Theory of Electronic Structure

Theory of Electronic Structure

Delivery institution

Faculty of Sciences
Institute of Chemistry

Instructor(s):

Prof. Dr. Péter G. Szalay

Start date

8 September 2025

End date

6 December 2025

Study field

CHARM priority field

Study level

Study load, ECTS

4

Short description

Based on simple concepts of quantum mechanics, the students should understand the basic terms about the electronic structure of atoms and molecules, origin of chemical bonding, as well as the theoretical foundation of spectroscopy.

Full description

1. Introduction to mathematics of quantum mechanics
2. Basic terms of quantum mechanics, principles, simple models.
3. Quantum mechanical description of hydrogen atom.
4. Electronic structure of many electron atoms.
5. Symmetry in quantum mechanics.
6. Electronic structure of molecules: Born-Oppenheimer approximation, origin of chemical bond. molecular orbital (MO) and Valence Bond (VB) theories, diatomic molecules and water; Hückel theory for molecules with pi bonds, crystal field and ligand field theories.
7. Methods of computational chemistry: Hartree-Fock, DFT, basics of correlated methods.
8. Selected applications of computational chemistry.

Learning outcomes

Based on the material of this course, the student should be able to critically evaluate models used in chemistry, understand their relations, acknowledge their limits and perform computational chemistry calculations.

Places available

15

Course literature (compulsory or recommended):

– Peter Atkins, Julio de Paula, and Ronald Friedman: Physical Chemistry: Quanta, Matter, and Change, Second Edition, Oxford University Press, 2013.
– Thomas Engel and Philip Ried: Physical Chemistry: Quantum Chemistry and Spectroscopy, 4th edition, Pearson, 2019

Planned educational activities and teaching methods:

lectures
seminars
control questions
home works

Course code

estructk20em

Language

Assessment method

evaluation of homework

Final certification

Transcript of records

no

Assessment date

Modality

Learning management System in use

Canvas

Contact hours per week for the student:

3

Specific regular weekly teaching day/time

Time zone