D1.7 What’s Ahead?

Throughout this course you will build on the fundamental ideas of chemistry developed in this section. You will begin by studying the properties of atoms and how those properties vary depending on position in the periodic table. This will lead to how atoms lose or gain electrons to form ions and how atoms share electrons to form molecules, both of which are related to valence. Based on the properties of atomic-scale atoms and ions, you will be able to understand properties of metals and ionic compounds. The number and variety of molecules is very large so a lot of your study will involve how atoms bond to each other to form molecules and how molecular structures affect properties and reactivity of molecular substances. Then we will consider to what extent products of chemical reactions can be formed from a given set of reactants and how fast those reactions can go. These ideas will be applied to two important classes of reactions: acid-base reactions and oxidation-reduction reactions.

Bon voyage!