thermodynamics (e.g. work, heat, first law etc.) I found this to be okay as Prof Tan's teachings were still accessible yet comprehensive. He makes the effort to explain more advanced concepts (e.g. interferometry, fourier transformation) and proofs (e.g. particle in a box) in a more intuitive way. This makes the content accessible even for students who do not have a strong mathematical background. Although I wished he delved deeper into some of the derivations in a more mathematically rigorous way, his content was okay overall. I found Dr. Xu's coverage on the thermodynamic & kinetic portion a little more iffy. There is a lot of content to be covered in thermodynamics. The slower lecture pace at the start made it such that a significant portion of content was not covered or examined for Quiz 3 and 4. For example, there was only one kinetics lecture which was not included in the quiz at all. Wolfram-alpha is a lifesaver during quizzes as many questions are math-heavy. To do well, one must be quite comfortable with mathematical manipulation within short time constraints.

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Workload: Moderate