As the first modern physical chemistry textbook to cover quantum mechanics before thermodynamics and kinetics, this book provides a contemporary approach to the study of physical chemistry
As the first modern physical chemistry textbook to cover quantum mechanics before thermodynamics and kinetics, this book provides a contemporary approach to the study of physical chemistry. By beginning with quantum chemistry, students will learn the fundamental principles upon which all modern physical chemistry is built. The text includes a special set of "MathChapters" to review and summarize the mathematical tools required to master the material Thermodynamics is simultaneously taught from a bulk and microscopic viewpoint that enables the student to understand how bulk properties of materials are related to the properties of individual constituent molecules. This new text includes a variety of modern research topics in physical chemistry as well as hundreds of worked problems and examples.Translated into French, Italian, Japanese, Spanish and Polish.

Unlike most physical chemistry texts, modern physical chemistry research is based on quantum mechanics, and this state-of-the-art approach is the one adopted by McQuarrie and Simon. Quantum theory is introduced at the outset, and the molecular viewpoint of quantum chemistry informs the authors' investigation of physical chemistry's other main topic ares - thermodynamics and chemical kinetics. The book also includes examples of applications in NMR spectroscopy, lasers, photochemistry, gas-reaction dynamics and other current research topics. "At last there is a book written from a modern perspective! A real winner!" George C. Fields, Lake Forest College