Question: What is Quantum Chemistry??

Olivia Lynes answered on 9 Mar 2015:

Quantum chemistry is the study of how everything that makes up atoms behaves according to quantum theory, which is a mathematical model used to describe how things such as electrons interact at the smallest level possible.

If you take an atom for example, it is made up of smaller particles called electrons, neutrons and protons (plus some other bits that physicists look at!), in chemistry we want to know all about electrons as they are what makes up a chemical bond between atoms. The sharing of electrons between atoms links the atoms and quantum theory helps us examine this bond, how the electrons behave and therefore what the properties of molecule are.

While that might not sound very useful, it is! We can use that information to examine atomic interactions at the very smallest level which means we can know what is likely to react, how fast it might react and what happens during reactions.