Chemistry

Course summary

Chemistry attempts to answer the big question ‘what is the world made of’ and it’s the search for this answer that makes this subject so fascinating. From investigating how one substance can be changed drastically into another, to researching a new wonder drug to save millions of lives, the opportunities that chemistry provides are endless. First year of A Level Atomic structure, amount of substance, bonding, energetics, kinetics, chemical equilibrium, Le Chatelier’s principle, periodicity, Group 2 the alkaline earth metals, Group 7(17) the halogens, introduction to organic chemistry, alkanes, halogen alkanes and alkenes. Second year of A Level Thermodynamics, rate equations, the equilibrium constant, electrode potentials and electrochemical cells, properties of Period 3 elements and their oxides, transition metals, reactions of ions in aqueous solution, optical isomerism, aldehydes and ketones, carboxylic acids and derivatives, aromatic chemistry, amines, polymers, amino acids, proteins and DNA, organic synthesis, NMR spectroscopy and chromatography.