For each course that I teach, a web site is created at https://ublearns.buffalo.edu. The syllabus, announcements, homework assignments, and additional course material are available for download at UBLearns. You need a valid UB IT login name and password, and be enrolled as a student, to be able to access the course web pages. Registered students get enrolled as student participants for the course at UBLearns usually 7 days prior to the day when classes start.
Course numbers below 500 are for undergraduate courses. If a 5XX number is given together with a 4XX number, this is a graduate course that is cross listed for undergraduates.
Part II of General Chemistry, or ‘Physical Chemistry Lite’ as I call it. Lots of equilibrium thermodynamics & chemical kinetics, nuclear chemistry, electrochemistry, metal complexes, properties of solutions.
Thermodynamics & kinetics. Part I of the usual 2-semester Physical Chemistry sequence for Chemistry majors. I taught this course for 2/3 of the semester after a colleague went on medical leave.
Introductory quantum theory for chemists. Part II of the usual 2-semester Physical Chemistry sequence for Chemistry majors. You can download the syllabus for 2021 here.
CHE 329 is the main undergraduate physical chemistry laboratory course (2 credits). I haven’t taught this course in a while. You can download the 2014 syllabus here.
This 2-credit upper-level undergraduate laboratory course offers a variety of beginner’s computational chemistry modules, for example on the endo vs. exo preference of the Diels Alder reaction, the structure and properties of carbon nanotubes, modeling of molecular switches, calculation of the pH dependence of the optical rotation of amino acids, or modeling of the effects of unpaired electrons on NMR chemical shifts. You can download the 2017 syllabus here.
Introductory quantum theory, band structure theory, some statistical thermodynamics, and basic kinetic gas theory. You can download the 2022 syllabus here.
CHE 349 is a one-semester all-in-one physical chemistry course designed for students of the life sciences. Chemical and physical equilibria, reaction kinetics, enzyme kinetics, protein structure determination, spectroscopic methods applied to problems in bio-sciences, and other topics. Follow this link for a description of the physical origin of optical activity as it is presented in this course. Applications to biomolecules are discussed in class, based on the textbook examples by Tinoco and Sauer. I haven’t taught this course in a while. You can download the 2009 syllabus here.
The focus of this course is on the foundations of the molecular orbital model and its applications in chemistry. The course includes several computational exercises with a quantum chemistry program. I haven’t taught this course in a while. You can download the 2010 syllabus here.
Special topics course centered around molecular orbital theory, electronic structure methods, and computational chemistry. Topics are selected from: Molecular orbital theory, the nature of the chemical bond, Hartree Fock method, electron correlation, heavy elements and relativistic quantum theory, static response and NMR parameter calculation, dynamic response & linear and nonlinear optical and spectroscopic properties, and others. You can download the 2019 syllabus here.
Response theory ‘for the rest of us’, with applications to electronic spectra and NMR. Basic aspects of photochemistry. You can download the 2011 syllabus here.
Topics:
Theory and computation of NMR parameters
Time dependent properties, absorption spectra, optical activity
Introductory band structure theory
Each course unit consists of a 5-week lecture series, one homework assignment with ‘paper & pencil’ problem sets to get familiar with the theoretical background, and one computational exercise where we apply what we learned to a ‘real-life’ problem. For units A and B we use a quantum chemistry program for molecules to study and analyze NMR parameters and optical activity for small organic molecules. In unit C, we use the Stuttgart LMTO program package to carry out band structure calculations for metals, semi-metals and insulators. There are detailed syllabi for each unit available. An overview of the 3-unit course can be downloaded here.