Chemistry Tutor: Basic Things you Should Know Know About It
Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. You might think of chemistry only in the context of lab tests, food additives or dangerous substances, but the field of chemistry involves everything around us. Here’s what to know about Chemistry
What is Chemistry
Chemistry is the branch of the science that deals with the properties, composition, and structure of substances (defined as elements and compounds), the transformations they undergo, and the energy that is released or absorbed during these processes. Every substance, whether naturally occurring or artificially produced, consists of one or more of the hundred-odd species of atoms that have been identified as elements.
Although these atoms, in turn, are composed of more elementary particles, they are the basic building blocks of chemical substances; there is no quantity of oxygen, mercury, or gold, for example, smaller than an atom of that substance. Chemistry, therefore, is concerned not with the subatomic domain but with the properties of atoms and the laws governing their combinations and how the knowledge of these properties can be used to achieve specific purposes.
The Five Main Branches
Traditionally, chemistry is broken into five main branches, according to the online chemistry textbook published by LibreText. There are also more specialized fields, such as food chemistry, environmental chemistry and nuclear chemistry, but this section focuses on chemistry’s five major subdisciplines.
Analytical chemistry
involves the analysis of chemicals, and includes qualitative methods like looking at color changes, as well as quantitative methods like examining the exact wavelength(s) of light that a chemical absorbed to result in that color change.
These methods enable scientists to characterize many different properties of chemicals, and can benefit society in a number of ways. For example, analytical chemistry helps food companies make tastier frozen dinners by detecting how chemicals in food change when they are frozen over time. Analytical chemistry is also used to monitor the health of the environment by measuring chemicals in water or soil, for example.
Biochemistry
As mentioned above, uses chemistry techniques to understand how biological systems work at a chemical level. Thanks to biochemistry, researchers have been able to map out the human genome, understand what different proteins do in the body and develop cures for many diseases.
Inorganic chemistry
Studies the chemical compounds in inorganic, or non-living things such as minerals and metals. Traditionally, inorganic chemistry considers compounds that do not contain carbon (which are covered by organic chemistry), but this definition is not completely accurate, according to the ACS.
Some compounds studied in inorganic chemistry, like “organometallic compounds,” contain metals, which are metals that are attached to carbon — the main element that’s studied in organic chemistry. As such, compounds such as these are considered part of both fields. Inorganic chemistry is used to create a variety of products, including paints, fertilizers and sunscreens.
Organic chemistry
Deals with chemical compounds that contain carbon, an element considered essential to life. Organic chemists study the composition, structure, properties and reactions of such compounds, which along with carbon, contain other non-carbon elements such as hydrogen, sulfur and silicon. Organic chemistry is used in many applications, as described by the ACS, such as biotechnology, the petroleum industry, pharmaceuticals and plastics.
Physical chemistry
Uses concepts from physics to understand how chemistry works. For example, figuring out how atoms move and interact with each other, or why some liquids, including water, turn into vapor at high temperatures. Physical chemists try to understand these phenomena at a very small scale — on the level of atoms and molecules — to derive conclusions about how chemical reactions work and what gives specific materials their own unique properties.
This type of research helps inform other branches of chemistry and is important for product development, according to the ACS. For example, physical chemists may study how certain materials, such as plastic, may react with chemicals the material is designed to come in contact with.
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