VCE Chemistry U3/4—Study Design Breakdown

This is the set of cards I used to learn the content for VCE Chemistry in 2019. Without any practice exams I achieved a 38 raw. There is one card per dot point of the study design. https://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Documents/vce/chemistry/2016ChemistrySD.pdf I hope that this can be of use to us lazy students, but as always creating your own cards is ideal.

Sample Data

ID	Chem 3.2.12
Key	• the comparison of an electrolytic cell with a galvanic cell with reference to the energy transformations involved and basic structural features and processes
Content 1
Content 2	Galvanic cells must be split into two half-cells connected by a salt bridge, whereas electrolysis can occur within one cell.
Content 3	In both types, the pairing of AnOx and RedCat will remain constant—they change together. For a rechargeable cell, the polarities do not change. The negative terminal is the one with charged electrons, which are either inputted or outputted.
Content 4
Content 5
Content 6
Context	Production of chemicals by electrolysisHow can the yield of a chemical product be optimised? How can chemical processes be designed to optimise efficiency?
Tags	VCE::Chem::U3::AOS2

ID	Chem 3.2.10
Key	• the general operating principles of commercial electrolytic cells, including basic structural features and selection of suitable electrolyte (molten or aqueous) and electrolyte (inert or reactive) materials to obtain desired products (no specific cell is required)
Content 1	Electrolysis is avoided due to its high cost, but there exist some cases where it is the only method through which a chemical can be readily created.
Content 2	A molten electrolyte should be chosen where water would reduce or oxidise preferentially and take the role (i.e. reducing or oxidising agent) that the target chemical would usually take. One such case is the electrolysis of NaCl to obtain chlorine gas and sodium metal, which must use a molten electrolyte.
Content 3	Aqueous electrolytes are used where possible, since heating and containing extremely hot liquids is expensive.One case for aqueous electrolytes is for the hydrolysis of brine (saturated NaCl solution) to form NaOH(aq) and Cl2(g). Cl-(aq) is oxidised at the anode despite being a weaker reducing agent than H2O(l) due to its extremely high concentration and marginal difference in E0 (ΔE0 = 0.13 V). However, H2O(l) is a far stronger oxidising agent than Na+(aq) and so it reduces at the cathode preferentially to form OH-(aq) and H2(g).
Content 4	In some cases, having reactive electrodes is desireable to remove unwanted products, enable a desired product to form or to source materials from a replaceable anode. Metal cathodes are always inert. Oxygen gas formed at the anode reacts with C(s) to form CO2(g), preventing the spontaneous backwards reaction with Al(l) from occuring. Materials are sourced from the copper anode.
Content 5
Content 6
Context	Production of chemicals by electrolysisHow can the yield of a chemical product be optimised? How can chemical processes be designed to optimise efficiency?
Tags	VCE::Chem::U3::AOS2

ID	Chem 3.2.02
Key	• the comparison of exothermic and endothermic reactions including their enthalpy changes and representation in energy profile diagrams
Content 1	Exothermic reactions release energy into the environment. That is, the system has lost energy (ΔH = −ve); the bonds of the products contain less energy than the bonds of the reactants.
Content 2	Endothermic reactions are the opposite, instead absorbing energy from the environment. That is, the system has gained energy (ΔH = +ve); the bonds of the products contain more energy than the bonds of the reactants.
Content 3	Example of exothermic reaction:
Content 4
Content 5
Content 6
Context	Rate of chemical reactionsHow can the yield of a chemical product be optimised? How can chemical processes be designed to optimise efficiency?
Tags	VCE::Chem::U3::AOS2