Chemicals

A chemical substance is a material with a definite chemical composition. It is a concept that became firmly established in the late eighteenth century after work by the chemist Joseph Proust on the composition of some pure chemical compounds such as basic copper carbonate.[1] He deduced that: "All samples of a compound have the same composition; that is, all samples have the same proportions, by mass, of the elements present in the compound". This became known as the law of constant composition[2]. Later with the advancement of methods for chemical synthesis particularly in the realm of organic chemistry; the discovery of many more chemical elements and new techniques in the realm of analytical chemistry used for isolation and purification of elements and compounds from chemicals that led to the establishment of modern chemistry, the concept was defined as is found in most chemistry textbooks. However, there are some controversies regarding this definition mainly because the large number of chemical substances reported in chemistry literature need to be indexed.

A common example of a chemical substance is pure water; it has the same properties and the same ratio of hydrogen to oxygen whether it is isolated from a river or made in a laboratory. A pure chemical substance cannot be separated into other substances by a process that does not involve any chemical reaction and is rarely found in nature. Some typical chemical substances can be diamond, gold, salt (sodium chloride) and sugar (sucrose). Generally, chemical substances exist as solid, liquid, or gas, and may change between these phases of matter with changes in temperature or pressure.

Defining

Chemical substances (also sometimes referred to as a pure substances) are often defined as any material with a definite chemical composition in most introductory general chemistry textbooks.[3] According to this definition a chemical substance can either be a pure chemical element or a pure chemical compound. However, there are exceptions to this definition, a pure substance can also be defined as a form of matter that has both definite composition and distinct properties.[4] and the chemical substance index published by CAS also includes several alloys of uncertain composition.[5]

Elements

Main article: Chemical element

An element is a chemical substance that is made up of a particular kind of atoms and hence cannot be broken down or transformed by a chemical reaction into a different element, though it can be transmutated into another element through a nuclear reaction. This is so, because all of the atoms in a sample of an element have the same number of protons, though they may be different isotopes, with differing numbers of neutrons.

There are about 120 known elements, about 80 of which are stable, that is, they do not change by radioactive decay into other elements, however the number of chemical substances that are elements can be more than 120, because some elements can occur as more than a single chemical substance (allotropes), for instance oxygen as oxygen and ozone. The majority of elements are classified as metals. These are elements with a characteristic lustre such as iron, copper, and gold. Metals typically conduct electricity and heat well, and they are malleable and ductile.[6] Around a dozen elements[7] such as carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen are classified as non-metals. Non-metals lack the metallic properties described above, they also have a high electronegativity and a tendency to form negative ions called anions. Certain elements such as silicon sometimes resemble metals and sometimes resemble non-metals, and are known as metalloids.

See also: List of elements by name

Chemical compounds

Main article: Chemical compound

A pure chemical compound is a chemical substance that is composed of a particular set of molecules or ions. Two or more elements combined into one substance, through a chemical reaction, form what is called a chemical compound. A chemical compound can be either atoms bonded together in molecules or crystals in which atoms, molecules or ions form a crystalline lattice. Compounds based primarily on carbon and hydrogen atoms are called organic compounds, and all others are called inorganic compounds. Compounds containing bonds between carbon and a metal are called organometallic compounds.

Compounds in which components share electrons are known as covalent compounds. Compounds consisting of oppositely charged ions are known as ionic compounds, or salts.

In organic chemistry, there can be more than one chemical compound with the same composition and molecular weight. Generally, these are called isomers. Isomers usually have substantially different chemical properties, may be isolated and do not spontaneously convert to each other. A common example is glucose vs. fructose. The former is an aldehyde, the latter is a ketone. Their interconversion requires either enzymatic or acid-base catalysis. However, there are also tautomers, where isomerization occurs spontaneously, such that a pure substance cannot be isolated into its tautomers. A common example is glucose, which has open-chain and ring forms. One cannot manufacture pure open-chain glucose because glucose spontaneously cyclizes to the hemiacetal form.

See also: list of organic compounds

See also: list of inorganic compounds

Substances versus mixtures

Main article: Mixture

All matter consists of various elements