Chemistry Minor (B.Eng.) (25 credits)
Offered by: Chemistry (Faculty of Science)
Degree: Bachelor of Engineering
Program credit weight: 25 credits
Program Description
Minor Adviser (program coordinator): Dr. Samuel Sewall (Director of Undergraduate Studies, Chemistry)
A passing grade for courses in the Minor is a C.
Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized.
Required Courses (10 credits)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| CHEE 310 | Physical Chemistry for Engineers. 1 | 3 |
Physical Chemistry for Engineers. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Introduction to chemical kinetics, adsorption, surface tension, and electrochemistry. Topics emphasize applications of physical chemistry for chemical engineers. | ||
| CHEM 212 | Introductory Organic Chemistry 1. | 4 |
Introductory Organic Chemistry 1. Terms offered: Summer 2025 A fundamental study of aliphatic compounds and saturated functional groups including modern concepts of bonding, reaction mechanisms, conformational analysis, spectroscopy, and stereochemistry. | ||
| CHEM 233 | Topics in Physical Chemistry. 1 | 3 |
Topics in Physical Chemistry. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Introduction to chemical kinetics, surface and colloid chemistry and electrochemistry. The topics to be discussed will be of particular interest to students in chemical engineering. | ||
| CHEM 234 | Topics in Organic Chemistry. 2 | 3 |
Topics in Organic Chemistry. Terms offered: Summer 2025 Modern spectroscopic techniques for structure determination. The chemistry of alcohols, ethers, carbonyl compounds, and amines, with special attention to mechanistic aspects. Special topics. | ||
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Students choose either CHEM 233 Topics in Physical Chemistry. or CHEE 310 Physical Chemistry for Engineers.
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or CEGEP equivalent
Complementary Courses
15 credits from the following lists, two courses of which must be laboratory courses
Note that CHEM 212 Introductory Organic Chemistry 1. is a prerequisite for most of the courses listed below, and CHEM 213 Introductory Physical Chemistry 1: Thermodynamics. and CHEM 273 Introductory Physical Chemistry 2: Kinetics and Methods. or their equivalents are prerequisites for the Physical Chemistry courses. If students take CHEM 222 Introductory Organic Chemistry 2., which includes a lab, instead of CHEM 234 Topics in Organic Chemistry., they will receive credit for one of the two required laboratory courses, but they must complete a total of 25 credits in chemistry for the Minor.
Inorganic Chemistry
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| CHEM 281 | Inorganic Chemistry 1. | 3 |
Inorganic Chemistry 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Basic concepts of electronic structure and molecular bonding will be developed and applied to the understanding of common materials. Acid-base chemistry. Survey of the chemistry of the main group elements. Introduction to coordination and organometallic chemistry. | ||
| CHEM 381 | Inorganic Chemistry 2. | 3 |
Inorganic Chemistry 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Introduction to transition metal chemistry, coordination numbers and geometry, and nomenclature will be followed by a discussion of crystal field theory and its applications to problems in spectroscopy, magnetochemistry, thermodynamics and kinetics. Several aspects related to applications of organometallic compounds in catalysis and bioinorganic systems will be discussed. | ||
| CHEM 591 | Bioinorganic Chemistry. | 3 |
Bioinorganic Chemistry. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The roles of transition and main group elements in biology and medicine will be examined with an emphasis on using tools for structure and genome searching as well as becoming acquainted with experimental spectroscopic methods useful for bioinorganic chemistry such as macromolecular X-ray diffraction, EPR and EXAFS. | ||
Analytical Chemistry
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| CHEM 267 | Introductory Chemical Analysis. | 3 |
Introductory Chemical Analysis. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Qualitative and quantitative analysis. A survey of methods of analysis including theory and practice of semimicro qualitative analysis and representative gravimetric, volumetric and instrumental methods. The laboratory component includes introductory experiments in analytical chemistry emphasizing classical and instrumental methods of quantitative analysis. | ||
| CHEM 367 | Instrumental Analysis 1. | 3 |
Instrumental Analysis 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An introduction to modern instrumental analysis emphasizing chromatography, atomic spectroscopy and computational data analysis. Analytical methods to be examined in detail include gas-liquid and high performance liquid chromatography, LC mass spectrometry, and common methods of atomic determinations using flames/furnaces/plasma sources. | ||
| CHEM 377 | Instrumental Analysis 2. | 3 |
Instrumental Analysis 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Spectroscopic methods of analysis will be studied with respect to fundamentals, operational aspects and instrument design. Topics will range from UV-visible to x-ray spectrometry. Methodologies will be evaluated with respect to their application in spectrometric systems. Laboratory automation will be studied and applied in the laboratory. | ||
Organic Chemistry
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| CHEM 302 | Introductory Organic Chemistry 3. | 3 |
Introductory Organic Chemistry 3. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Topics covered may include the following: Aromatic compounds, heterocyclic chemistry, sulfur and phosphorus chemistry, organosulfur and organophosphorus compounds, and biomolecules such as lipids, carbohydrates, amino acids, polypeptides, DNA and RNA. | ||
| CHEM 362 | Advanced Organic Chemistry Laboratory. 1 | 2 |
Advanced Organic Chemistry Laboratory. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An advanced laboratory with experiments related to the theoretical principles and synthetic methods of modern organic chemistry. | ||
| CHEM 482 | Organic Chemistry: Natural Products. | 3 |
Organic Chemistry: Natural Products. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Structure, synthesis, stereochemistry and biosynthesis of terpenes, alkaloids, antibiotics and selected molecules of medicinal interest. | ||
Physical Chemistry
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| CHEM 345 | Introduction to Quantum Chemistry. | 3 |
Introduction to Quantum Chemistry. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An introduction to quantum chemistry covering the historical development, wave theory, methods of quantum mechanics, and applications of quantum chemistry. | ||
| CHEM 355 | Applications of Quantum Chemistry. | 3 |
Applications of Quantum Chemistry. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A survey of the principles of electronic, vibrational and rotational spectroscopy. Magnetic resonance and computational methods. | ||
| CHEM 493 | Advanced Physical Chemistry Laboratory. 1 | 2 |
Advanced Physical Chemistry Laboratory. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Selected experiments to illustrate more advanced physico-chemical principles. | ||
| CHEM 574 | Introductory Polymer Chemistry. | 3 |
Introductory Polymer Chemistry. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A survey course on the structure of polymers, kinetics and mechanisms of polymer and copolymer synthesis; characterization and molecular weight distributions; polymer microstructure, the thermodynamics of polymer solutions; the crystalline and amorphous states, rubber elasticity and structure-property relationships. | ||
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indicates lab