Scientia Publishing House – Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania

Általános kémia agrármérnököknek [General Chemistry for Agricultural Engineers]

The book was written for the university students of Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Faculty of Târgu-Mureş, Agricultural Engineering degree programme at Sfântu Gheroghe. The book was written in the light of the fact that the discussed material content and didactic point of view fit well into other subjects, in particular, into biochemistry in the second semester. The general, organic, and biochemical exercises booklet is closely linked to this book, which contains theoretical material related to laboratory exercises and calculations.

We tried to compile a material which can be delivered in the course of 14 weeks in two-plus-two-hour sessions; therefore, such chapters are not included in the book which – due to the limited number of hours – cannot be delivered. The book deals with the most important topics of general chemistry, namely – following the discussion of basic principles – with atoms and elements, the electron structure of the atoms, the periodic table of the elements, and the chemical bond. Chemical thermodynamics is perhaps one of the most important parts of the book because without it the processes and the biochemical reactions of the living organisms cannot be understood. Following this, the states of matter, water and the solutions, and perhaps in an unconventional way the complex compounds are discussed.

Chemical equilibrium, chemical kinetics, catalysis, and electrochemistry close the series of the delivered information. In the process of writing the different parts of the book, we tried to ensure that students would not learn the various chapters of general and organic chemistry invain but acquire just as much knowledge – but that much definitely – as is necessary to support the subsequent subjects: biochemistry, microbiology, physiology, agriculture, and feedstuff production. Among other things, we considered it our dutythat during the mastering of chemical knowledge such a chemical approach should be developed that will help in the future to use the results of chemistry in practice. Due to the above mentioned, we did not wish – since it is not our job – to review the full range of general chemistry; we limited the material to important chaptersonly from the point of view of the target audience.

The current book contains about forty pages of tasks and answer keys, which fit into the theoretical part, and we hope that this part will help the better understanding of students. We recommend to the honourable students to learn the theoretical and practical part together, since we believe that the theoretical knowledge can be enhanced with practical skills. During the compilation of the theoretical and practical material, we tried – as far as it waspossible –  to take into account that the theoretical material should preferably always precede practical knowledge.