CHEMISTRY

What Is Chemistry?

Chemistry, like physics and biology, is a natural science. There is

considerable overlap between chemistry and these other disciplines.
Chemistry is a science that studies matter. This includes atoms,
compounds, chemical reactions, and chemical bonds. Chemists explore
the properties of matter, its structure, and how it interacts with other
matter.
.
MATTER - Anything that takes up space is called matter. Air, water, rocks, and even people
are examples of matter. Different types of matter can be described by their mass. The
mass of an object is the amount of material that makes up the object. A bowling ball, for
example, has more mass than a beach ball.
 Major areas of chemistry
1. Biochemistry -
5 major areas of chemistry

1. Organic Chemistry: Organic chemistry is the study of carbon and its compounds. It is the study
of the chemistry of life and reactions occurring in living organisms. An organic chemistry student
might study organic reactions, as well as the structure and properties of organic molecules,
polymers, drugs, or fuels.

•2. .Inorganic Chemistry: Inorganic chemistry is the study of compounds not covered by organic
chemistry. It is the study of inorganic compounds or compounds that don't contain a C-H bond. A
few inorganic compounds do contain carbon, but most contain metals. Topics of interest to
inorganic chemists include ionic compounds, organometallic compounds, minerals, cluster
compounds, and solid-state compounds.
 5 major areas of chemistry

3. Analytical Chemistry: Analytical chemistry is the study of the chemistry of matter and the development of
tools to measure the properties of matter. Analytical chemistry includes quantitative and qualitative analysis,
separations, extractions, distillation, spectrometry and spectroscopy, chromatography, and electrophoresis.
Analytical chemists develop standards, chemical methods, and instrumental methods.4

4. Physical Chemistry: Physical chemistry is the branch of chemistry that applies physics to the study of
chemistry, which commonly includes the applications of thermodynamics and quantum mechanics to chemistry.

5. Biochemistry: Biochemistry is the study of chemical processes that occur inside living organisms. Examples
of key molecules include proteins, nucleic acids, carbohydrates, lipids, drugs, and neurotransmitters.
Sometimes this discipline is considered a subdiscipline of organic chemistry. Biochemistry is closely related to
molecular biology, cell biology, and genetics.
 Other branches of chemistry
There are other ways chemistry can be divided into categories. Depending on who you ask, other disciplines might
be included as a main branch of chemistry. Other examples of branches of chemistry include:

•Astrochemistry: Astrochemistry examines the abundance of elements and compounds in the universe, their
reactions to each other, and the interaction between radiation and matter.

•Chemical Kinetics: Chemical kinetics (or simply "kinetics") studies the rates of chemical reactions and processes
and the factors that affect them.

•Electrochemistry: Electrochemistry examines the movement of charge in chemical systems. Often, electrons are
the charge carriers, but the discipline also investigates the behavior of ions and protons.

•Green Chemistry: Green chemistry looks at ways of minimizing the environmental impact of chemical processes.
This includes remediation as well as ways of improving processes to make them more eco-friendly.

•Geochemistry: Geochemistry examines the nature and properties of geological materials and processes.
Other branches of chemistry

•Nuclear Chemistry: While most forms of chemistry mainly deal with interactions between electrons in atoms
and molecules, nuclear chemistry explores the reactions between protons, neutrons, and subatomic particles.

•Polymer Chemistry: Polymer chemistry deals with the synthesis and properties of macromolecules and
polymers.

•Quantum Chemistry: Quantum chemistry applies quantum mechanics to model and explore chemical systems.

•Radiochemistry: Radiochemistry explores the nature of radioisotopes, the effects of radiation on matter, and
the synthesis of radioactive elements and compounds.

•Theoretical Chemistry: Theoretical chemistry is the branch of chemistry that applies mathematics, physics,
and computer programming to answer chemistry questions.
Contributors of Chemistry

Seated (L-R): Walther Nernst, Marcel

Brillouin, Ernest Solvay, Hendrik Lorentz,
Emil Warburg, Jean Baptiste Perrin,
Wilhelm Wien, Marie Curie, Henri
Poincaré.

Standing (L-R): Robert Goldschmidt,

Max Planck, Heinrich Rubens, Arnold
Sommerfeld, Frederick Lindemann,
Maurice de Broglie, Martin Knudsen,
Friedrich Hasenöhrl, Georges Hostelet,
Edouard Herzen, James Hopwood Jeans,
Ernest Rutherford, Heike Kamerlingh
Onnes, Albert Einstein, Paul Langevin
Other contributors

Marie and Pierre Curie discovered the radioactive

elements polonium and radium.

Alfred Nobel invented dynamite

Amedeo Avogadro 1776 – 1856.- The first scientist to realize that elements could exist in the form of molecules
rather than as individual atoms; originator of Avogadro’s law.

Jacob Berzelius 1779 – 1848. A founder of modern chemistry: the first person to measure accurate atomic weights
for the chemical elements; discovered three elements: cerium, thorium, and selenium; devised the modern symbols
for elements; described how chemical bonds form by electrostatic attraction. Moore, 'A History of Chemistry' c.1918

Niels Bohr 1885 – 1962. Founded quantum mechanics when he remodeled the atom so electrons occupied ‘allowed’
orbits around the nucleus while all other orbits were forbidden; architect of the Copenhagen interpretation of
quantum mechanics.

Robert Boyle 1627 – 1691. Transformed chemistry from a field bogged down in alchemy and mysticism into one
based on measurement. He defined elements, compounds, and mixtures; and he discovered the first gas law –
Boyle’s Law.
Contributors to Chemistry

Glenn T. Seaborg was the principal or co-discoverer of ten elements: plutonium, americium, curium,
berkelium, californium, einsteinium, fermium, mendelevium, nobelium, and element 106, which, while
he was still living, was named seaborgium in his honor.

Robert Boyle was a 17th-century pioneer of modern chemistry. Every general-chemistry student learns
of Robert Boyle (1627–1691) as the person who discovered that the volume of a gas decreases with
increasing pressure and vice versa—the famous Boyle's law.

Robert Bunsen is primarily remembered for the invention of the Bunsen burner used in modern
chemistry laboratories.

John Dalton -through his experimentation, Dalton not only formulated a new atomic theory to explain
chemical reactions, upon which much of modern chemistry and physics is based, but he also
developed a theory to explain colour vision deficiency, from which he himself suffered. He was also a
figurehead in the world of meteorology.
 Contributors to Chemistry
Moseley

Moseley classified the Modern Periodic Table. He altered the periodic table made by Mendelev and arranged the
elements in increasing order of atomic numbers. This was a change from previous classifications because they were
based on classifying of atomic weights, not atomic numbers

Amedeo Avogadro's (1776-1856) principal contribution to chemistry was a paper in which he advanced two
hypotheses: (1) that equal volumes of gas contain equal numbers of molecules and (2) that elementary gases such
as hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen were composed of two atoms.

American chemist Gilbert. N. Lewis was instrumental in developing the theory of covalent bonding. The subject of
chemical bonding is at the heart of chemistry. In 1916 Gilbert Newton Lewis (1875–1946) published his seminal
paper suggesting that a chemical bond is a pair of electrons shared by two atoms.
 Contributors to Chemistry
Antoine Lavoisier determined that oxygen was a key substance in combustion, and he gave the element its name. He developed
the modern system of naming chemical substances and has been called the “father of modern chemistry” for his emphasis on
careful experimentation.

Marie Curie won the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her discovery of the elements polonium and radium, using techniques
she invented for isolating radioactive isotopes. Under her direction, the world's first studies were conducted into the treatment of
neoplasms by the use of radioactive isotopes.

Linus Pauling - Pauling was one of the founders of the fields of quantum chemistry and molecular biology. His contributions to
the theory of the chemical bond include the concept of orbital hybridization and the first accurate scale of electronegativities of
the elements.

In 1869, Dmitri Mendeleev contributed to the world of periodic tables by creating his version of the periodic table listing the most
known elements at the time by their ascending atomic mass. The elements were also arranged by how reactive they were.
 Contributors to Chemistry
Joseph Priestley (1733-1804) was an English naturalist, minister, and inventor. He made huge advances in
chemistry, discovering oxygen (but not naming it). He advanced his understanding in combustion, as well as
discovering photosynthesis and respiration.

Ernest Rutherford (1871–1937) postulated the nuclear structure of the atom, discovered alpha and beta rays,
and proposed the laws of radioactive decay. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1908.

J.J. Thomson's experiments with cathode ray tubes showed that all atoms contain tiny negatively charged
subatomic particles or electrons. Thomson proposed the plum pudding model of the atom, which had negatively
charged electrons embedded within a positively-charged "soup.

Wilhelm Roentgen discovered that if he directed these rays toward a paper plate coated with barium
platinocyanide, the plate became fluorescent. During subsequent experiments, he found the rays created an
image on a photographic plate. These "new" rays were originally known as Roentgen rays.
Contributors to chemistry
Marie Curie with Meloney, Irène, and Eve shortly after
their arrival in the United States. Public
Domain/Wikimedia Commons/CC by 1.0

Pioneer of spectroscopy and inventor of the bunsen burner

F. J. Moore, 'A History of Chemistry' c.1918