Chem 125 is an intensive physical chemistry course that is designed to help students learn not only techniques specific for experimental physical chemistry (spectroscopy, microscopy, calorimetry, etc.) but also to help students develop scientific writing and presentation skills. The class is set up into three units: Spectroscopy, Kinetics/Thermodynamics, Condensed Phase Structure and Dynamics. In each unit, the student is required to perform two experiments (from a list of 4-6 options), culminating in either a written formal report or an oral exam/presentation. At the end of the semester, there is a final exam based on lecture material.
Formal: Two of the following: Chem 120A and 120B, C130, or 130B (one of which may be taken concurrently).
Additional Notes: In my opinion, only conceptual/general knowledge of physical chemistry is required because the experiments are extremely well prepared and self-contained. Some lecture topics may be easier to understand with some (very general) background in solid state inorganic (Chem 104A) or materials (Chem C150) chemistry, though it is not assumed that students will know it.
Unit I: Spectroscopy
Unit II: Kinetics and Thermodynamics
Unit III: Condensed Phase Structure and Dynamics
Unit I: Spectroscopy
Unit II: Kinetics and Thermodynamics
Unit III: Condensed Phase Structure and Dynamics
All
One hour lab lecture each week. 4-5 hours of lab every other week (roughly, depending on when you sign up for lab sections). 15-30 hours per lab write up/oral exam (typically oral presentations take less time to finish).
You can choose to take this course in the fall or spring, either while taking 120B (in the fall) or after taking 120A and 120B (in the spring). It is unfavorable to take both this class and 120A at the same time, since both have quite a heavy workload associated with it.
Unlike what many students do, I highly suggest against taking this course during your last semester. No matter how you slice it, you will have to do at least some work in this class to pass it, so you might as well try to do the best you can. Also, saving this class for last only increases your own misery.
Unfortunately, there is no directly related course for those who may be interested in performing more physical chemistry experiments. The best option would be to join a physical chemistry lab. The following is a list of some potential options, though they are not directly related to all aspects of the course:
The difficulty of the class highly depends on the experiments you choose to perform. Those who wish to spend less time in lab should avoid Physical Adsorption of Gaseous (Unit 2B) and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectra by Fourier Transform (Unit 3C).
The lab reports are a lot of work, but the lab manual is a pretty complete and all-encompassing guide on what to include for the introduction and how to perform the data analysis. I highly suggest finding some time to go to office hours/reaching out to GSIs for help with more difficult or less obvious discussion questions to maximize your grades on the reports. This is also a great opportunity to try your hand at using LaTEX to create nice looking lab reports.
Chem 125 differs from any other physical chemistry lab course because the labs are extremely interesting. The tradeoff, however, is that they are not exactly as straightforward as other analytical or physical chemistry labs, which makes them more difficult. Student should keep this in mind when preparing to take the course. Good luck!
Written by: Angela Lee
Last edited: Spring 2018