Chemistry: Atomic Structure and Chemical Bonding

Week 1 : Historical introduction to Quantum chemistry; a brief description of Planck’s radiation law, study of photoelectric effect by Einstein, Hydrogen atom model by Niels Bohr and formal introduction to matter waves through de Broglie’s proposalWeek 2 : The time dependent and time independent Schrödinger wave equation. Simple illustrations using matter waves.Week 3 : The particle in a one dimensional and multi-dimensional potential-free box. Solutions and interpretations. Definitions of expectation values and probabilities.Week 4 : Particle on a ring and angular momentum in quantum mechanics. Introduction to the abstract concept of spins and abstract states in quantum mechanics.Week 5 : The harmonic oscillator, eigenvalues and eigenfunctions.Week 6 : Introduction to vectors through matrices. Linear vector spaces and matrix methods for vectors. Special matrices, eigenvalues and eigenvectors of matrix and the relation to quantum mechanics.Week 7 : The hydrogen atom. Formulation of the problem and separation of the Schrödinger equation using spherical polar coordinates.Week 8 : The hydrogen atom. Solutions of the Schrödinger equation and their visualizations. Expectation value calculations.Week 9 : Elementary Introduction to angular momentum in quantum mechanics and the spin states of two coupled spin-1/2 systems (two-electron spin states).Week 10 : Born-Oppenheimer approximation and introduction to bonding concepts. The hydrogen molecule ion and simple analysis of molecular states.Week 11 : The hydrogen molecule and the concept of linear combination of atomic orbitals.Week 12 : Review and Summary.