Course abstract

The course introduces students to quantum Chemistry. The syllabus is as follows. Black body radiation. Failure of classical mechanics. Marsden experiment and Rutherford theory. Hydrogen atom spectrum. Bohr Sommerfeld theory. Uncertainty principle. Wave particle duality. Schrodinger equation. Postulates of quantum mechanics. Born approximation. Origin of quantization: Particle in a box, particle in a ring. Hydrogen atom. Atomic orbitals. Many electron atoms. Introduction to spin. Slater determinants. Self consistent fields. Valence bond and molecular orbital theories. Molecular orbitals of homonuclear and heteronuclear diatomic molecules. VSEPR. Molecular orbital and Valence bond approaches to polyatomic molecules. Hybrid orbitals. Huckel theory. Introduction to approximation methods. Scope of further study.