Chemistry - Higher

Online Lessons for Students in Scotland learning Higher Chemistry

Periodicity: lessons in this section include covalent radius, ionisation radius, electronegativity and more.

Covalent radius: The covalent radius, rcov, is a measure of the size of an atom that forms part of one covalent bond. It is usually measured either in picometres or angstroms.

Ionisation energy: in chemistry, ionisation energy is the minimum amount of energy required to remove the most-loosely bound electron of an isolated neutral gaseous atom or molecule.

Electronegativity: the tendency for an atom of a given chemical element to attract shared electrons when forming a chemical bond.

Bonding structure: bonding is the way the atoms are held together. The structure is the way the atoms are arranged relative to each other. There are two major types of structure: giant and molecular.

Bonding in the first 20 elements: the lesson includes exploring the periodic table, revise types of bonding and to understand the structure and bonding of the first 20 elements.

Polarity of bonds: in chemistry, bond polarity is the separation of electric charge along a bond, leading to a molecule or its chemical groups having an electric dipole or dipole moment.

Polarity of molecules: polar molecules are those that possess regions of positive and negative charge. Water is an example of a polar material. The type of bonds it has, when coupled with its shape, gives one end of the molecule a slight positive charge (the hydrogen end) and the other a slight negative charge (the oxygen end).

Intermolecular forces: an intermolecular force is the force that mediates interaction between molecules, including the electromagnetic forces of attraction or repulsion which act between atoms and other types of neighbouring particles, for example atoms or ions.

Physical properties and bonding: general physical properties that can be explained by the covalent bonding model include boiling and melting points, electrical conductivity, bond strength, and bond length.

Oxidising and reducing agents: an oxidising agent is normally a non-metal or positive ion cause oxidation reactions to take place gains electrons from other atoms or ions (is itself reduced).

A reducing agent is usually a metal or a negative ion loses (donates) electrons to another element or ion (reducing the other species) is itself oxidised.

Balancing complex ion equations: this lesson includes oxidation and reduction, understand how to balance complex ion electron equations and to explore electronegativity series.

Writing redox equations: this lesson explores oxidation and reduction and explores redox equations. Learn how to combine oxidation and reduction equations.

Identifying oxidising and reducing agents: a reducing agent is a substance that causes another substance to reduce. So to identify an oxidising agent, simply look at the oxidation number of an atom before and after the reaction. If the oxidation number is greater in the product, then it lost electrons and the substance was oxidised.

Nature’s chemistry: lessons in this section include the homologous series, alcohols, oxidation of foods, esters, fats and oils, soaps and emulsions, proteins, fragrances and skincare.