How and why substances react, explained with the physical, inorganic and organic chemistry and the spectroscopy that real chemists use. This course covers the full Cambridge International AS & A Level Chemistry syllabus, from atomic structure and bonding to transition metals, organic synthesis and NMR.
Lesson 1 is free to try. The other 183 lessons in Chemistry and its exam practice are for schools on RudimentaryLabs.
What atoms are made of, how their electrons are arranged in shells and orbitals, and how hard it is to pull those electrons away.
Counting particles by weighing them: relative masses, the mole, formulas and the calculations that tell you how much reacts.
How electronegativity decides the type of bond, how orbitals overlap to form covalent bonds, what shape molecules take and what holds them together.
How gases push on their containers, when the ideal gas equation works, and how the type of structure explains a solid's properties.
The heat given out or taken in by reactions, how to measure it, and how Hess's law lets you calculate changes you cannot measure.
Oxidation numbers as a bookkeeping tool for electrons, and how to use them to spot and balance redox reactions.
Reactions that run both ways, how equilibria respond to change, equilibrium constants, and the Brønsted–Lowry picture of acids and bases.
What makes reactions fast or slow: collisions, activation energy, the Boltzmann distribution and catalysts.
Patterns across Period 3 in structure, melting point, oxides and chlorides, and how to use periodicity to predict unknown elements.
The alkaline earth metals from magnesium to barium: their reactions, their compounds and the trends down the group.
The halogens and their compounds: colours, volatility, oxidising power, halide ions and the chemistry of chlorine in water treatment.
Why nitrogen gas is so unreactive, how ammonia acts as a base, and how oxides of nitrogen and sulfur cause smog and acid rain.
The language of organic chemistry: formulas, names, reaction types, curly-arrow mechanisms, molecular shape and isomerism.
Alkanes and alkenes: how they are made, how they burn, free-radical substitution and the electrophilic addition reactions of the C=C bond.
Halogenoalkanes: how they are made, their substitution and elimination reactions, and the SN1 and SN2 mechanisms.
Alcohols: how to make them, how they react, how oxidation tells primary, secondary and tertiary apart, and how acidic they are.
Aldehydes and ketones: how they are made and reduced, nucleophilic addition of HCN, and the tests that identify them.
Carboxylic acids and esters: how they are made, how the acids react, and making and splitting esters.
Primary amines, nitriles and hydroxynitriles: where they come from and how nitriles become carboxylic acids.
Addition polymers: how alkenes join into long chains, how to spot repeat units, and why plastics are hard to get rid of.
Putting AS organic reactions together: recognising functional groups in complex molecules and planning multi-step routes.
Identifying molecules from the light they absorb and the fragments they break into: infrared spectroscopy and mass spectrometry.
Lattice energy and Born–Haber cycles, dissolving and hydration, entropy and Gibbs free energy to decide whether a reaction can happen.
Predicting and calculating electrolysis, standard electrode potentials, cells, the Nernst equation and the link between cell potential and free energy.
Quantitative acid–base chemistry with pH, Ka and Kw, buffer solutions, solubility products and partition coefficients.
Rate equations, orders of reaction, half-lives and rate constants, linking mechanisms to rate equations, and how catalysts work.
Using ion size, polarisation and energy cycles to explain the thermal stability and solubility trends of Group 2 compounds.
The first-row transition metals: variable oxidation states, catalysis, complex ions, ligand exchange, colour, isomerism, stability constants and redox titrations.
New families for A Level: arenes, phenols, acyl chlorides, amides and amino acids, the structure of benzene and optical activity.
The reactions of benzene and methylbenzene, the electrophilic substitution mechanism and how substituents steer new groups around the ring.
How halogenoarenes are made and why they are far less reactive than halogenoalkanes.
Making esters from alcohols and acyl chlorides, and the chemistry and acidity of phenol.
Benzoic acid, acid strength, acyl chlorides and the addition–elimination reactions that turn them into esters and amides.
Amines, phenylamine, diazonium salts and azo dyes, amides, and amino acids with peptides and electrophoresis.
Polyesters and polyamides, how to tell addition from condensation polymers, and which polymers break down.
Combining every organic reaction in the course to analyse complex molecules and design longer synthetic routes.
Separating mixtures with thin-layer and gas chromatography, and working out structures from carbon-13 and proton NMR spectra.