semmelweis university 2 0 1 2 / 2 0 1 3

SEMMELWEIS UNIVERSITY / FACULTY OF MEDICINE
86
MEDICAL CHEMISTRY
Teaching Secretary: Dr. András Hrabák
First Semester
Lecture topics
Week 1. Introduction to Medical Chemistry. The chemical equilibrium. Definition of pH and pOH,
pH scale. pH of strong electrolytes.
Week 2. Acid-base theories. Acidic and basic ionization Constants (pK a and pK b), conductance
of strong and weak electrolytes. pH of weak acids and bases. Acid-base indicators.
Ionization of polyprotic acids.
Week 3. Anion- and cationhydrolysis. Calculation of pH of salts. Conditions for precipitation of
salt solutions. Solubility rules. Buffers. Calculation of the pH of buffer solutions.
Henderson-Hasselbalch equation.Buffer capacity.
Week 4. 27 September: The most important physiological buffer systems. The
bicarbonate/carbonic acid system. Solutions. Gas mixtures. Henry , s law, Bunsen
coefficient. Decompression sickness. Solubility of CO2 in blood serum.
Week 5. Enthalpy change of the solution process and its relation to the solubility. Raoult , s law.
Laws of dilute solutions. Chemical thermodynamics. First law of thermodynamics in
chemistry. Enthalpy change of physical processes.Determination of reaction heat from
combustion heat data. Bond energy.
Week 6. Second law of thermodynamics in chemistry. Entropy content and entropy change.
Gibbs free energy (or free enthalpy). Third law of thermodynamics. Free enthalpy
changes in biochemistry and in redox reactions. Basics of chemical kinetics.
Equilibrium constant. The thermodynamical and kinetic controll of reactions.
Week 7. Catalysis. Activation energy. Arrhenius equation. Electrochemistry. Electrode potential,
cation and anion electrodes. The hydrogen electrode. The electromotive force of voltaic
(galvanic) cells.
Week 8. Electromotive force and the Gibbs free energy change of a reaction. The Nernst
equation. Concentration cells. Direction of a redox reaction. Non-polarizable
electrodes.
Week 9. Complex ions and coordination compounds. Central ions and ligands. IUPAC
nomenclature of coordination complexes. Stability exponent. Some biomedically
important coordination complexes and chelating ligands.
Week 10. Organic chemistry. Introduction, general structure of organic compounds. Isomerism,
constitution, configuration, conformation. Stereochemistry, geometric isomerism,
chirality, prochirality.
Week 11. The most important groups of organic compounds. Alkanes, structures, reactions.
Alkenes, their structures, properties, reactions. Lecturer: Dr. Pál Bauer
Week 12. Aromatic compounds. Aromatic properties. Reactions of the aromatic ring. Organic
hydroxy compounds. Classification, structures, reactions. Formation of ethers, esters.
Week 13. Aldehydes, ketones. Reactions, nucleophilic addition. Organic acids, classification,
their properties, reactions. Lecturer: Dr. Attila Ambrus
Week 14. Organic compounds containing nitrogen, amines, amides. Structures, reactions.
Halogenated compounds. Organic compounds containing sulfur. Classification,
structures, reactions.