Branches of Chemistry

Atmospheric chemistry is a branch of atmospheric science in which the chemistry of the Earth's atmosphere and that of other planets is studied.

Environmental chemistry is the scientific study of the chemical and biochemical phenomena that occur in natural places. It can be defined as the study of the sources, reactions, transport, effects, and fates of chemical species in the air, soil, and water environments; and the effect of human activity on these. Environmental chemistry is an interdisciplinary science that includes atmospheric, aquatic and soil chemistry, as well as heavily relying on analytical chemistry and being related to environmental and other areas of science.

Green chemistry is a chemical philosophy encouraging the design of products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use and generation of hazardous substances.

Medicinal or pharmaceutical chemistry is a scientific discipline at the intersection of chemistry and pharmacy involved with designing, synthesizing and developing pharmaceutical drugs. Medicinal chemistry involves the identification, synthesis and development of new chemical entities suitable for therapeutic use. It also includes the study of existing drugs, their biological properties, and their quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSAR). Pharmaceutical chemistry is focused on quality aspects of medicines and aims to assure fitness for the purpose of medicinal products.

Metallurgy is a domain of materials science that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their intermetallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are called alloys.

Nuclear chemistry is a subfield of chemistry dealing with radioactivity, nuclear processes and nuclear properties. * It is the chemistry of radioactive elements such as the actinides, radium and radon together with the chemistry associated with equipment (such as nuclear reactors) which are designed to perform nuclear processes. This includes the corrosion of surfaces and the behaviour under conditions of both normal and abnormal operation (such as during an accident).

Stereochemistry, a subdiscipline of chemistry, involves the study of the relative spatial arrangement of atoms within molecules.

Stoichiometry (sometimes called reaction stoichiometry to distinguish it from composition stoichiometry) is the calculation of quantitative (measurable) relationships of the reactants and products in chemical reactions (chemical equations).

Supramolecular chemistry refers to the area of chemistry which focuses on the noncovalent bonding interactions of molecules.

Theoretical chemistry involves the use of physics to explain or predict chemical phenomena. Theoretical chemistry may be broadly divided into electronic structure, dynamics, and statistical mechanics. In the process of solving the problem of predicting chemical reactivities, these may all be invoked to various degrees. Other "miscellaneous" research areas in theoretical chemistry include the mathematical characterization of bulk chemistry in various phases (e.g. the study of chemical kinetics) and the study of the applicability of more recent math developments to the basic areas of study (e.g. for instance the possible application of principles of topology to the study of electronic structure.) The latter area of theoretical chemistry is sometimes referred to as mathematical chemistry.

Astrochemistry is the study of the chemical elements found in outer space, generally on larger scales than the Solar System, particularly in molecular gas clouds, and the study of their formation, interaction and destruction.

Mathematical chemistry

Discussion and prediction of the molecular structure using mathematical methods without necessarily referring to quantum mechanics.

Molecular modelling is a collective term that refers to theoretical methods and computational techniques to model or mimic the behaviour of molecules. The techniques are used in the fields of computational chemistry, computational biology and materials science for studying molecular systems ranging from small chemical systems to large biological molecules and material assemblies.

Molecular dynamics (MD) is a form of computer simulation, wherein atoms and molecules are allowed to interact for a period of time under known laws of physics.

Computational chemistry is a branch of chemistry that uses the results of theoretical chemistry incorporated into efficient computer programs to calculate the structures and properties of molecules and solids, applying these programs to complement the information obtained by actual chemical experiments, predict hitherto unobserved chemical phenomena, and solve related problems.

Radiochemistry is the chemistry of radioactive materials, where radioactive isotopes of elements are used to study the properties and chemical reactions of non-radioactive isotopes (often within radiochemistry the absence of radioactivity leads to a substance being described as being inactive as the isotopes are stable). Much of radiochemistry deals with the use of radioactivity to study ordinary chemical reactions.

Toxicology (from the Greek words toxicos and logos) is the study of the adverse effects of chemicals on living organisms [1]. It is the study of symptoms, mechanisms, treatments and detection of poisoning, especially the poisoning of people.

Electrochemistry is a branch of chemistry that studies the reactions which take place at the interface of an electronic conductor (the electrode composed of a metal or a semiconductor, including graphite) and an ionic conductor (the electrolyte).

Photochemistry, a sub-discipline of chemistry, is the study of the interactions between atoms, small molecules, and light (or electromagnetic radiation).

Surface chemistry can be roughly defined as the study of chemical reactions at interfaces. It is closely related to surface functionalization, which aims at modifying the chemical composition of a surface by incorporation of selected elements or functional groups that produce various desired effects or improvements in the properties of the surface or interface. Surface chemistry also overlaps with electrochemistry. Surface science is of particular importance to the field of heterogeneous catalysis.

Spectroscopy is the study of the interaction between radiation (electromagnetic radiation, or light, as well as particle radiation) and matter. Spectrometry is the measurement of these interactions and an instrument which performs such measurements is a spectrometer or