Silicon is the raw material most often used in integrated circuit (IC) fabrication. It is the second most abundant substance on the earth. It is extracted from rocks and common beach sand and put through an exhaustive purification process. In this form, silicon is the purist industrial substance that man produces, with impurities comprising less…
Plutonium is a radioactive metallic element. Although it is occasionally found in nature, mostly all of our plutonium is produced artificially in a lab. The official chemical symbol for plutonium is Pu, coming from its first and third letters. Its atomic number is ninety-four. Plutonium is able to maintain its solid state until very high…
Phosphates may be created by substituting some or all of the hydrogen of a phosphoric acid by metals. Depending on the number of hydrogen atoms that are replaced, the resulting compound is described as a primary, secondary or tertiary phosphate. Primary and secondary phosphates contain hydrogen and are acid salts. Secondary and tertiary phosphates, with…
Oxygen and its compounds play a key role in many of the important processes of life and industry. Oxygen in the biosphere is essential in the processes of respiration and metabolism, the means by which animals derive the energy needed to sustain life. Furthermore, oxygen is the most abundant element at the surface of the…
Nobelium has the symbol No and is a radioactive metallic element with an atomic number of 102. Nobelium is in the actinide series being labeled as one of the transuranium elements. The element is named after Alfred Bernhard Nobel, the Swedish inventor and philanthropist. Nobelium can be found when produced artificially in a laboratory. Discovery…
Mercury is a metallic element that is a liquid at room temperature; it is one of the transition elements. Mercury’s atomic number is 80. It is superconductive when cooled to within a few degrees of absolute zero. Mercury was once known as liquid silver or quicksilver which was studied by the alchemists. Mercury was first…
Iron in its pure state is soft, malleable and ductile (that can be stretched, drawn or hammered thin without breaking ((Webster’s Dictionary, 419, 1988)) with a hardness of 4-5. It is easily magnetized at room temperatures and this property disappears when heated above 790 degrees Celsius.. Metal iron occurs in a free state in only…
Production Although Helium is one of the most common elements in the universe it is a rare gas on earth. It exists in the atmosphere in such small quantities (less than five parts per million) that recovering it from the air is uneconomical. Helium is produced as a by-product of the refining of natural gas,…
Gallium, atomic number 31, is very similar to aluminum in its chemical properties. It does not dissolve in nitric acid because of the protective film of gallium oxide that is formed over the surface by the action of the acid. Gallium does however dissolve in other acids, and alkalies. Gallium was discovered (1875) by…
Copper is a mineral. It is not a plant or an animal. Copper is a metallic metal. It can never be broken down into different substances by normal chemical means. Copper was one of the first metals known to humans. People liked it because in its native condition, it could easily be beaten into weapons…
(C18 H2, NO3 H3PO4 1/2 H2O) Codeine is known medically as methylmorphine. It is a drug derived from opium, a poppy plant. It was discovered in 1832 by French chemist Pierre-Jean Robiquet. Codeine constitutes about 0.5 to 2.5 percent of this plant substance. The drug has been in use since the early 1900’s and it…
Cobalt is the 27th element on the periodical table and has an atomic number of twenty-seven. It has a symbol of Co. Cobalt¹s atomic weight is 58.9332. It has a melting point of 1,490š C. and a boiling point of 2,900š C. Cobalt looks almost exactly like iron and nickel. Cobalt is between iron and…
Chlorine is (at room temperature) a greenish-yellow gas that can be readily liquefied at 5170 Tarr or 6.8 atmospheres, at 20 C (68 F), and has a very disagreeable odor. Its Element Symbol is Cl, atomic number is 17, and atomic mass is 35.453. Chlorine’s melting point is -101 C or 149.8 F. The boiling…
Chloroflourocarbons were discovered in the 1920’s by Thomas Midgley, an organic chemist at General Motors Corporation. He was looking for inert, non-toxic, non-flammable compounds with low boiling points that could be used as refrigerants. He found what he was looking for in the form of two compounds: dichlorodifluoromethane (CFC-12) and trichloromonoflouromethane (CFC-11). In both compounds,…
Often times, scientists only have a small amount of DNA to deal with when doing genetic research or studies. In these situations, scientists can do one of several things. One is to just try to work with it anyway, but this is nearly impossible (depending on how much there is). Ther are a couple other…
Asbestos is a silicate mineral that has essential physical properties to be used in manufactured products. Throughout the twentieth asbestos was mostly used by contractors that constructed buildings and homes. Now it is commonly known that asbestos is linked to a number of various diseases and illnesses. The removal of asbestos from buildings and homes…
Common Names: Anofex, Cesarex, Chlorophenothane, Dedelo, p, p’-DDT, Dinocide, Didimac, Digmar, ENT 1506, Genitox, Guesapon, Guesarol, Gexarex, Gyron, Hildit, Ixodex, Kopsol, Neocid, OMS 16, Micro DDT 75, Pentachlorin, Rukseam, R50 and Zerdane. Physical Properties of DDT – Created by the reaction of trichloroethanol with chlorobenzene – Stable, Nonflammable, Combustible molecule – Able to perform substitution…