DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY

Chemical equilibrium, aqueous solution equilibria, chemical kinetics, metals in chemistry and biology, oxidation-reduction reactions and electrochemistry. Must be taken concurrently with the Chem 142-0 laboratory course. 

Prerequisite: Chem 131-0 and Chem 141-0 (C- or better in both courses). Students may not start the sequence in this course. All General Chemistry course sequences start in Fall Quarter.

Chemistry laboratory techniques applied to materials science and nanotechnology, acid-base chemistry, and chemical kinetics. Planning, data collection, interpretation, and reporting on experiments. Must be taken concurrently with CHEM 132-0.

Prerequisite: CHEM 131-0 and CHEM 141-0 (C- or better in both courses). 

This class is a chemistry class designed for non-scientists. Students will look at atoms, molecules, and compounds, but not with the rigorous treatment that is found in a typical chemistry course. We will avoid the physics and math that are employed in a typical chemistry class. By reading about and researching various chemistry topics, students will come to appreciate the presence and importance of chemistry in every aspect of day-to-day life.

Students in this course may not have taken General Chemistry or Organic Chemistry at Northwestern unless by department permission (please contact chemhelp@northwestern.edu to request permission).

Advanced concepts in modern organic chemistry will be introduced. The material will focus on recent developments in synthetic organic chemistry, including: concerted/pericyclic reactions, catalysis, green/environmental chemistry, automated synthesis, and combinatorial/screening methods.

Prerequisite: CHEM 215-2 and CHEM 235-2 (C– or better in both courses). Must be taken concurrently with CHEM 235-3.

Introduction to basic laboratory techniques in analytical chemistry and spectroscopy. Topics include infrared and UV-visible spectroscopy, gas and liquid chromatography, elemental and thermal analysis, simple x-ray diffraction, error analysis, and literature searching techniques.

Prerequisite: CHEM 172-0 and CHEM 182-0 *or* CHEM 152-0 and CHEM 162-0 *or* CHEM 132-0 and CHEM 142-0 *or* equivalent (C- or better in all listed courses).

Current laboratory practices for organic synthesis will be introduced. Reactions will include mechanistically complex multi-step process for the preparation of compounds related to topical themes from academic research and industrial chemistry. Synthetic targets will include complex small molecules, polymers, and molecules of biological relevance.

Prerequisite: CHEM 215-2 and CHEM 235-2 *or* CHEM 217-2 and CHEM 237-2 (C– or better in both courses). Must be taken concurrently with CHEM 215-3 or CHEM 217-3.

This is a survey course designed to show how organic chemistry plays a major role in the design, development, and action of drugs. Although concepts of biology, biochemistry, pharmacy, physiology, and pharmacology will be discussed, it is principally an organic chemistry course with the emphasis on physical interactions and chemical reactions and their mechanisms as applied to biological systems. We will see how drugs are discovered and developed; how they get to their site of action; what happens when they reach the site of action in their interaction with receptors, enzymes, and DNA; how resistance occurs; how the body gets rid of drugs, and what a medicinal chemist can do to avoid having the body eliminate them before they have produced their desired effect. The approaches discussed are those used in the pharmaceutical industry and elsewhere for the discovery of new drugs.

Prerequisite: CHEM 215-3 or CHEM 212-3 or CHEM 217-3 (C- or better); or consent of instructor.

Taught with CHEM 415. Undergraduates should enroll in CHEM 316, unless they are officially completing the BA/MS program.

Gas laws and properties; kinetic theory; first, second, and third laws; phase equilibria; mixtures, phase diagrams, statistical thermodynamics, kinetics.

Prerequisites: ISP enrollment; CHEM 172 and CHEM 182; Math 281-1,2,3; or consent of department.

Green chemistry is defined by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as the design of chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use or generation of hazardous substances. This also encompasses the reduction of energy consumption during the aforementioned processes. Green chemistry can be thought to span the life cycle of a chemical product, including its design, manufacture, use, and ultimate disposal. 

This class will seek to develop a broad view on green chemistry, with focus on exploring the economic, health and regulatory considerations which make it a multi-billion dollar enterprise. An emphasis on practical real-world scenarios (case studies) that provide us guidance in making better socially conscience decisions will be made. The course can be viewed primarily as being concerned with the philosophy of chemistry as dictated by our modern world in the 21st Century.

Prerequisite: CHEM 215-3 or CHEM 212-3 or CHEM 217-3 (C- or better).

By the end of this course you will expected to have obtained a general understanding of many commonly used measurement techniques available to augment research at Northwestern. It features two weeks of classroom-based instruction on experimental design and analysis; supplemented by NIH Rigor And Reproducibility Training Modules. This overview will be followed by a combination of lectures and labs addressing a broad range of analytical techniques and imaging methods. These lessons will then be applied to inquiry-based learning in Northwestern's advanced instrumentation cores. In addition to lecture, students are expected to devise two Mini-Research Projects and will work on one of these with senior staff to apply specific services and protocols utilizing instrumentation available within Research Cores and University Centers. Students will design specific experiments in selected areas of their interest, and learn new sample preparation methods and instrumentation within one of the following areas: mass spectrometry; proteomics, in vivo and molecular imaging, small molecule synthesis and purification; high-throughput screening, x-ray crystallography, and analysis of bioelements. Material generated in the class counts for course credit will be usable in research group settings.

The development of a modern theory for the electronic structures of transition metal complexes began in earnest in the mid-1900s. In this course we will track the evolution of this conversation through the analysis of spectroscopic challenges in the primary literature. Topics may include but are not limited to the theory of transition metal ions (crystal field theory), electron-electron repulsion, molecular orbital theory (ligand field theory), group theory, correlation diagrams for partially filled p and d configurations, and the much dreaded problem of spin-orbit coupling perturbation. We will focus on applications relevant to the research direction of enrolled students. Assessments will be based on problem sets and a final original research paper assembled by the class.

Prerequisite: A familiarity with group theory is expected.

This course focuses on fundamental principles of light-mattering interactions and their applications in advanced experimental spectroscopic methods. In the Spring quarter of 2021, the class will cover time dependent Schrödinger equation, Fermi golden rule, perturbation theory, system-bath interactions, as well as spectroscopic methods (pump-probe, fluorescence upconversion, multidimensional spectroscopy, X-ray absorption/emission and time-resolved terahertz spectroscopies). Application examples will be discussed with emphasis on chemical science.