Chemistry 30

Unit 1: Thermochemical Changes

Every chemical change moves energy. This unit tracks that energy — from the sunlight stored in a hydrocarbon bond, through enthalpy, formation data and Hess's law, to the energy diagrams and catalysts that explain how fast and how far a reaction releases or absorbs heat.

• Analyzing heat transfer with Q = mcΔt
• Stored chemical energy came from the sun
• Enthalpy and molar enthalpy
• Balanced equations that include energy changes

• Using and interpreting ΔH notation
• Predicting ΔH from standard enthalpies of formation
• Hess's law for net reactions
• Enthalpy changes from calorimetry data

• Reactants and products of key energy reactions
• Classifying reactions as endothermic or exothermic
• Activation energy as the energy barrier
• Energy changes from bonds breaking and forming

• Analyzing and labelling energy diagrams
• How catalysts speed reactions

Unit 2: Electrochemical Changes

Chemistry that moves electrons. From defining oxidation and reduction, through ranking agents by strength and balancing redox equations, to the voltaic and electrolytic cells — batteries, corrosion and electroplating — that turn electron transfer into useful electricity or use electricity to force a reaction.

• Defining oxidation and reduction
• Redox terms: agents, oxidation number, half-reactions
• Telling redox reactions apart from other reactions
• Redox in living and nonliving systems

• Comparing strengths of oxidizing and reducing agents
• Predicting spontaneity from reduction potentials

• Writing and balancing redox equations
• Calculations for redox titrations

• The parts of an electrochemical cell
• Voltaic vs electrolytic cells
• Predicting the half-reaction at each electrode
• When predicted reactions do not occur

• Reduction potentials relative to the hydrogen electrode
• Calculating standard cell potential
• Spontaneity from cell potential
• Faraday's law and cell stoichiometry

Unit 3: Chemical Changes of Organic Compounds

The chemistry of carbon — the element behind fuels, plastics, medicines and life itself. This unit names and draws organic molecules by IUPAC rules, links their structure to their properties, and works through the reactions (addition, substitution, esterification, combustion, polymerization) that turn fossil fuels into everyday materials.

• Defining organic compounds
• Significant organic compounds in daily life
• IUPAC naming and drawing organic structures
• Identifying compound types from functional groups

• Structural isomerism
• Comparing boiling points and solubility
• Separating organic compounds from mixtures

• The five organic reaction types
• Predicting products and balancing organic equations
• Monomers, polymers and polymerization
• Organic reactions and the fossil-fuel economy

Unit 4: Chemical Equilibrium Focusing on Acid–Base Systems

Reactions that never truly finish. This unit builds the idea of dynamic equilibrium, predicts how a system shifts under stress with Le Chatelier's principle, then applies equilibrium to acids and bases — Brønsted–Lowry proton transfer, conjugate pairs, buffers, and the constants $K_w$, $K_a$ and $K_b$ that let us calculate pH.

• Defining equilibrium and its criteria
• Writing equations for systems at equilibrium
• Le Chatelier's principle
• The equilibrium constant Kc and equilibrium-law expressions

• Brønsted–Lowry acids and bases
• Writing Brønsted–Lowry equations and predicting the favoured side
• Conjugate pairs and amphiprotic substances
• Buffers

• Recalling pH, pOH and ion concentration
• Using Kw, Ka and Kb
• Equilibrium constant and concentration calculations