Chemistry is a modern and popular science, which is extremely important for industry. Its main task is to obtain new substances with specified parameters, which will later be used in various areas of life.
Chemistry subject
Chemistry is a science that studies the transformation of substances. But it is worth noting that only those transformations that are accompanied by a change in the composition of the substance. For example, paper burning or metal corrosion. Therefore, the subject of study in chemistry, first of all, is the substance and its ability to transform.
A substance is matter, which consists of particles that have their own mass. This matter exists in a certain space due to the forces of attraction and repulsion.
Particles are atoms, and due to the forces of attraction and repulsion, chemical bonds are formed between them.
In the chemical transformation of substances, certain bonds break with the formation of new ones. Exactly under what conditions these bonds change and how, is the subject and the task of chemistry.
Chemical bonds
Depending on the type of atoms being joined, there are several types of chemical bonds. If two identical non-metal atoms are joined, a covalent non-polar bond is formed. In this case, a common pair of electrons is obtained, which is located in the middle between two atoms.
If the non-metal atoms are different, then the pair of electrons will be shifted to that which has a greater electronegativity. And this bond is called covalent polar. In the case of the joining of metals, a metallic bond always forms, regardless of which atoms are bonded. A metal bond differs from the rest in that the electrons in it are inside the lattice and move freely between the atoms.
When metal and non-metal atoms are joined, an ionic bond forms, it is one of the special cases of covalent polar bonding, only in this case the total pair of electrons is almost completely displaced to the non-metal atom.
Depending on the type of substance, chemistry is divided into two large sections - organic and inorganic. But there are laws to which all kinds of chemical science obey. They are combined in a separate section - general chemistry. It includes fundamental theories, concepts and laws of this science. The structure and properties of substances studied by her determine the subject and tasks of chemistry.
School course
General chemistry was created in order to develop and generalize all existing concepts and laws with a view to their further application. Because without knowledge of certain laws to which all substances and their transformations are subject, further research is impossible. For example, for a long time, scientists could not establish the structure of the simplest atom, and because of this, many properties of substances were incomprehensible. Many different theories have been proposed, some of them were close to the truth, some from the point of view of a modern chemist seem nonsense. But this research was the way to create the theory of Niels Bohr, which is used to describe the atom at the moment. Perhaps it is not entirely accurate, but today it is the most perfect. The subject and tasks of chemistry are precisely in the study of similar theories that formed the basis of science.
It is the development and improvement of existing laws that are the tasks of this branch of science. The general course of chemistry explains to people the processes that take place inside substances. The subject, tasks and methods of chemistry is the study of chemical laws that exist in nature, because often substances interact independently of a person and his activities.
Organics
The subject and tasks of organic chemistry in some way intersect with other branches of science. The object of its study is substances formed by chemical bonds of various atoms with carbon. Therefore, the subject of study in this case is the properties and transformations of organic substances. Most often, they consist of combinations of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and phosphorus. Other elements may change, but there will always be carbon in their composition.
The tasks of organic chemistry are to develop new substances with desired properties. For example, obtaining heavy-duty plastic or a catalyst capable of converting solid oil to liquid. Also the task is to search for the most efficient use of each process, accompanied by a change in the composition of substances. For example, to find application for waste in oil refining.
Cracking oil produces many by-products, and not all of them are currently used. Most of the products of this reaction enter the atmosphere, polluting it. Therefore, at the moment, scientists are developing ways to collect these products and use them for the synthesis of new substances. The subject and tasks of organic chemistry partially overlap with other branches of chemistry.
Inorganic chemistry
It is an independent section of this science. The subject of its study are all compounds that are not organic.
There are a lot of them and their nature is different. Therefore, inorganic chemistry has many areas of study. But the main subject of her study is the conversion of inorganic substances, and the tasks largely coincide with the directions of organic chemistry. This is the creation of substances with desired properties, for example, it can be an alloy with special characteristics. This is extremely important for the military industry and other industries. For example, a light alloy is required, but it is extremely durable, withstanding strong overloads. It is used for cladding aircraft and spacecraft.
In addition, the tasks of inorganic chemistry is the creation of harmless technologies and methods for producing ultrapure substances.
The subject and tasks of chemistry
There are tasks that all chemists work on, regardless of their specialization:
- This is a search for an opportunity to reduce harmful waste in production, and this is quite successfully handled thanks to the discovery of new techniques.
- This also includes the rational use of all synthesis products.
- Also, one of the tasks is the discovery of new methods that will allow you to get the most pure substances.
- The next economic task is to search for the least energy- and resource-consuming ways to obtain the desired compounds. This is because the planet’s reserves are limited and should be used as wisely as possible.
At the moment, all branches of chemical science are working to achieve these goals, and there are certain results. But you can not stop there, only in constant improvement, science is developing.