About the lecture

In the first mini-lecture, Dr Mark Read introduces using the amount of substance. Counting and grouping numbers of objects is used everywhere: in bakeries, office supplies, farms, so it stands to reason that chemists need some tool to group particles together. Here in this lecture, we are introduced to the mole, the fundamental unit of amount of substance, used to group together groups of small particles like molecules, atoms, photons, and subatomic particles like electrons and protons. We are introduced to Avogadro’s number and its origin, before moving on to a worked example.

About the lecturer

Mark Read a Senior Lecturer in the School of Chemistry, at the University of Birmingham, teaching Physical Chemistry within the School, as well as contributing to teaching programmes about Nuclear Decommissioning and Waste Management for the Birmingham Centre for Nuclear Education and Research. He leads an active research group, using computational modelling to simulate solid materials, in order to extend our understanding of their structure, stability, and reactivity. This is incredibly important for predicting the long-term stability of contemporary materials used in industry and energy applications. Currently, his research focuses on the simulation of ageing effects on nuclear fuels (uranium and plutonium oxides), radiation damage and modelling the defect chemistry within the bulk and at surfaces (which control many important material properties). Indeed, the corrosion of nuclear fuels is an extremely pertinent area of research and is crucial to the safety and sustainability of the nuclear fuel cycle.