What Is Thermodynamics?

About the lecture

In the first mini-lecture, we begin by asking ‘what is thermodynamics?’ We understand it as the measurement of the relationship between heat, work, energy and temperature. When considering chemical reactions, we look at the 1st law of thermodynamics, and how this relates to the two different types of chemical reactions we encounter: endothermic and exothermic. To continue, we understand the definition of standard enthalpy changes, such as the standard enthalpy of formation and combustion, and how we can work out the chemical equations for the formation or combustion of substances such as methane and glucose.

About the lecturer

Nick Chatterton graduated from Cambridge University with an MA in Natural Sciences, which was then followed by an MSc in Chemistry at Imperial College and a PhD in Organometallic Chemistry from Kings College London in 2003. Since then he has further done research in inorganic chemistry in France (CEA, Grenoble), been a teaching fellow at Sheffield University and prior to joining the OU in June 2015 was a Senior Lecturer in Chemistry and Course Leader in Pharmaceutical Sciences at London Metropolitan University for 8 years. He is also an associate editor for the journal RSC Advances. His research interests primarily involve exploiting electrohydrodynamic techniques (electrospinning and electrospraying) to generate nanomaterials. His group research in this area predominantly focuses on using these techniques to fabricate novel drug delivery systems. The materials generated generally increase the solubility of poorly soluble drug molecules thereby increasing their bioavailability. In addition they have fabricated materials that can tuned to give either sustained or pulsatile release of drug cargo. They are also interested in luminescent solids with unusual optical properties produced via similar techniques to generate highly-tuned materials that act as sensitive sensors of gas molecules. Recent work has applied similar techniques to generate anti-microbial materials for the food industry using food waste as a raw material. Nick has over 10 years experience of face-to-face teaching (lectures, tutorials etc) at UK universities and joined the OU to gain experience in developing and utilizing distance learning approaches to teach HE level chemistry. Since joining the OU in 2015 he has written material for S111, S112, S315, SS021, SS031 and most recently, was module chair for the production of the new level 2 module S248. He is also employed as an associate lecturer on the project module SXM390 and the level 1 module S112. He has developed support for materials for chemistry students transitioning between stages in their study, authoring the material for the "Get Ready For S215" website, and is currently Qualification Lead for the Chemistry pathway.