What's in General Chemistry II: the 12 units, in order
A unit-by-unit map of General Chemistry II, from solutions and kinetics to equilibrium, acids and bases, thermodynamics, electrochemistry and nuclear.
General Chemistry II is the semester where chemistry stops being mostly about what things are and starts being about how far and how fast reactions go. Almost every unit is built on one idea: equilibrium. Kinetics asks how fast a reaction gets there, the equilibrium units ask where it stops, and thermodynamics and electrochemistry explain why it stops there.
Encodr's free General Chemistry II deck follows that arc. It has 12 units and 57 chapters, with 1,146 study cards plus 57 chapter notes (one at the head of every chapter, holding its formulas and definitions). It maps to OpenStax Chemistry 2e chapters 11 to 21, and the content is drawn from 16 cited sources. Here is what each unit covers, in teaching order.
Unit 1: Solutions and colloids (OpenStax ch 11)
Why things dissolve, electrolytes and solubility, and the concentration units Gen Chem I skipped: molality and mole fraction. The math-heavy chapter is colligative properties, where freezing-point depression, boiling-point elevation and osmotic pressure depend on the number of dissolved particles, not their identity. The van 't Hoff factor accounts for ionic compounds splitting into several particles. The unit closes with colloids.
Unit 2: Chemical kinetics (OpenStax ch 12)
The largest unit. It covers reaction rates, rate laws and reaction order from initial-rates data, integrated rate laws and half-life, collision theory and the Arrhenius equation, reaction mechanisms and catalysis. The integrated rate laws are where most exam points sit, because each order has its own straight-line plot and its own half-life formula. See half-life and first-order kinetics for the first-order case.
Unit 3: Chemical equilibrium (OpenStax ch 13)
Dynamic equilibrium and the equilibrium constant K, comparing Q with K to predict the direction a reaction shifts, converting between Kc and Kp, Le Chatelier's principle, and ICE table calculations. The ICE table is the single most reused tool in the course, so it gets its own walkthrough in ICE tables for equilibrium, step by step.
Unit 4: Acids and bases (OpenStax ch 14.1 to 14.5)
Bronsted-Lowry acids and bases and conjugate pairs, the autoionization of water with pH and pOH, Ka and Kb, weak acid and weak base calculations, the acid-base behavior of salts, and polyprotic acids. The core skill is turning a concentration and a Ka into a pH. How to calculate pH for strong and weak acids covers it with worked examples.
Unit 5: Buffers and titrations (OpenStax ch 14.6 to 14.7)
Buffers and the Henderson-Hasselbalch equation, buffer capacity, titration curves, the equivalence and half-equivalence points, and acid-base indicators. The half-equivalence point is worth knowing cold: there, pH equals pKa. The Henderson-Hasselbalch equation and buffers walks through the math.
Unit 6: Solubility and complex-ion equilibria (OpenStax ch 15)
Ksp and molar solubility, predicting whether a precipitate forms by comparing Q with Ksp, the common-ion effect, Lewis acids and bases, and complex-ion formation constants. It is equilibrium again, applied to salts that barely dissolve.
Unit 7: Thermodynamics (OpenStax ch 16)
Spontaneity and entropy, the second and third laws, standard entropies and free energies of formation, Gibbs free energy (delta G = delta H - T delta S), and the link between free energy and equilibrium (delta G = -RT ln K). This unit explains why K has the value it does.
Unit 8: Electrochemistry (OpenStax ch 17)
Balancing redox reactions, galvanic cells and cell notation, standard reduction potentials and cell potential, free energy and K from cell potential (delta G = -nFE), the Nernst equation, batteries, fuel cells and corrosion, and electrolysis with Faraday's law. OIL RIG (oxidation is loss, reduction is gain of electrons) is the one widely used mnemonic worth knowing here.
Unit 9: Main-group elements (OpenStax ch 18)
A short descriptive unit: periodic trends across the main-group elements, the alkali and alkaline earth metals, and key nonmetals and metalloids.
Unit 10: Transition metals and coordination chemistry (OpenStax ch 19)
Transition metal properties, coordination compounds and their nomenclature, isomerism in coordination compounds, and crystal field theory, which explains why these complexes are colored and why some are magnetic.
Unit 11: Nuclear chemistry (OpenStax ch 21)
Nuclear structure and stability, the types of radioactive decay, decay kinetics and half-life, fission, fusion and binding energy, and the biological effects and medical uses of radiation. The decay math is first-order kinetics from unit 2 again, which is a good reason to study the two together.
Unit 12: Bridge to organic chemistry (OpenStax ch 20)
Deliberately short. It covers hydrocarbons, functional groups, isomers and naming basics, enough vocabulary that the first week of organic chemistry is not a shock. Organic depth lives in its own course.
Where the math is
Most of the calculation cards sit in units 1 to 8: colligative properties, rate laws and half-lives, the Arrhenius equation, K and Q, ICE tables, pH and pKa, Henderson-Hasselbalch, Ksp, Gibbs free energy, cell potential and the Nernst equation. Three free calculators cover the most common ones and show their working, so you can check practice problems:
- pH calculator: [H3O+], [OH-], pH and pOH, plus strong and weak acids with the exact quadratic
- Henderson-Hasselbalch calculator: buffer pH, or the ratio needed for a target pH
- Half-life calculator: amount remaining, time elapsed or half-life, with k
How to use it with the semester
Add each unit when your class reaches it, not all at once. Because the equilibrium units (3 to 6) all reuse the same setup, reviewing unit 3 while you learn unit 4 is not wasted time. It is the same skill in a new context. If your final is cumulative, studying for a cumulative final vs. a unit test explains why spacing the review across the term beats a last-week cram. Electrochemistry and nuclear chemistry overlap with second-semester physics, so if you're taking both, what's in College Physics 2 shows where circuits and nuclear physics sit there. For the first semester, see what's in General Chemistry I. First-year science courses lists all six intro courses.
The General Chemistry II deck is free on Encodr.
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