A Short Presentation of the Division of Physical Chemistry

Undergraduate Courses

Physical chemistry at Chalmers (Chair 1949, "Theoretical Chemistry") is represented by several courses in the Chemical Engineering undergraduate programme , covering classical & statistical thermodynamics, quantum chemistry & chemical bonding, molecular spectroscopy & photochemistry, colloid & surface chemistry and reaction kinetics.

Research Fields

Research is pursued in biophysical chemistry, optical spectroscopy, electrophoresis and electron transfer. The scientific problems are generally approached by a combination of experimental and theoretical methods. While most projects are chosen primarily to fulfil requirements of high scientific standard, and be therefore not necessarily related to any immediate practical applications, the know-how they create on a molecular level is generally of fundamental importance for solving many advanced problems. And the span of successful applications is extremely wide: from life sciences to materials sciences.

Research Profile

The Department has a profile in biophysical and photophysical chemistry and in developing and exploiting methods to address problems of biological or biomedical relevance. Structure and dynamics of DNA in presence of proteins or small molecules designed to target specific gene sequences are studied to get insight about various basic interaction mechanisms, biological function and about biomedical potentials. To approach mechanisms of electrophoretic separation and other diagnostic methods, DNA is studied in electric and hydrodynamic fields and immobilised at surfaces.
Basic research in optical spectroscopy of bio-organic chromophores is connected with the use of polarised light (linear and circular dichroism and emission anisotropy) providing information about electronic transition moments and other important photophysical elements. These properties may also be exploited, using spectroscopic techniques developed to this end at the Department, for determining structure in solution, e.g. of biological systems not amenable to NMR or x-ray structure techniques. Electron transfer rates through molecular bridges in biological photosynthetic systems, as well as in specifically designed model systems of relevance for practical applications, are studied using theoretical and experimental methods to investigate how quantum effects and molecular motion influence electrical conductivity. Femtosecond-laser technology is applied to study various fast dynamic processes, including energy and electron transfer, conformational and solvent reorganisation etc in the biological systems as well as in model systems of importance to materials-science problems.