Question

What are some examples of physical chemistry?

Answer 1

Hint: Physical chemistry in itself is a broad branch of chemistry that includes physical properties of an element, mechanism of chemical reactions including its activation energy, threshold energy, etc investing about the properties of the material, studying about the method we use to investigate the properties of that material. The work in this area is done at an atomic level. It can also be considered as a border lining between physical and chemistry.

Complete answer:
Some of the major examples of physical chemistry are thermochemistry, which includes the study of heat energy of chemical reactions taking place during phase transitions like gas to liquid or vice versa. It tells us about entropy, heat capacity, Gibbs free energy, or heat of formations.
There are three laws of thermochemistry that gave thermodynamics a new statement.
The second example is chemical kinetics, it deals with the rate of reactions, their transition states from reactant to product. Chemical kinetics helps chemists to understand the chemical processes like food decomposition, microorganism growth, etc. Several factors affect the rate of reactions like temperature, presence of catalysts, etc. Quantum chemistry is also known as molecular quantum mechanics, refers to the understanding of electronic structure through Schrodinger equations. This area highly uses spectroscopy by which information about several molecules is obtained. Spectroscopy techniques include IR spectroscopy, NMR, etc. This field includes the study of atoms transferring from the ground state to the excited state.

Note:
Another important example is solid-state, this field is studied widely and shows many applications. It is the study of the structure of a crystal, its lattices through crystallography. Explanation of each example of physical chemistry is not possible but here are some more examples like electrochemistry, photochemistry, material science, nanotechnology, surface chemistry, and so on.