Chemistry

Chemistry is a fundamental branch of science that deals with the composition, properties and structure of different substances such as compounds and elements, the energy that is absorbed or released during different transformation processes that the substances undergo. Chemistry is not only concerned with studying the subatomic domain but it mainly deals with laws governing atomic combinations and properties of atoms and also how to apply the knowledge of these properties to achieve some specific purposes. 

Chemistry is categorized into five sections:

  • Physical chemistry: This field deals with fundamental principles regarding the behaviour of atoms and molecules. It involves topics such as spectroscopy, kinetics, thermodynamics, and quantum mechanics.
  • Organic chemistry: It deals with studying the structure and behaviour of molecules of life also called organic compounds. These molecules are made up of only a few elements such as Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen and a few others. This is a wide field and involves studying everything about the organic compounds, their physical and chemical properties and the reactions involving them.
  • Inorganic Chemistry:  Now, it is believed that carbon doesn’t play a role in inorganic chemistry however it is a very important element in order to study organometallic chemistry. It is the opposite of organic chemistry and deals with compounds such as metals, ionic compounds, minerals, solid-state compounds e.t.c.
  • Analytical chemistry: It is a branch of chemistry that deals with the analysis, identification and quantification of different materials in a mixture. It involves studying distillation, spectroscopy, separations, chromatography and extractions.
  • Biochemistry: This branch of chemistry deals with different processes that occur inside living organisms. It involves molecular biology as well as cell biology and mainly consists of carbon compounds and their reactions in a living organism.

Some general topics of chemistry are as follows:

  • Atomic Structure: As the name suggests, this field deals with the structure of an atom consisting of three basic particles: protons, electrons and neutrons. Studying this also involves studying the composition of ions, isotopes and atoms.
  • Chemical bonding: This field deals with studying different types of chemical bonding such as covalent bonds, ionic bonds and polar covalent. 
  • Electrochemistry: It deals with the relationship between electric potential and an identifiable chemical change. It mainly consists of oxidation and reduction reactions or both, known as redox reactions.
  • Acid, base and pH: As the name implies, this topic of chemistry deals with acids and bases found in nature and their pH properties. They are applied to aqueous solutions and acid-base reactions are of great importance for industrial processes and living cells.
  • Thermochemistry: Also called chemical thermodynamics, this branch deals with the thermodynamics of chemical reactions. It involves various concepts such as energy diagrams, Gibbs free energy and standard state conditions.
  • Periodic table: The periodic table is an essential part of chemistry that consists of all the chemical elements in the world, both natural and synthesised ones. Now, the Periodic table consists of four blocks: s,p,d and f-block elements and all of these are also studied as separate topics in chemistry.
  • Stoichiometry: This branch deals with balancing chemical equations and the concepts involving rate of reaction, the yield of reaction e.t.c.
  • Mixtures and Solutions: This section deals with different types of solutions available in general chemistry such as colloidal, suspension and dilutes solutions and their properties.
  • Solid-state: This section is also called material chemistry which deals with thesynthesis, properties and structure of solid materials.
  • Hydrocarbons: This branch consists of all the compounds that consist Carbon-Hydrogen bonding ( C-H bonds). There are mainly four hydrocarbons: alkanes, alkynes, alkenes and aromatic hydrocarbons.
  • Biomolecules: This topic essentially deals the molecules that are present inside living organisms to carry out biological processes inside them. They include lipids, fats, proteins, carbohydrates e.t.c. 

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