This book began as a program of self-education. While teaching under-
graduate physical chemistry, I became progressively more dissatisfied
with my approach to chemical kinetics. The solution to my problem was to
write a detailed set of lecture notes which covered more material, in
greater depth, than could be presented in undergraduate physical
chemistry. These notes are the foundation upon which this book is built.
My background led me to view chemical kinetics as closely related to
transport phenomena. While the relationship of these topics is well
known, it is often ignored, except for brief discussions of irreversible
thermody- namics. In fact, the physics underlying such apparently
dissimilar processes as reaction and energy transfer is not so very
different. The intermolecular potential is to transport what the
potential-energy surface is to reactivity. Instead of beginning the
sections devoted to chemical kinetics with a discussion of various
theories, I have chosen to treat phenomenology and mechanism first. In
this way the essential unity of kinetic arguments, whether applied to
gas-phase or solution-phase reaction, can be emphasized. Theories of
rate constants and of chemical dynamics are treated last, so that their
strengths and weaknesses may be more clearly highlighted. The book is
designed for students in their senior year or first year of graduate
school. A year of undergraduate physical chemistry is essential
preparation. While further exposure to chemical thermodynamics,
statistical thermodynamics, or molecular spectroscopy is an asset, it is
not necessary.
