- Key People:
- Daniel G. Nocera
- Related Topics:
- chemistry
- inorganic compound
inorganic chemistry
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What is inorganic chemistry?
Inorganic chemistry studies the properties, composition, and structure of chemical elements and compounds that lack carbon or have very little carbon. It focuses on substances not associated with living organisms.
Early work in inorganic chemistry involved identifying elements that constitute complex substances. This field has seen exciting research, such as studies of boranes, compounds of boron and hydrogen with unique structures. Modern inorganic chemistry also explores areas like organometallic chemistry, which combines inorganic elements with carbon-rich units, and bioinorganic chemistry, which looks at the role of metals in biological systems.
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How is inorganic chemistry different from organic chemistry?
Inorganic chemistry focuses on the composition, structure, and properties of elements and compounds that lack carbon, setting it apart from organic chemistry, which studies carbon-containing compounds. While organic compounds form the basis of living organisms, inorganic chemistry explores the substances not typically associated with living things.
Inorganic chemistry seeks to identify the elements that constitute more complex substances, with binary compounds being common due to limited structural variety. It has seen renewed interest, particularly in areas like boranes and ceramics, with applications spanning from jet engine turbine blades to superconductors. Developments in inorganic chemistry often intersect with other fields such as organometallic and bioinorganic chemistry.
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What kinds of elements does inorganic chemistry usually study?
Inorganic chemistry focuses on the composition, structure, and properties of elements and compounds lacking carbon-carbon bonds, setting it apart from organic chemistry which focuses on carbon-hydrogen bonds. It identifies elements and studies simple inorganic compounds, such as sodium chloride (salt), leading to the development of modern chemistry concepts like the law of definite proportions.
Inorganic chemistry explores binary compounds, which combine two elements, and compounds with three or more elements, expanding structural possibilities. It has evolved to include the study of boranes, ceramics, and superconductors, bridging into organometallic and bioinorganic chemistry, with applications in industrial catalysts and biological systems.
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What are examples of common inorganic compounds?
Inorganic compounds are substances that typically do not contain carbon, distinguishing them from organic compounds. However, there are exceptions, such as carbonates and cyanides, which are considered inorganic despite containing carbon.
Examples of common inorganic compounds:
* Water (H_2O) and ammonia (NH_3) are referred to by their common names instead of their systematic names.
* Sodium chloride (NaCl), or common salt, is a familiar inorganic compound used to produce other heavy chemicals, de-ice, condition water, and in food.
* Sodium carbonate (Na_2CO_3), also known as soda ash, is used in manufacturing glass, detergents, and cleansers.
* Sodium hydroxide (NaOH), or lye, is a widely used industrial alkali.
* Sulfuric acid (H_2SO_4) is a strong acid.
* Nitric acid (HNO_3) is another common acid.
* Hydrochloric acid (HCl) is a common acid.6 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
How do inorganic compounds react with each other?
Inorganic compounds react through various mechanisms, often classified by product type, reactants, reaction outcome, or mechanism. These reactions commonly involve the transfer of atoms, ions, or electrons between the reacting species.
Types of Reactions
- Acid-Base Reactions Acid-base reactions involve the transfer of protons (H+) or the sharing of electron pairs between reactants. The Lewis theory defines bases as electron-pair donors and acids as electron-pair acceptors.
- Redox Reactions Oxidation-reduction reactions involve the transfer of electrons between reactants, where one substance is oxidized (loses electrons) and another is reduced (gains electrons).
- Precipitation Reactions These reactions occur when mixing solutions containing specific cations and anions results in forming an insoluble compound, or precipitate.
- Hydrolysis Many salts in aqueous solutions exhibit acidic or basic properties due to hydrolysis, which involves proton-transfer reactions with water molecules.
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Why is the periodic table important in inorganic chemistry?
The periodic table is of immense importance in inorganic chemistry due to the recurring patterns of elements' properties relative to their arrangement by increasing atomic number. The table helps predict chemical behaviors, understand bonding, and classify elements.
Key aspects include:
* Periodic Law When elements are arranged by atomic number, similar properties recur in the same group.
* Valence Electrons The number of valence electrons dictates an atom's chemical behavior.
* Trends Metallic character is greatest on the lower left, nonmetallic on the upper right (noble gasses excluded).
* Ionization Energy The energy needed to remove an electron impacts bond formation.
* Atomic Size Atomic size influences coordination number and compound composition.Inorganic chemistry uses the periodic table to understand and predict the properties and interactions of inorganic compounds.
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inorganic chemistry, field of science concerned with the composition, properties, and structure of chemical elements and compounds that contain little or no carbon. It is distinguished from organic chemistry, which studies compounds that contain carbon atoms.
Modern chemistry, which dates more or less from the acceptance of the law of conservation of mass in the late 18th century, focused initially on those substances that were not associated with living organisms. Study of such substances, which normally have little or no carbon, constitutes the discipline of inorganic chemistry. Early work sought to identify the simple substances—namely, the elements—that are the constituents of all more complex substances. Some elements, such as gold and carbon, have been known since antiquity, and many others were discovered and studied throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. Today 118 are known.
The crystalline form of salt, known as halite, consists of intermingled sodium and chlorine atoms, one sodium atom for each one of chlorine. Such a compound, formed solely by the combination of two elements, is known as a binary compound. Binary compounds are very common in inorganic chemistry, and they exhibit little structural variety. For this reason, the number of inorganic compounds is limited in spite of the large number of elements that may react with each other. If three or more elements are combined in a substance, the structural possibilities become greater.
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After a period of quiescence in the early part of the 20th century, inorganic chemistry again became an exciting area of research. For example, compounds of boron and hydrogen, known as boranes, have unique structural features that forced a change in thinking about the architecture of inorganic molecules. Some inorganic substances have structural features long believed to occur only in carbon compounds, and a few inorganic polymers have even been produced. Ceramics are materials composed of inorganic elements combined with oxygen. For centuries ceramic objects have been made by strongly heating a vessel formed from a paste of powdered minerals. Although ceramics are quite hard and stable at very high temperatures, they are usually brittle. Currently, new ceramics strong enough to be used as turbine blades in jet engines are being manufactured. In 1987 a ceramic containing yttrium, barium, copper, and oxygen, with the approximate formula YBa2Cu3O7, was found to be a superconductor at a temperature of about 100 Kelvin. A superconductor offers no resistance to the passage of an electrical current, and this new type of ceramic could very well find wide use in electrical and magnetic applications. A superconducting ceramic is so simple to make that it can be prepared in a high school laboratory. Its discovery illustrates the unpredictability of chemistry, for fundamental discoveries can still be made with simple equipment and inexpensive materials.
Many of the most interesting developments in inorganic chemistry bridge the gap with other disciplines. Organometallic chemistry investigates compounds that contain inorganic elements combined with carbon-rich units. Many organometallic compounds play an important role in industrial chemistry as catalysts, which are substances that are able to accelerate the rate of a reaction even when present in only very small amounts. Some success has been achieved in the use of such catalysts for converting natural gas to related but more useful chemical substances. Chemists also have created large inorganic molecules that contain a core of metal atoms, such as platinum, surrounded by a shell of different chemical units. Some of these compounds, referred to as metal clusters, have characteristics of metals, while others react in ways similar to biologic systems. Trace amounts of metals in biologic systems are essential for processes such as respiration, nerve function, and cell metabolism. Processes of this kind form the object of study of bioinorganic chemistry. Although organic molecules were once thought to be the distinguishing chemical feature of living creatures, it is now known that inorganic chemistry plays a vital role as well.