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The most interesting fact about chemistry. Organic chemistry: interesting facts. Interesting facts about chemical elements

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.

The Amkar football club from Perm received its name from the abbreviation of two chemical substances - ammonia and urea, since they were the main products of Mineral Fertilizers OJSC, which created the club.

If the viscosity of a liquid depends only on its nature and temperature, such as water, such a liquid is called Newtonian. If the viscosity also depends on the velocity gradient, it is called non-Newtonian. Such liquids behave like solids when sudden force is applied. An example is ketchup in a bottle, which will not flow unless you shake the bottle. Another example is a suspension of corn starch in water. If you pour it into a large container, you can literally walk on it if you move your feet quickly and apply enough force to each stroke.

Ernest Rutherford's research was primarily in the field of physics and once stated that "all sciences can be divided into two groups - physics and stamp collecting." However, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry, which came as a surprise to both him and other scientists. Subsequently, he noticed that of all the transformations that he was able to observe, “the most unexpected was his own transformation from a physicist to a chemist.”

Since the 1990s, there have been frequent calls on websites and mailing lists to ban the use of dihydrogen monoxide. They list the numerous dangers that this substance causes: it is the main component of acid rain, accelerates the corrosion of metals, can cause short circuits, etc. Despite the danger, the substance is actively used as an industrial solvent, food additive, and nuclear power plants. stations, and enterprises dump it in huge quantities into rivers and seas. This joke - after all, dihydrogen monoxide is nothing more than water - should teach critical perception of information. In 2007, a New Zealand MP bought into it. He received a similar letter from a constituent and forwarded it to the government, demanding that the dangerous chemical be banned.

From the point of view of organic chemistry, strawberry aldehyde is not an aldehyde, but an ethyl ether. Also, this substance is not contained in strawberries, but only resembles them in its smell. The substance received its name in the 19th century, when chemical analysis was not yet very accurate.

Platinum literally means “silver” in Spanish. This disparaging name given to this metal by the conquistadors is explained by the exceptional refractoriness of platinum, which could not be melted down, did not find use for a long time and was valued half as much as silver. Now on world exchanges, platinum is about 100 times more expensive than silver.

The smell of wet earth that we smell after rain is the organic substance geosmin, which is produced by cyanobacteria and actinobacteria living on the surface of the earth.

Many chemical elements are named after countries or other geographical features. Four elements at once - yttrium, ytterbium, terbium and erbium - were named after the Swedish village of Ytterby, near which a large deposit of rare earth metals was discovered.

When cobalt minerals containing arsenic are fired, volatile, toxic arsenic oxide is released. The ore containing these minerals was given the name of the mountain spirit Kobold by the miners. The ancient Norwegians attributed the poisoning of smelters during the melting of silver to the tricks of this evil spirit. The metal cobalt itself was named after him.

Canaries are very sensitive to the methane content in the air. This feature was once used by miners who, going underground, took with them a cage with a canary. If singing had not been heard for a long time, then it was necessary to go upstairs as quickly as possible.

Antibiotics were discovered by accident. Alexander Fleming left a test tube containing staphylococcus bacteria unattended for several days. A colony of mold fungi grew in it and began to destroy the bacteria, and then Fleming isolated the active substance - penicillin.

Turkey vultures have a very keen sense of smell; they smell especially well ethanethiol, a gas that is released when animal corpses rot. Artificially produced ethanethiol is added to natural gas, which itself is odorless, so that we can smell gas leaking from an uncovered burner. In sparsely populated areas of the United States, inspection engineers sometimes detect leaks on main pipelines precisely by the circling of turkey vultures, attracted by their familiar smell.

American Charles Goodyear accidentally discovered a recipe for making rubber that does not soften in the heat and does not become brittle in the cold. He mistakenly heated a mixture of rubber and sulfur on the kitchen stove (according to another version, he left a rubber sample near the stove). This process is called vulcanization.

For many, weekdays are almost monotonous: home, work, home... And often this makes people depressed, because there is a lack of some variety, events, adventures, something interesting! But in fact, millions of events and various interesting phenomena happen around us every day, to which we do not pay attention not only because we are inattentive, but because the human eye simply does not see it.

For example, various chemical processes are constantly taking place around us. It is an illusion that chemistry is something complex and incomprehensible. In fact, chemistry is a part of our life, without which human life would not only be much more boring, but completely impossible.

Amazing facts about chemistry:

1. A soap bubble is the thinnest matter that the human eye can see. A soap bubble bursts in 0.001 seconds. Moreover, if you inflate a bubble at -15 C o, it will freeze upon contact with the surface, and at -25 C o, it will freeze in the air and break upon impact.

2. Ocean waters contain gold. There are 7 milligrams of gold per ton of ocean water.

3. During flight, airplanes use up to 75 tons of oxygen; this amount of oxygen is produced by 30,000 hectares of forest.

4. Iron can be turned into gas at a temperature of 1539 C 0.

5. Every living organism on our planet contains protein, but in different proportions. The human brain is also protein.

6. The lethal dose of methyl alcohol is 30 ml, and the antidote is ethyl alcohol.

7. Metal does not smell. Everyone is familiar with the smell of untreated (not painted) metal; this is the smell, for example, of metal money, railings, old swings, fittings, or just a piece of metal. But this smell is not emitted by the metal itself, it is the result of contact of the metal with an organic substance, for example, with our palm or finger, which produces sweat.

8. Tomatoes are very smart plants, they know how to shout “SOS!” When an insect - such as a caterpillar - begins to chew on a tomato leaf, it releases a chemical with a certain odor that attracts birds.

9. Charles Goodyear is a scientist who accidentally invented rubber that does not melt in the heat and does not break in the cold. He forgot to remove the mixture of sulfur and rubber from the switched on stove, so a process for making rubber was invented, which was called vulcanization.

10. About 100 thousand chemical reactions occur in the human brain every minute.

Chemistry constantly surrounds us. It is not only around us, but also inside our body, and even our thought process is, in essence, chemistry. So chemistry not only helps us learn a lot of interesting and surprising things, but also benefits us in every sense.

As we know, substances are made up of atoms. And different types of atoms are called chemical elements. In this post you will read many interesting facts about chemical elements.

There are significantly fewer chemical elements than different substances. There are only 80 stable elements (the atoms of which do not decay over time), and there are also several radioactive, but long-lived ones that are also found in nature. All the variety of substances is formed due to the fact that atoms are able to connect with each other. Positively charged nuclei of atoms, when brought closer together, attract negatively charged electrons of other atoms and because of this, a stable bond is formed between the atoms.

Atoms of chemical elements differ from each other in the number of protons in the nucleus of the atom. Protons and neutrons are held in the nucleus by nuclear forces, but electromagnetic forces try to push the protons away from each other. The more protons in a nucleus, the stronger the repulsion, so nuclei that are too large cannot exist for long. The last chemical element whose atoms are stable is lead (number 82), and the last one that occurs in nature is uranium (number 92). All known elements with high numbers were obtained artificially in nuclear reactors or accelerators. The heaviest element to date that has been obtained artificially is ununoctium (number 118). It was synthesized by Russian scientists at an accelerator in Dubna. All elements numbered 100 and above are obtained in very small quantities (sometimes only in quantities of a few atoms).

According to modern concepts, all elements heavier than hydrogen and helium were formed during the evolution of stars. The nuclei of atoms from hydrogen to iron are capable of merging with each other, releasing energy, and are gradually formed during the life of the star. But all the chemical elements whose atoms are heavier than iron, according to scientists, were formed during the explosions of supernovae or neutron stars.

The very first chemical element is hydrogen. It is the most common in the Universe, more than 90% of atoms are hydrogen atoms. But there is not much hydrogen on Earth, and the most common element is oxygen. The earth's crust contains about 50% oxygen, followed by silicon (26% by mass) and aluminum (7%).

Even pure chemical elements can exist in the form of different substances, since the atoms in them can be combined in different ways. This phenomenon is called allotropy.

example of allotropy - crystalline boron (left) and amorphous boron

Chemical elements differ greatly from each other in their ability to enter into chemical reactions. The most chemically passive elements are inert gases, especially helium. This is because their outer electron shell is completely filled. Helium and neon do not form true chemical compounds at all. Also characterized by low chemical activity are the so-called. noble metals - gold, silver, platinum and platinum group metals.

The most active chemical elements are those that easily give up or gain electrons. The most active metal is cesium, and the most active non-metal is fluorine.

Cesium is so active that it spontaneously ignites in air and explodes in water.

video - reaction of cesium with water (first rubidium is thrown into the water, and then cesium)

Fluorine is so active that it reacts with almost all known substances. Even substances such as sand and water ignite in this gas. Fluorine is so dangerous that many chemists, trying to obtain it in its pure form, died during experiments.

video - burning of asbestos and water in fluorine

video - even a brick catches fire in fluorine

Of all the chemical elements in their pure form, 11 elements under normal conditions are gases, and almost all the rest are solids. Only mercury and bromine are liquids.

In their properties, many chemical elements are somewhat similar to each other. For example, among them there are such groups as alkali metals, halogens, inert gases, etc. At the same time, almost any known chemical element is unique in some way and in some areas of application is irreplaceable. For example, titanium, on which super-strong alloys are made, is indispensable in aircraft construction. Silicon is indispensable in microelectronics. Lithium is indispensable in the production of compact batteries. Cesium is indispensable as a material for infrared sensors. Uranium is indispensable in the nuclear industry.

The human body consists of more than 30 chemical elements, without which it cannot function normally. For example, bones are made of calcium compounds, iron is part of blood hemoglobin, iodine is needed for the synthesis of thyroid hormones, etc.

We live in a time when chemistry as a science has become omnipotent and has penetrated into all spheres of human life. Therefore, it could not help but arouse the deepest interest among ordinary people who have nothing to do with science.

We will present it in a way that everyone can understand. One of the relevant and useful questions concerns methyl alcohol.

This substance is almost impossible to distinguish from ethyl alcohol, but the effects of the former are very harmful to human health and its use can be fatal.

A very small dose of methanol can deprive a person of his vision, and drinking more than 30 ml of alcohol leads to death.

Now it becomes clear why people get poisoned when they drink low-quality alcohol. And the most amazing thing is that there is an antidote and it is ethyl alcohol.

Let's start with historical information. We are used to thinking that Mendeleev dreamed about the table of chemical elements, but one day he was asked this question, to which he clearly answered: “I’ve been thinking about it for maybe twenty years, but you think: I sat there and suddenly... it’s done.”

At what temperature do you think water freezes? At 0°C? But no. Water can turn into ice even at +20°C if it contains an admixture of methane. That is, water forms a gas hydrate with methane. Water molecules are pushed apart under the pressure of methane molecules. As a result, the internal water pressure decreases and the freezing point increases.

As a rule, they are most often obtained by accident. Charles Goodyear from America, through his carelessness, created a recipe for durable rubber. It does not crack at sub-zero temperatures and does not soften in extreme heat. His mistake was to leave a heated mixture of sulfur and rubber on the stove, a process now called vulcanization.

The Lego children's construction set is made of plastic containing barium sulfate.

This salt is absolutely harmless to the body and does not dissolve in water. Moreover, it is well determined by X-rays, so the part swallowed by the baby can be easily found by taking a picture.

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There are interesting facts about chemistry related to the plant world. As you know, plants are protected from strong exposure to ultraviolet rays and heavy rainfall, but this is not their only natural feature. They are able to protect themselves from animals and insects with the help of specific odors and enzymes that they secrete when they see danger. In this way, plants can even kill the animal that eats them.

It’s unlikely that everything can be covered in a short article, so we will briefly look at its most important elements.

It is difficult to imagine that the human brain carries out 100,000 chemical reactions per second;
Residents of the United States are adding a chemical element to the gas pipeline with a distinct smell of rotten meat. This is necessary in order to quickly detect a leak, since vultures flock to this smell;
About 90% of all atoms in the Universe are occupied by Hydrogen;
Gold is not such a rare metal as we think; there is enough of this metal in the earth’s crust to cover the entire surface of the planet;
Technetium (Tc) is used to detect bone cancer using x-rays;
Triiodine nitride NI3 is a very dangerous explosive. Its temperature may rise even if a fly lands on it, resulting in an explosion.
Many elements and substances of chemistry were discovered by accident, and antibiotics are no exception. Alexander Fleming accidentally left a test tube containing staphylococcus bacteria unattended. This led to the rapid proliferation of mold fungi, which began to destroy the bacteria. After this, Fleming received penicillin.

Don’t leave science unattended, because we contain the entire periodic table; learning interesting facts about chemistry means learning something new about yourself.

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