Part I Chemistry

Some Important Organic Compounds   The chemical compounds of living things are known as organic compounds because of their association with organisms and because they are carbon-containing compounds. Organic compounds, which are the compounds associated with life processes, are the subject matter of organic chemistry. Among the numerous types of organic compounds, four major categories are found in all living things: carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids. Carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids.       CARBOHYDRATES Almost all organisms use carbohydrates as sources of energy. In addition, some carbohydrates serve as structural materials. Carbohydrates are molecules composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen; the ... Read more

Properties of teflon Polytetrafluoroethylene or PTFE (more commonly known as Teflon) is a particularly versatile ivory-white and opaque plastic fluoropolymer; it is made by the free-radical polymerisation of many tetrafluoroethene molecules, and is suitable for a wide range of applications in industries as diverse as aerospace, the food and drink industry, pharmaceuticals and telecoms. Produced by AFT Fluorotec in rods or tubes of any size, or filled with glass, carbon, stainless steel or many other materials to increase wear resistance and strength, whatever your project or build, we are sure to have a material that will work for you.   THE MAIN PROPERTIES ... Read more

Properties of soaps and detergents Soap – Characteristics And Uses Soaps are excellent cleansing agents and have good biodegradability. A serious drawback which reduces their general use, is the tendency for the carboxylate ion to react with Ca+ and Mg+ ions in hard water. The result is a water insoluble salt which can be deposited on clothes and other surfaces. These hard water plaques whiten fabric colors and also create rings found in sinks and bath tubs. Another problem with using soaps is their ineffectiveness under acidic conditions. In these cases, soap salts do not dissociate into their component ions, and ... Read more

Properties of polyvinyl chloride What is Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), and What is it Used For? Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) is one of the most commonly used thermoplastic polymers in the world (next to only a few more widely used plastics like PET and PP). It is a naturally white and very brittle (prior to the additions of plasticizers) plastic. PVC has been around longer than most plastics having been first synthesized in 1872 and commercially produced by B.F. Goodrich Company in the 1920s. By comparison, many other common plastics were first synthesized and became commercially viable only in the the 1940s and 1950s. It is used most commonly in ... Read more

Properties of polythene Polyethylene is a thermoplastic polymer with variable crystalline structure and an extremely large range of applications depending on the particular type. It is one of the most widely produced plastics in the world (tens of millions of tons are produced worldwide each year). The commercial process (the Ziegler-Natta catalysts) that made PE such a success was developed in the 1950s by German and Italian scientists Karl Ziegler and Giulio Natta. There are a vast array of applications for polyethylene in which certain types are more or less well suited. Generally speaking, High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) is much ... Read more

Metal In chemistry, a metal is an element that readily forms positive ions (cations) and has metallic bonds. Metals are sometimes described as a lattice of positive ions surrounded by a cloud of delocalized electrons. The metals are one of the three groups of elements as distinguished by their ionization and bonding properties, along with the metalloids and nonmetals. On the periodic table, a diagonal line drawn from boron (B) to polonium (Po) separates the metals from the nonmetals. Most elements on this line are metalloids, sometimes called semi-metals; elements to the lower left are metals; elements to the upper ... Read more

Non Metals As far as elements are concerned, a nonmetal is simply an element that does not display the properties of a metal. It is not defined by what it is, but by what it is not. It doesn’t look metallic, can’t be drawn into a wire or pounded into shape or bent, doesn’t conduct heat or electricity well, and doesn’t have a high melting or boiling point. The nonmetals are in the minority on the periodic table, mostly pushed to the right hand side of the periodic table. The exception is hydrogen, which behaves as a nonmetal at room ... Read more

Ore An ore is a special type of rock that contains a large enough amount of a particular mineral (usually a metal) to make it economically practical to extract that mineral from the surrounding rock. Not all minerals are found in a large enough amount in one location to make it worth it to remove the ore from the rock through a process known as mining. Ores can be mined in a number of ways, including strip mining as shown here at this uranium mine. If there is a large enough amount present, the rock will be extracted and processed in a ... Read more

Minerals Minerals are defined as solid, inorganic, naturally occurring substances with a definite chemical formula and general structure. Almost all chemical elements in the Earth’s crust are associated with at least one mineral. They vary in color, hardness, density, crystal form, crystal size, transparency, composition, location, and abundance. Some minerals are radioactive (uranophane), while others are magnetic (magnetite). Some are uncombined elements, such as gold, silver, sulfur, bismuth, copper and platinum. Certain minerals, such as fluorite (calcium fluoride), glow with a vibrant luminescence after exposure to ultraviolet light. Feldspar (a potassium aluminum silicate) and quartz (silicon dioxide) are the most ... Read more

Metallurgy of iron Iron is an important constituent of hemoglobin, which is in blood. Iron is the metal used most widely in industries and hence may be called the king of metals. It is the second most abundant metal after aluminum. Iron does not occur in native state, since it is oxidized easily. Ores of Iron Chemical Name Chemical formula Brown haematite or limonite Hydrated ferric oxide 2Fe2O3.3H2O Red haematite Anhydrous hematite Fe2O3 Iron pyrites Iron disulphide FeS2 Magnetite Triferric tetraoxide Fe3O4 Siderite Ferrous carbonate FeCO3 It is usually extracted from haematite and limonite.   Extraction of Iron Extraction of iron from its ore ... Read more