Interesting message on chemistry. Interesting facts about chemical elements

The achievements of this science surround people everywhere: from medicines and non-stick frying pans to magically disappearing ink on receipts. Chemistry is difficult for schoolchildren - perhaps it is not interesting? Nothing like this! The article contains the most interesting facts about chemistry and chemists. Find out about Moscow's most famous ghost, how a grumpy wife helped invent rubber, and the main value of Iturup Island.

Dissolve and mix

Aqua regia is not the drink of monarchs, but a mixture consisting of a quarter of nitric and three-quarters of hydrochloric acids. This rich carrot-colored liquid dissolves even difficult-to-etch metals such as gold and platinum.

Acid "Royal vodka"

In 1940, aqua regia saved the Nobel medals of two German physicists: James Frank and Max von Laue from destruction. The Nazis forbade accepting this award because it was given to an irreconcilable opponent of National Socialist ideas, Karl von Ossietzky. Chemists at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen threw the medals into a bottle of aqua regia and even placed the container in a prominent place.

The awards disappeared without a trace. Abwehr officers walked by and did not notice anything. After the war, the gold was recovered from the acid and the medals were recast.

Disappearing Spoon

“There is no spoon,” said Neo from the movie “The Matrix,” while waiting to be received by the prophetess. But even he would be surprised if the prophetess served gallium cutlery with tea and cookies.

You don't need a blast furnace to melt this metal. It is enough to heat it to 28 degrees, and it will flow. Even in your hands, gallium melts like ice cream, let alone boiling water!

The Glowing Monk and the Hound of the Baskervilles

The face of the Hound of the Baskervilles from the story was smeared with phosphorus for criminal purposes. And the Soviet academician Semyon Volfkovich, who zealously studied this element, simply neglected safety precautions. As a result, his suit and shoes became saturated with phosphorus gas.

Walking home through Moscow at night, Volfkovich emitted a mystical glow. Each time, the scientist was followed at a respectful distance by amazed people, to whom the “luminous monk” inspired both horror and curiosity.

Chemistry and ghosts

The Canterville Ghost and the many ghosts that inhabit Hogwarts are not entirely fictional. Until now, thousands of inhabitants of ancient houses and castles complain about mournful voices and mysterious steps in the dark, cannot sleep properly and are even selling their mansions.

The culprit of the nightmares has been found: it turned out to be carbon monoxide. The outdated heating design in homes of past centuries releases it into rooms in such quantities that it causes auditory and visual hallucinations.

Is it possible to walk on water

It is possible if it is not pure water, but a mixture of it with starch. If you pour such a starch suspension into a swimming pool, it will behave like a liquid. But as soon as you hit its surface sharply or even jump on it, it instantly thickens under your feet and then spreads out again. A fast running person literally makes a solid path for himself on liquid.

The fact is that the viscosity of a starch suspension depends not only on temperature, but also on the use of force. Cream behaves in the same way, thickening when whipped. But ketchup, on the contrary, deigns to flow only after hitting the bottle.

Record holders of the periodic table

The created table of elements is the alpha and omega of chemical science. There is a lot of interesting things in it, let’s look for the most unusual specimens in its cells:

• astatine is the rarest element found in nature: there is less than 1 g of it on the entire planet;
• rhenium is the rarest metal: to obtain 1 kg of rhenium, 2000 tons of ore are processed; a deposit of this metal was discovered on the island of Iturup, which, among others, the Japanese dispute with Russia;

• californium - the high cost of this radioactive element has no equal: for 1 g of the substance you will have to pay 27 million dollars;
• tungsten is a record holder for refractoriness: the temperature to melt it has to be raised above 3400 degrees;

• gold is a champion in malleability: from 1 g of gold a jeweler can draw a wire over 2 km long;
• nitrogen – the atmosphere consists of 78% nitrogen, but it is not used by any living organism except nitrogen-fixing bacteria;
• hydrogen – The Universe belongs to hydrogen, which makes up 90% of it.

How a broken flask served the aircraft industry

The French artist and chemist Edouard Benedictus in 1903 became the author of an invention that saved more than one life. That day he was conducting experiments with nitrocellulose and carelessly dropped the flask. The glass cracked, but the bottle retained its shape. However, Benedictus was so annoyed that he simply threw it away.

In the evening, the scientist witnessed a car accident. The windshield, shattered into sharp fragments, disfigured the face of the surviving driver. And a broken flask appeared before the chemist’s eyes... It was carefully removed from the trash can and served science. This is how humanity received triplex - a material for vehicle windows, glass canopies and doors.

A grumpy wife and the birth of rubber

American chemist Charles Goodyear tried for many years to improve the properties of rubber by mixing it with various substances to no avail. The scientist's wife was dissatisfied with his work, since his invention did not bring money, and the stench in the house was quite noticeable. Goodyear was nervous and began to hide his experiences from his wife, but did not lose hope.

Once he mixed rubber with sulfur, but again nothing came of this venture. Hearing Mrs. Goodyear's steps, the scientist threw the mixture onto the hot coals of the stove, trying to pretend that he had not done anything like that. After listening to his wife's next lecture and waiting for her to leave, the inventor took out of the stove exactly what he had wanted to see for many years - vulcanized rubber.

The art of naming

The tiny Swedish town of Ytterby is mentioned four times in the periodic table. The names of the elements ytterbium, yttrium, erbium and terbium are derived from this toponym. All of them were found as part of an unusually heavy mineral, which is mined in the vicinity of the town.

Miners from Norway still worship the mountain spirit Kobold, who has the power to fill up the mines or let people go alive. When smelting silver ores in former times, poisoning often occurred, which was also attributed to the harmfulness of the mountain spirit. The metal extracted from this ore was named cobalt in his honor, although arsenic oxide was to blame for the poisonings.

The sonorous name “Amkar” of the Perm football club misleads everyone who is not familiar with the history of its creation. But this name, like a charade, consists of the first syllables of the words “ammonia” and “urea”. This is explained simply: the company that created the club produces mineral fertilizers.

A small additive – completely different properties

The German mortar "Big Bertha", created for the destruction of forts and fortresses, had a serious drawback - the legendary Krupp steel barrel was deformed from overheating. To correct the situation, it was necessary to alloy the steel with molybdenum. The largest deposit at that time was discovered in the US state of Colorado. By cunning, persuasion and even, as they say, almost by raider seizure, the path of molybdenum was paved to Germany.

The Lego constructor is one of the favorite children's toys. And the smaller its details, the more interesting it is to tinker with it. However, there is a danger that, after playing too much, the child will swallow the construction element. The game creators thought about this and added harmless barium sulfate to the plastic. Now the swallowed part is detected using x-rays.

Chemists joke

Most scientists are so tired of amateurish horror stories about GMOs that in response, chemists began to send out calls for a complete and irrevocable ban on dihydrogen monoxide. They write that this dangerous compound leads to corrosion of metals and deterioration of most other materials, and is part of acid rain and discharges from enterprises. A person into whose body dihydrogen monoxide enters inevitably dies, sometimes even after a minute.

In 2007, things came to a real curiosity: having received from voters an angry description of the terrible poison that is everywhere added to food, one New Zealand MP addressed a request to the government, demanding a complete ban on such “chemicals.” But we were talking about water.

Chemistry is our life. We ourselves consist of “dihydrogen monoxide” and tens of thousands of other substances that constantly interact with each other, giving birth to new compounds. And how many more wonderful discoveries and inventions await enthusiastic people in burnt-out robes - we’ll find out when we start using them.

You've probably seen the Periodic Table of the Elements before. Perhaps she still appears in your dreams, or perhaps he has sunk into oblivion for you, being nothing more than a decoration on the classroom wall, designed to make the office more respectable. However, there is more to this system of seemingly random cells than meets the eye.

The periodic table (or PT, as this article will refer to it periodically) and the elements it describes have features you may never have guessed. From unlikely origins to new additions, here are ten facts you probably don't know about the Periodic Table of Elements.

10. Mendeleev got help

The periodic table has been in use since 1869, when it was created by the bearded Dimitri Mendeleev. Most people think that Mendeleev was the only one who invented the table and became the genius chemist of the century. However, his efforts were supported by several European scientists who made important contributions to make this colossal diagram of the elements complete.

Mendeleev is, as he should be, widely known as the father of the periodic table, but he did not document every element known to us.

9. New additions

Photo: IUPAC

Believe it or not, the periodic table hasn't changed much since the 1950s. However, on December 2, 2016, four new elements were added: nihonium (element 113), moscovium (element 115), tennesine (element 117), and oganesson (element 118). These new additions were announced in June 2016, but required five months of analysis before they could be officially added to the PT.

Each of these elements was named after the city or state in which they were discovered, with the exception of oganesson, which was named after Russian nuclear physicist Yuri Oganessian for his efforts in documenting the element.

8. No "J"

There are 26 wonderful letters in the English alphabet, and each of them is no less important than the previous and subsequent ones. However, Mendeleev looked at it differently. Try to guess which unfortunate letter never appears in PT? Here's a hint: say the letters and curl your fingers until you've folded them all (if you have all ten). Did you guess it? That's right, it's the letter "J", which never appeared in PT.

They say that one in the field is not a warrior? Then perhaps J is the loneliest letter. However, here's a fun fact: "J" has been the most commonly used letter in boys' names since 2000. So, "J" gets enough attention, don't worry.

7. Artificial elements

Photo: Popocatomar

As you just learned, there are now as many as 118 elements in the periodic table. Can you guess how many of these 118 are man-made? Of the 118 elements, 90 can be found in the beautiful place we call nature.

How can 28 elements be artificial? This is indeed true. We have been synthesizing elements since 1937 and continue to do so today. The good news is that PT is amazing and these artificial elements can be easily spotted if you ever get curious. Just look at elements 93 to 118. Full disclosure: this range includes several elements that are very rarely found in nature and therefore are almost always created in laboratories, which is also true for elements 43, 61, 85 and 87.

6. Element 137

In the mid-20th century, a famous scientist named Richard Feynman made a serious statement that struck a chord with scientists around the world, leaving them scratching their heads forever. He said that if we ever discovered element 137, we would have no way to quantify its protons and electrons. Element 137 is different in that it is the value of the subtle matter constant, defined as the probability that an electron will absorb . Theoretically, element 137 would have 137 electrons and a 100 percent chance of absorbing a photon. Its electrons would spin at the speed of light. What's even crazier is that element 139's electrons, if such a substance exists, should spin faster than the speed of light.

Enough physics? Think about it and you'll find it interesting (well, as interesting as reading about electrons). Element 137 in theory could unify three important parts of physics: the speed of light, quantum mechanics and electromagnetism. Since the early 1900s, physicists have theorized that element 137 could underlie a Grand Unified Theory that could connect all three of the above fields together. By all accounts, it sounds as crazy as Area 51 with aliens or the Bermuda Triangle.

5. What's unusual about the name?

Almost all element names have more meaning and significance than you might imagine. They are chosen at random. We would, for example, name the element with the first word that came to our mind. "Kerflump." Yes fine.

Further, the names of the elements take their origins in one of five main categories. One of them is the names of famous scientists, a classic example is Einsteinium. Elements can also be named after the places where they are documented, such as germanium, americium, gallium, and so on. Options for names include names of celestial bodies such as planets. Uranus was first discovered shortly after the discovery of the planet Uranus. Elements can get names from mythology: for example, there's titanium after the Greek Titans and thorium after the Norse God of Thunder—or the Star Avenger, whichever you prefer.

Finally, there are names that describe the properties of the elements. Argon comes from the Greek word argos, which means "lazy" or "idle." Now you will decide that argon is the laziest element. Hey argon, go to work. Bromine is another such name from the Greek word bromos, which means “stench,” which very accurately describes the terrible smell of bromine.

4. It was hardly inspiration

If you are good at cards, then this fact is only for you. Mendeleev needed to somehow sort all the elements, and for this he needed a systematic approach. Naturally, to break down the table into categories, he turned to a game of solitaire. Mendeleev wrote down the atomic weight of each element on separate cards, and began a mad game of solitaire, so to speak. He arranged the elements according to specific properties that formed the type of "suit". He was then able to organize these categorized elements into columns according to their atomic weight.

Many of us have a hard time getting through the levels of a regular solitaire game, so this guy being a level 1000 player is very impressive. What's next? Will someone turn to chess to revolutionize astrophysics and build a rocket that can travel to the edge of the galaxy and back while remaining absolutely stable? This is quite possible if such a crazy professor as Mendeleev was able to systematize something huge with the help of a card game.

3. "No" to inert gases

Photo: Wikimedia

Remember how we classified argon as the laziest and most boring element in the history of the Universe? Mendeleev felt something similar. When argon was first isolated in 1894, it did not fit into any of the columns of the new table, so instead of finding a way to make an addition, the scientist decided to deny the existence of this element.

Even more surprising is that argon is not the only unfortunate element to suffer a similar fate. Five more elements were found to exist, as was unclassified argon. Just some kind of discrimination of elements. Jokes aside, radon, neon, krypton, helium, xenon - they were all denied existence, only because Mendeleev could not find a place for them in the table. After years of reconfiguration and reclassification, these lucky elements (called noble gases) were able to enter an elite club called the Existing Elements.

2. Romantic connections

This fact is for you, romantics. If you take a paper copy of the Periodic Table and cut out the middle columns, you will end up with a periodic table that has no elements. Fold it once in the middle of group IV, and there you have it - you have learned which elements can form compounds with each other.

The elements that are “kissed” form stable compounds. They have complementary electronic structures that allow them to be combined. If this isn't true love like Romeo and Juliet, or even Shrek and Fiona, then what is it?

1. Carbon is the main one

Carbon wants to be the most important thing. You think you know everything about carbon, but you don't. This bad boy is capable of more than you ever thought. Did you know that more compounds contain carbon than do not? What about the fact that 20% of the weight of living organisms is carbon? What's even stranger is that every carbon atom in your body was once part of a fraction of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Carbon is not only practically a superelement, but also the fourth most abundant element in the entire Universe.

If the periodic table were a party, you'd want to be on it next to carbon. This element really seems to know how to have fun. It is also the main element of diamonds, so add a little sparkle to the list of its amazing qualities.

The closest subject of chemistry is the study of homogeneous substances, from the composition of which all the bodies of the world are made, their transformations into each other and the phenomena accompanying such transformations.

— DI. Mendeleev

For all chemistry lovers, site editors Self Hacker, I have prepared a small selection of interesting facts about chemistry.

Let's start with one of the pressing issues that concerns chemistry as a science.

In what case can ethyl alcohol serve as an antidote?

Methyl alcohol is indistinguishable from ethyl alcohol in taste and smell, but its effect on the body is much more threatening to our health. Even a small amount of methanol can lead to blindness, and a dose of 30 ml can lead to death.

This explains the frequent cases of methyl alcohol poisoning, either due to ignorance or in the case of drinking counterfeit alcohol. It is interesting that in the case of such poisoning, the antidote is ordinary, that is, ethyl alcohol. This is due to the fact that the processes of binding both alcohols in the body occur with the participation of one enzyme - alcohol dehydrogenase, but since the reaction with ethanol occurs faster, the result is much less harmful products of the breakdown of methanol in the blood.

We invite you to watch a video of how polystyrene foam is produced - it’s interesting and informative.

Hydrogel for healing fractures, a well-deserved invention in the chemical industry.

Bioengineers at Rice University have created a hydrogel that instantly changes from a liquid to a semi-solid state at temperatures close to human body temperature, and then breaks down at a suitable rate. The gel can be used as support for broken bones or other tissues in the patient's body. At room temperature, the hydrogel remains liquid, but when it enters the patient’s body, it hardens and fills the empty space, which will later be replaced by natural tissue.

The hydrogel can also be used to deliver stem cells to skeletal defects, which should cause accelerated bone tissue regeneration. After performing its functions, the gel decomposes and is excreted from the body. The authors of the discovery expect that the gel can be tuned so that its rate of degradation corresponds to different rates of bone growth.

And now Interesting Facts in chemistry that you definitely didn’t know:

• For example, when we cut an onion and “cry”, the merit of these fictitious emotions belongs to the sulfur that is absorbed into the soil where the onion grows.
• In the province of Indonesia there is a volcano completely filled with sulfur, which is called Kawa Ijen. It settles on the pipes, after which workers knock it down with fittings and carry it for weighing. This is how they earn their living there.
• Hygienic “products” based on sulfur created specifically for cleansing problematic skin from acne and rashes.
• Earwax, which we have been taught to remove since childhood with cotton swabs, “poisons” life with noble intentions. It contains special lysozyme enzymes; They are the ones who “keep out” all bacteria from entering our body.

• In 1985, a group of American and English researchers discovered molecular compounds made of carbon that strongly resemble a soccer ball in shape. They wanted to name the discovery in honor of him, but scientists did not agree on which term to use - football or soccer (the term for football in the USA). As a result, the compound was named fullerenes in honor of the architect Fuller, who came up with a geodesic dome composed of tetrahedra.
• The French chemist, pharmacist and physician Nicolas Lemery (1645-1715) at one time observed something similar to a volcano when he mixed 2 g of iron filings and 2 g of powdered sulfur in an iron cup and touched it with a hot glass rod. After some time, black particles began to fly out of the prepared mixture, and the mixture itself, having greatly increased in volume, became so hot that it began to glow.
• The separation of fluorine gas from fluorinated substances turned out to be one of the most difficult experimental problems. Fluorine has exceptional reactivity; and often its interaction with other substances occurs with ignition and explosion.
• Iodine was discovered in 1811 by the French chemist B. Courtois. There is such a version of the discovery of iodine. According to it, the culprit of Courtois's discovery was his beloved cat: he lay on the chemist's shoulder while he was working in the laboratory. Wanting to have fun, the cat jumped onto the table and pushed the vessels that were standing nearby onto the floor. One of them contained an alcohol solution of seaweed ash, and the other contained sulfuric acid. After mixing the liquids, a cloud of blue-violet vapor appeared, which was nothing more than iodine.
• 100,000 chemical reactions occur in the human brain in one second
• In 1903, in the American state of Kansas, a gas fountain suddenly erupted from an oil well. To the great surprise of the oil workers, the gas turned out to be non-flammable. A new meeting with him took place during the First World War. A German airship dropping bombs on London is hit by an incendiary shell, but the airship does not burst into flames. Slowly leaking gas, he flew away. The secret services of England were alarmed: before this, German airships exploded when hit by shells, as they were filled with hydrogen. Chemical experts recalled that long before the war, German ships for some reason carried monazite sand from India and Brazil as ballast. This gas was helium. Monazite sand, which has long been the main helium-bearing raw material, contains the radioactive element thorium, the decay of which produces helium, which in density is second only to hydrogen, but has an advantage over hydrogen: it is non-flammable and chemically inert.

This concludes our interesting facts about such science as. If you know interesting facts from the field of chemistry, then write them to us in the comments and we will definitely add them to our list.

At this very minute

While you are reading this article, your eyes use organic compound – retinal, which converts light energy into nerve impulses. While you are sitting in a comfortable position, back muscles maintain correct posture thanks to chemical breakdown of glucose with the release of the required energy. As you understand, The gaps between nerve cells are also filled with organic substances - mediators(or neurotransmitters) that help all neurons become one. And this well-coordinated system works without the participation of your consciousness! Only organic chemists understand as deeply as biologists how intricately man is created, how logically the internal systems of organs and their life cycle are arranged. It follows that the study of organic chemistry is the basis for understanding our life! And high-quality research is the way to the future, because new drugs are created primarily in chemical laboratories. Our department would like to introduce you closer to this wonderful science.

11-cis-retinal, absorbs light

serotonin – neurotransmitter

Organic chemistry as a science

Organic chemistry as a science emerged in the late nineteenth century. It arose at the intersection of different spheres of life - from obtaining food to treating millions of people who are unaware of the role of chemistry in their lives. Chemistry occupies a unique place in the structure of understanding the Universe. This is the science of molecules , but there is more to organic chemistry than this definition. Organic chemistry literally creates itself, as if growing . Organic chemistry, studying not only natural molecules, has the ability to create new substances, structures, matter. This feature gave humanity polymers, dyes for clothes, new medicines, and perfumes. Some believe that synthetic materials can be harmful to humans or be environmentally hazardous. However, it is sometimes very difficult to distinguish black from white, and to establish the fine line between “danger to humans” and “commercial benefit”. It will also help with this issue Department of Organic Synthesis and Nanotechnology (OSiNT) .

Organic compounds

Organic chemistry began as a life science and was previously thought to be very different from inorganic chemistry in the laboratory. Scientists then believed that organic chemistry was the chemistry of Carbon, especially coal compounds. In our time organic chemistry combines all carbon compounds of both living and non-living nature .

The organic compounds available to us are obtained either from living organisms or from fossil materials (oil, coal). Examples of substances from natural sources are the essential oils menthol (mint flavor) and cis-jasmone (jasmine flower scent). Essential oils obtained by steam distillation; details will be revealed during training at our department.

Menthol Cis-jasmone Quinine

Already in the 16th century it was known alkaloid – quinine , which is obtained from the bark of the cinchona tree (South America) and is used against malaria.

The Jesuits who discovered this property of quinine, of course, did not know its structure. Moreover, in those days there was no question of the synthetic production of quinine - which was only possible in the 20th century! Another interesting story related to quinine is discovery of the purple pigment mauvein William Perkin in 1856. Why he did this and what the results of his discovery are - you can also find out at our department.

But let's return to the history of the formation of organic chemistry. In the 19th century (the time of W. Perkin), the main source of raw materials for the chemical industry was coal. Dry distillation of coal produced coke oven gas, which was used for heating and cooking, and coal tar, rich in aromatic carbocyclic and heterocyclic compounds (benzene, phenol, aniline, thiophene, pyridine). At our department they will tell you how they differ and what their significance is in organic synthesis.

Phenol has antiseptic properties (trivial name - carbolic acid ), A aniline became the basis for the development of the paint industry (production of aniline dyes). These colorants are still commercially available, for example Bismarck-Brown (brown) shows that much of the early work in chemistry was carried out in Germany:

However in the 20th century, oil overtook coal as the main source of organic raw materials and energy , therefore, gaseous methane (natural gas), ethane, propane have become an available energy resource.

In the same time, The chemical industry was divided into mass and fine. The first is engaged in the production of paints and polymers - substances that do not have a complex structure, however, produced in huge quantities. And the fine chemical industry, or more correctly, fine organic synthesis is engaged in the production of medicines, aromas, flavoring additives, in much smaller volumes, which, however, is more profitable. Currently, about 16 million organic compounds are known. How much more is possible? In this area, organic synthesis has no restrictions. Imagine that you have created the longest alkyl chain, but you can easily add another carbon atom. This process is endless. But one should not think that all these millions of compounds are ordinary linear hydrocarbons; they cover all kinds of molecules with amazingly diverse properties.

Properties of organic compounds

What are the physical properties of organic compounds?

They can be crystalline like sugar, or plastic like paraffin explosive like isooctane, volatile like acetone.

Sucrose Isooctane (2,3,5-trimethylpentane)

Connection coloring it can also be very diverse. Humanity has already synthesized so many dyes that it seems that there are no more colors left that cannot be obtained using synthetic dyes.

For example, you can make the following table of brightly colored substances:

However, in addition to these characteristics, organic substances have an odor which helps differentiate them. An interesting example is the defensive reaction of skunks. The smell of skunk secretions is caused by sulfur compounds - thiols:

But the most terrible smell was “sniffed” in the city of Freiburg (1889), during an attempt to synthesize thioacetone by decomposition of the trimer, when the population of the city had to be evacuated, since “the unpleasant odor, which quickly spread over a large area in the city, causes fainting, vomiting and anxiety.” " The laboratory was closed.

But chemists at the Esso research station south of Oxford decided to repeat this experiment. Let's give them the floor:

“Recently, odor problems have gone beyond our worst expectations. During early experiments, the cap popped out of a waste bottle and was immediately replaced, and our colleagues in the nearby laboratory (200 yards away) immediately began to feel nauseous and vomited.

Two of ourschemists who were simply studying the cracking of minute quantities of trithioacetone found themselves the target of hostile glances in a restaurant and were put to shame when a waitress sprayed deodorant around them. The odors "defied" the expected effects of dilution because the lab workers did not find the odors intolerable...and truly denied their responsibility since they were working in closed systems. To convince them otherwise, they were distributed with other observers throughout the laboratory at distances of up to a quarter of a mile. Then one drop of acetone gem-dithiol and later a mother liquor of trithioacetone recrystallization was placed on a watch glass in a fume hood. The smell was detected downwind in a matter of seconds.". Those. the odor of these compounds increases with decreasing concentration.

There are two candidates for this terrible stench - propane dithiol (the above mentioned heme-dithiol), or 4-methyl-4sulfanyl-pentanone-2:

It is unlikely that anyone will be able to identify the leader among them.

However, unpleasant odor has its own area of ​​​​application . The natural gas that comes into our homes contains a small amount of a flavoring agent - tert-butyl thiol. A small amount is so much that humans can sense one part of thiol in 50 billion parts of methane.

In contrast, some other compounds have delicious odors. To redeem the honor of sulfur compounds we must refer to the truffle, which pigs can smell through a meter of soil and whose taste and smell are so delicious that they are worth more than gold. Damascenones are responsible for the scent of roses . If you have the opportunity to smell one drop, you will probably be disappointed, as it smells like turpentine, or camphor. And the next morning, your clothes (including you) will smell very strongly of roses. Just like trithioacetone, this odor increases with dilution.

Demascenone - the scent of roses

What about the taste?

Everyone knows that children can taste household chemicals (bathtub, toilet cleaner, etc.). The chemists were faced with the task of ensuring that unfortunate children would no longer want to try some kind of chemistry in bright packaging. Note that this compound is a salt:

Some other substances have a “strange” effect on a person, causing complexes of mental sensations - hallucinations, euphoria, etc. These include drugs and ethyl alcohol. They are very dangerous because... cause addiction and destroy a person as an individual.

Let's not forget about other creatures. It is known that cats love to sleep at any time. Recently, scientists obtained a substance from the cerebrospinal fluid of poor cats that allows them to quickly fall asleep. It has the same effect on humans. This is a surprisingly simple connection:

A similar structure, called Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA), has antitumor properties:

Another interesting molecule, resveratol, may be responsible for the beneficial effects of red wine in preventing heart disease:

As a third example of “edible” molecules (after CLA and resveratrol) let's take vitamin C. Long-distance sailors from the era of the Great Geographical Discoveries suffered from scorbutus disease (scurvy), when degenerative processes occur in soft tissues, especially the oral cavity. Lack of this vitamin causes scurvy. Ascorbic acid (the common name for vitamin C) is a universal antioxidant that neutralizes free radicals, protecting people from cancer. Some people believe that large doses of vitamin C protect us from colds, but this has not yet been proven.

Organic chemistry and industry

Vitamin C is obtained in large quantities in Switzerland, at the Roshe pharmaceutical plant (not to be confused with RoshenoM). Worldwide The volumes of the organic synthesis industry are calculated in both kilograms (small-scale production) and millions of tons (large-scale production) . This is good news for organic students because... There is no shortage of jobs (nor an overabundance of graduates) here. In other words, the profession of a chemical engineer is very relevant.

Some simple compounds can be obtained from both petroleum and plants. Ethanol used as raw materials for the production of rubber, plastics, and other organic compounds. It can be obtained by catalytic hydration of ethylene (from petroleum), or by fermentation of waste from the sugar industry (as in Brazil, where the use of ethanol as a fuel has improved the environmental situation).

Worth mentioning separately polymer industry . It absorbs most of the petroleum products in the form of monomers (styrene, acrylates, vinyl chloride, ethylene). The production of synthetic fibers has a turnover of more than 25 million tons per year. About 50,000 people are involved in the production of polyvinyl chloride, with an annual output of 20 million tons.

It should also be mentioned production of adhesives, sealants, coatings . For example, with the well-known superglue (based on methyl cyanoacrylate) you can glue almost anything.

Cyanoacrylate is the main component of superglue.

Perhaps, the most famous dye is indigo , which was previously isolated from plants, but is now obtained synthetically. Indigo is the color of blue jeans. To dye polyester fibers, for example, benzodifuranones (as dispersol) are used, which give the fabric an excellent red color. To color polymers, phthalocyanines are used in the form of complexes with iron or copper. They also find application as a component of the active layer of CDs, DVDs, Blu Ray discs. A new class of “high performance” dyes based on DPP (1,4-diketopyrrolopyrroles) has been developed by Ciba-Geidy.

Photo At first it was black and white: silver halides interacting with light released metal atoms, which reproduced the image. Colored photographs in Kodak color film arose as a result of a chemical reaction between two colorless reagents. One of them is usually an aromatic amine:

You can easily move from photography to the sweet life.

Sweeteners such as classic sugar received on a huge scale. Other sweeteners like aspartame (1965) and saccharin (1879) are produced in similar volumes. Aspartame is a dipeptide of two natural amino acids:

Pharmaceutical companies produce medicinal substances for many diseases. An example of a commercially successful, revolutionary drug is Ranitidine (for peptic ulcers) and Sildenafil (Viagra, we hope you know who needs it and why).

The success of these drugs is related to both therapeutic effectiveness and profitability:

That's not all. This is just the beginning

There is still a lot of interesting things to learn about organic chemistry, so training at the department of OS&NT is a priority not only for chemistry lovers, but also for applicants who are interested in the world around them, who want to expand the scope of their perception and reveal their potential.

Even if you listened carefully to everything in your lessons at school and in classes at the university, you do not know all the interesting facts about chemical elements. In this article we will talk about interesting moments in history associated with chemical elements, as well as their unusual properties.

1. Hydrogen

The earth's crust contains very little hydrogen - about 0.15 percent, while this same element makes up about 50% of the mass of the Sun. Another interesting thing is that in liquid form hydrogen is the densest substance, and in gaseous form, on the contrary, it is the least dense.

2. Sodium

Sodium (better known as salt) originally had a different name. Until the 18th century, people called this element sodium. For this reason, sodium salts had such a strange name as hydrochloric soda, or soda sulfate. Here in Russia, this name took root thanks to Hermann Hess.

3. Metals

Few people know, but iron can go into a gaseous state; to do this, it needs to be heated up to 50,000 degrees Celsius.

4. Gold

One of the most precious metals that everyone knows - gold, is found in places you didn't know about. So, in a ton of ordinary ocean water there is about 7 mg. In total, there are more than 10 billion tons of this metal in the ocean.

5. Platinum

At first, platinum, due to its similarity with silver, was given a similar name - “silver”. It was much cheaper than silver. Later, when they figured out where this metal could be used, everything changed dramatically. Now platinum is tens of times more expensive than silver.

6. Silver

By the way, about silver - its bactericidal properties were discovered by accident. The Macedonian army was exposed to an epidemic, but it affected only ordinary military personnel; the commanders were healthy. It turned out that everything was connected with the dishes. The bosses had it in silver, and the military had it in tin.

7. Metals in liquid state

There are several metals that are liquid at “room” temperature: mercury, cesium, francium and gallium.

8. Metals and planets

Previously, people knew only 7 metals and the same number of planets, so they divided them “in pairs”. The Moon meant silver, Mars - iron, Mercury was assigned to Mercury, and the Sun, naturally, gold. Jupiter became tin, Venus became copper, and Saturn became lead.

Sand snake. Interesting chemical experiment at home: