Description

The course covers the basic principles of aquatic chemistry and provides the necessary—from an environmental point of view—knowledge of how the chemical composition of natural waters varies, in order to not only define their quality for some use, but also in order to comprehend many of the natural and artificial processes that involve the aquatic phase. Since many of the water quality criteria concern dissolved chemical species, the mechanisms of chemical species integration in the water phase are examined. 

Learning Outcomes

Introduction: principles of inorganic chemistry, chemical species, molecular weights, red-ox reactions, gram-equivalents 

Introduction: properties of water, composition of several types of water, methods of expressing concentration 

Chemical kinetics: rates, reaction orders, reaction mechanisms, catalysis 

Chemical equilibrium: thermodynamic basics, equilibrium constant calculation 

Problems on the material covered in weeks 1 to 4.

Acid base chemistry: Definition of terms, introduction, reaction rates 

Acid-base chemistry: Equilibrium calculations, mass balances, proton condition

Acid-base chemistry: Graphical procedure for equilibrium calculations, pC-pH diagrams

Acid-base chemistry: several cases combinations of strong/weak acid and strong/weak base 

Problems on the material covered in weeks 6 to 9. 

Complexation chemistry: Equilibrium constants, distribution diagrams 

Precipitation-dissolution: Kinetics calculations, Equilibrium calculations 

Precipitation-dissolution: Solubility of salts, common ion effect, carbonate solubility