Description
Book SynopsisThis book introduces in a non-traditional way the laws of physical chemistry and its history starting in the 16th century. It reveals to the reader how physical chemists try to understand chemical processes in terms of physical laws. Hydrogen is the main focus of the book as its simplicity makes the relevant laws of nature easy to explain and its role in energetics in the near future is clear. With the basics at hand, the importance of hydrogen as a raw material in the industry and as an energy carrier in the near future is made clear. Only simple chemical processes are discussed and very little mathematics is used. Both the pleasure and use of this field of research are revealed to the interested reader. The expected readership is made of high school students, non-chemistry major freshmen, and general audience with an interest in chemistry. The real aim of this book is to prompt the reader to wonder.
Table of ContentsI. Toward science1. Farewell to Alchemy – Paracelsus
2. Fruitful doubts – Boyle
3. The birth of physical chemistry – Lavoisier
4. The balloon
Some further reading to Part I
II. Between chemistry and physics
5. The well-chosen unit of mass
6. Atoms counted and weighed
7. The ideal of a gas
8. The reality of gases – from gas to liquid
9. The science of possibilities – thermodynamics
10. Pressure and temperature – inside
11. Predictions on molar heat
12. New physics?
13. Things lost, conserved and born
14. Rule and exception
15. On molar heat – once more
16. The hydrogen atom – is something revolving and spinning?
17. Atoms – electrons are unaccommodating
18. The hydrogen molecule – to have some elbow room
19. Different kinds of the hydrogen molecule?
20. Different kinds of hydrogen atom?
21. Water
Some further reading to Part II
III. Which way and how fast
22. Hydrogen and fertilizer
23. The double arrow – chemical equilibrium
24. Time counts – rates of the changes
25. Real processes are rarely simple
26. How to produce ammonia
Some further reading to Part III
IV. Chemistry of the outer space
Some further reading to Part IV
V. Hydrogen and energy
27. Some questions about near-future energetics
28. Direct storage of electric energy
29. Hydrogen energetics
30. Hydrogen production in the future continuous tense
31. Sunlight and hydrogen
32. Hydrogen storage in solids
Some further reading to Part V
Conclusions
