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Concepts for Final Exam

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    The final is comprehensive. The following lists are meant as a guide for studying for the exam. Suggested homework problems from the textbook along with problems for the main group chemistry section are listed on myUCDavis.

    Electrochemistry

    You should be able to use and explain the following terms:

    • Oxidation state
    • Standard electrode potential
    • Cell potential/electromotive force
    • Standard cell potential
    • Oxidation and reduction potential
    • Half-cell
    • Salt bridge
    • Anode and Cathode
    • Voltaic cell
    • Electrolytic cell
    • Standard hydrogen electrode
    • Gibbs free energy
    • Equilibrium constant
    • Nernst equation
    • Concentration cell
    • Primary and secondary batteries
    • Fuel cell
    • Corrosion
    • Sacrificial anode
    • Electroplating

    You should be able to:

    • Write the half reactions for a redox reaction
    • Balance redox reactions in acidic and basic environment
    • Write the cell diagram for an electrochemical cell
    • Draw a sketch of an electrochemical cell (both voltaic and electrolytic) showing the anode, cathode, direction of electrons and ions, and the signs of anode and cathode
    • Calculate the standard cell potential from the standard electrode potentials
    • Calculate the cell potential using the Nernst equation
    • Calculate DG° and K from E°cell and vice versa
    • Determine if a cell is a voltaic or electrolytic cell from the cell potential or DG

    Transition metals, coordination complexes,and main group chemistry

    You should be able to use and explain the following terms:

    • Atomic orbital
    • Lanthanide contraction
    • Shielding
    • Spin
    • Coordination number
    • Coordination sphere
    • Donor atom
    • Ligand
    • Chelate (and chelation)
    • Degenerate
    • Chirality
    • Optical active
    • Spectrochemical series
    • Pairing energy
    • Monodentate, bidentate, polydentate
    • Stereoisomers and structural isomers
    • Ferromagnetism, paramagnetism, diamagnetism
    • Strong field ligand and weak field ligand
    • Hydride
    • Nitride
    • Oxide, superoxide, peroxide
    • Inert pair effect
    • Allotrope
    • Metal, non-metal, and metalloid or semi metal

    You should be able to:

    • Locate the following groups in the periodic table:
      • The alkali metals
      • The alkaline earth metals
      • The halogens
      • The noble gases
      • The transition metals
      • Metals, non-metal (and semi metals)
    • Write the electronic structure for any element (including transition metals) in a given oxidation state
    • Describe the periodic trends (both for transition metals and main group elements) for
      • Atomic size
      • Electronegativity
      • Melting points
      • Electrode potentials
      • Ionization energies
      • Oxidation states
      • Metallic character
    • Predict if an element is diamagnetic or paramagnetic
    • Explain what a coordination complex is
    • Write formulas, Lewis structures and names for the common ligands in table 24.2
    • Draw structures of coordination complexes in octahedral, tetrahedral, square planar, and linear geometries
    • Name coordination complexes
    • Predict magnetic properties of coordination compounds in either of the four geometries using CFT
    • Predict colors using CFT (see examples of problem types in notes)
    • Calculate crystal field splitting from wavelength absorbed and vice versa
    • Isomerism: Ionization, coordination, linkage, geometric, and optical isomers. (Identify isomers and draw structures)
    • Explain why degeneracy of the d orbitals is broken in CFT
    • Explain the significance of the formation constant
    • Write reactions of group 1 and 2 with H2O, H2, O2, and the halides
    • Reactions of the group 1 and 2 oxides with water
    • Write the CO2, HCO3, and CO32– equilibria
    • Predict which main group elements form ionic hydrides and which ones form covalent hydrides
    • Predict the most common oxidation states of main group elements
    • Identify most stable oxidation state from electrode potentials
    • Explain why the chemistry of the lighter elements in a group is significantly different than the rest of the group
    • Predict ionic character of a binary compounds from the oxidation states of the metal

    Kinetics

    You should be able to use and explain the following terms:

    • Reaction rate
    • Instantaneous and average rate
    • Rate law
    • Rate constant
    • Reaction order
    • Overall reaction order
    • Method of initial rates
    • Zero-, first-, and second-order reactions
    • Integrated rate law
    • Half-life
    • Collision theory
      • Transition state
      • Transition state theory
      • Arrhenius equation
      • Activation energy
      • Reaction mechanism
      • Elementary step
      • Rate determining step
      • Intermediate
      • Molecularity
      • Catalyst

    You should be able to:

    • Calculate the reaction rate from experimental data
    • Calculate formation and disappearance rates of reactants and products from the reaction rate
    • Determine the rate law from experimental data and calculate the rate constant
    • Calculate concentrations at later times from the rate law.
    • Calculate the activation energy from temperature dependent measurements of the reaction rate.
    • Find the rate law for a proposed mechanism
      • Fast step(s) followed by slow step
      • Slow step followed by fast step(s)

    Nuclear Reactions

    You should be able to use and explain the following terms:

    • Radioactivity
    • Ionizing radiation
    • a decay
    • b decay (b- and b+)
    • g radiation
    • Electron capture
    • position
    • neutron, proton
    • Isotope
    • Activity
    • Daughter and parent nuclide
    • Decay series
    • Transuranium elements
    • Decay constant, l
    • Mass defect
    • Binding energy
    • Belt of stability
    • Magic numbers
    • Chain reaction
    • Fusion and fission
    • Critical mass

    You should be able to:

    • Determine the number of protons and neutrons in an isotope
    • Write equations for nuclear reactions
    • Calculate activity of a sample
    • Predict the relative stability of nuclides using the belt of stability and magic numbers
    • Calculate the energy released in a nuclear reaction


    Concepts for Final Exam is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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