Chemistry for biologists 1

This first teaching unit is devoted to the basic concepts of chemistry, essential for understanding organic and inorganic chemistry, particularly in systems of biological interest. In advance of certain lectures and tutorials, students will work on course documents (written and audio), enabling them to take a full part in the course and understand the concepts presented, as well as the skills to be acquired. All the concepts presented in this course are essential for understanding chemistry and biology courses.

The aim of this course is to provide essential knowledge and skills in chemistry and biochemistry in the following areas

• Microscopic description of the structure of matter.

• Bonds and interactions in a chemical compound.

• Chemical reactions in water

• Redox reactions

• Acid-base reactions according to Brönsted and Lowry

• Precipitation reactions

• Units of the international system, conversion between units
• Notion of mole

• The atom: chemical symbol, composition of an atom, isotope, atomic molar mass
• Molecule, Ions
• Definition Molecule, molecular ion
• Gross formula
• Representations of a molecule: structural, semi-developed and topological formulas
• Isomers: definition, chemical and physical properties
• Molecular weight
• Notion of solvent, solute
• General information on chemical reactions
• Balancing a chemical equation
• Total reaction, balanced reaction
• Stoichiometry and reaction progress
• Progress chart, notion of excess and deficient compounds
• Reaction speed: fast/slow reaction
• Catalyst concept
• Main functions of organic chemistry

For students who did not acquire these notions in high school, course documents will be provided, along with videos and application exercises. All these notions will be assumed to have been acquired and will be assessed.

Recommended prerequisites* : Physics-Chemistry specialization course in high school

Assessment: Continuous assessment

1. Microscopic description of the structure of matter.

Quantum description of the atom: quantization of energy levels (basic notion of spectroscopy), wave nature of matter (notion of atomic orbitals), polyelectronic atoms, electronic configuration.

Periodic classification of the elements: Notion of families of elements, evolution of the properties of atoms in the periodic table, in particular their ionization energy, electronegativity, radius and ions. Particular attention will be paid to the metals and non-metals most commonly encountered in biology.

1. Chemical bonding.

Different types of interaction in chemistry: strong bonds (ionic, metallic, covalent) and weak bonds (van der Waals, hydrogen bond). When studying ionic compounds, we'll look at the notion of salt and their solubility in water. Particular attention will be paid to salts involving non-metals, alkalis and alkaline earths, as well as common ions (^NO3-, ^SO42-, ^PO43-, ^NH4+)Electronic structure and geometry of molecules involving non-metals: Lewis model of covalency. Notion of oxidation state, VSEPR model.

1. Chemical reaction in water

This section will consolidate the concepts of chemical reaction through reactions in aqueous solution, already covered in high school and essential for the rest of the curriculum, especially for those who will not be taking other general chemistry courses in S2. These concepts will be covered in tutorials. The law of mass action will be introduced, enabling students to write down the expression of a chemical equilibrium constant.

Redox reaction

Definition of a couple

Redox half-equations and redox reactions in acidic and basic media

NB: the notion of standard redox potential will be introduced, but not justified by the study of batteries. Couples involving organic or biochemical compounds will be considered.

Not covered in this course: batteries, the physical meaning of a redox potential, Nernst's law.

Brönsted Lowry's acid-base concepts

Definition of an acid, a weak or a strong base. Examples that are particularly important in biology are carboxylic acids, amines, amino acids and phosphoric acid.

Equilibrium constant (admitted without demonstration) and _pKa scale

Zone of predominance as a function of pH

Acid-base reaction

Notion of buffer zone (this notion can be approached through an exercise as an introduction to this important concept in biology.

Not covered in this course: dosing curves

Precipitation reaction

Definition, equilibrium constant, precipitate appearance zone

Hourly volumes* :

            CM: 16.5

            TD: 19.5

            TP :

            Terrain :

Recommended books :

Reference 1: Chemistry: molecules, matter and metamorphoses. P. Atkins and L. Jones, publisher DeBoeck Université, 1998.

Reference 2: Chemistry. Stéphane Perrio, Béatrice Roy and Jean-Yves Winum , publisher Dunod, 2017 

Référence 3 : Visual memo of general chemistry. Collection: Tout en fiches. Isabelle Bonnamour, Jean-Sébastien Filhol, Frédéric Lemoigno, Nathalie Perol, Jean-Yves Winum, publisher Dunod, 2019.

Référence 4 : Chimie L1 - Je me trompe donc j'apprends! Stéphane Perrio, Béatrice Roy and Jean-Yves Winum , Dunod 2020.