Chemistry DeMYSTiFieD, Second Edition

By Linda D. Williams

A PROVEN formula for mastering CHEMISTRY

Trying to understand chemistry but feel like the information's just not bonding with your brain? Here's your solution. Chemistry Demystified, Second Edition, helps you grasp both fundamental and complex concepts with ease.

Written in a step-by-step format, this practical guide first covers atomic theory, elements, symbols, and the Periodic Table of the Elements. The book then delves into solids, liquids, gases, solutions, orbitals, chemical bonds, acids, and bases. Electrochemistry, thermodynamics, biochemistry, and organic, environmental, and nuclear chemistry are discussed. In-depth examples, detailed illustrations, and worked-out problems make it easy to understand the material, and end-of-chapter quizzes and a final exam help reinforce learning.

It's a no-brainer! You'll learn about:

• Molecular and structural formulas
• Metallurgy
• Gas laws
• Molar mass
• Molecular orbital theory
• Covalent and ionic bonds
• Oxidation/reduction
• The laws of thermodynamics
• Organic reactions
• Biological and environmental markers

Simple enough for a beginner, but challenging enough for an advanced student, Chemistry Demystified, Second Edition, helps you master this fascinating subject.

• Language: English
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education
• Release date: May 13, 2011
• ISBN: 9780071751315

Book preview

Chemistry

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Chemistry

DeMYSTiFieD®

Linda D. Williams

Second Edition

Copyright © 2011, 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

CHAPTER 1     Chemistry

What Is Matter?

What Is Modern Chemistry?

Basic and Applied Science

Scientific Method

Hypothesis

Measurements

Precision versus Accuracy

Conversion Factors

Quiz

CHAPTER 2     Atomic Structure and Theory

What Are Atoms?

Beginnings of Atomic Theory

Molecules

Quiz

CHAPTER 3     Elements and the Periodic Table

What Is Matter?

Chemical Nomenclature

Atomic Number

Atomic Weight

Classes of Elements

Periods and Groups

Metallurgy—The Chemistry of Metals

Quiz

CHAPTER 4     Solids and Liquids

What Are Solids?

Crystallization and Bonding

Properties of a Solid

Mixtures

Compounds

What Are Liquids?

Quiz

CHAPTER 5     Gases and the Gas Laws

What Are Gases?

Atmosphere

Kinetic Energy and Gas Theory

Atmospheric Pressure

Empirical Gas Laws

Avogadro’s Law

Ideal Gas Law

Dalton’s Law of Partial Pressures

Quiz

CHAPTER 6     Solutions

What Is a Solution?

Solubility Rules

What Is a Mole?

Molar Mass

Molarity

Percent Solution

Changing the Concentration

Quiz

CHAPTER 7     Orbitals

What Are Orbitals?

Electron Energy Levels

Subshells and the Periodic Table

Ionization Energy

Valence Bond Theory

Molecular Orbital Theory

Resonance Theory

Molecular Geometry

Quiz

CHAPTER 8     Chemical Bonds

What Are Covalent Bonds?

Covalent Compounds

Polarity

Naming Covalent Compounds

What Are Ions?

Ionic Bonds

Quiz

CHAPTER 9     Electrochemistry

Introduction to Electrochemistry

What Is Oxidation and Reduction (Redox)?

Balancing Redox Reactions

Oxidation State

What Is an Electrochemical Cell?

What Is Electrolysis?

Conductors and Insulators

Quiz

CHAPTER 10   Acids and Bases

What Are Acids and Bases?

Arrhenius Theory

Brønsted-Lowry Acids and Bases

Neutralization

Conjugate Acid-Base Pairs

Why Is Hydrogen Important?

pH Scale

Buffers

Acids, Bases, and Safety

Quiz

CHAPTER 11   Thermodynamics

What Is Thermodynamics?

Potential and Kinetic Energy

What Is Standard State?

First Law of Thermodynamics

Second Law of Thermodynamics

Third Law of Thermodynamics

Gibbs Free Energy

Chemical Kinetics

Equilibrium

Le Châtelier’s Principle

Why Is Thermodynamics So Important?

Quiz

CHAPTER 12   Organic Chemistry: All about Carbon

What Is Organic Chemistry?

Carbon—More Amazing Than Ever

Hydrocarbons

Naming Organics

Bond Polarity

Common Functional Groups

Isomers

Organic Reactions

Quiz

CHAPTER 13   Biochemistry

What Is Biochemistry?

Hydrocarbons—Hydrophilic versus Hydrophobic

Carboxylic Acids

Esters

Amines

Amides

Phenols

What Are Proteins?

What Are Enzymes?

What Are Carbohydrates?

What Are Lipids?

Biological Markers

Nanomedicine

Quiz

CHAPTER 14   Environmental Chemistry

What Is Environmental Chemistry?

Contamination

What Is Acid Rain?

Greenhouse Effect

Biodegradable

Quiz

CHAPTER 15   Nuclear Chemistry

What Is Radioactivity?

Isotopes

Nuclear Reactions and Balance

What Is Radioactive Decay?

Radiation Detection

Magic Numbers

What Is Half-Life?

Radiation Exposure

Radiation Dosage

Nuclear Medicine

Other Radioactive Element Use

Radioactive Waste

Quiz

Final Exam

Answers to Quizzes and Final Exam

Appendix: SI Base Units and Conversions

Glossary

References and Internet Sites

Chemistry-at-a-Glance Study Sheets

Periodic Table

Index

Preface

Chemistry Demystified® is for anyone who is interested in chemistry and wants to learn more about this important scientific area. It can also be used by home-schooled students, tutored students, and people wanting to change careers. The material is presented in an easy-to-follow way and can be best understood when read from beginning to end. However, if you just need more information on specific topics (e.g., oxidation/reduction, enthalpy, radioisotopes) or want to brush up on organic molecules, then specific chapters can be reviewed separately.

In this second edition, I have combined some of the original chapters (e.g., solids and liquids) and added new ones (e.g., biochemistry and thermodynamics). I’ve updated the milestone ideas and accomplishments of chemists, biologists, physicists, and engineers to give you a sense of how the questions and ideas of people just like you advanced humankind.

Science is all about curiosity and a desire to figure out how something happens. Nobel Prize winners were once students who daydreamed about tackling problems in new ways. They knew answers had to be there and were stubborn enough to keep digging for them. Since 1901, the Nobel Prize has been awarded over 500 times for scientific excellence. The youngest person to receive the award, British physicist Lawrence Bragg, was only 25 years old when he shared the award in 1915 with his physicist father, Sir William Henry Bragg, for their work on atomic crystal structure and x-ray diffraction.

By the end of his life, Alfred Nobel had 355 patents for various inventions. After his death in 1896, Nobel’s will described the establishment of a yearly international award for those who, in the previous year, have contributed best towards the benefits for humankind in the areas of chemistry, physics, physiology/medicine, literature, and peace. In 1968, the Nobel Prize in economics was established. Over 829 people have received the Nobel in all areas since the first prize was given out.

Nobel wanted to recognize innovative heroes and encourage others in their quest for knowledge. Perhaps by learning about past prize-winning discoveries, your own creativity will be sparked.

This book provides a general chemistry overview with sections on all the main areas you’ll find in a chemistry class or an individual study of the subject. The basics are covered to familiarize you with the terms, concepts, and tools most used by scientists, physicians, and engineers. I have also listed Internet sites with intriguing up-to-date information and interactive learning devices.

Throughout the text, there are illustrations to help you visualize what is happening in chemical structure, bonding, and reactions. Quiz and final exam questions are provided. All the questions are multiple-choice and much like those used in standardized tests. Each chapter has a short open-book quiz. You shouldn’t have any trouble with these. You can look back through the chapter to refresh your memory or check reaction details. Write down your answers and have a friend or parent check them with the answers in the back of the book. Take your time going through each chapter and don’t move on until you have a good handle on the material and get most of the quiz questions right.

The final exam at the end of the book is made up of easier questions than those on the quizzes. Take the exam when you have finished all the chapter quizzes and feel comfortable with the material as a whole. A good score on the exam is at least 75% of answers correct.

With the quizzes and final exam, you may want to have your friend or parent give you your score without revealing which questions you missed. Then you might not be tempted to memorize the answers to the missed questions, but instead go back and see if you missed the point of an idea. When your quiz scores are where you’d like them to be, go back and check individual questions to confirm your strengths and any areas needing more study.

Try going through a chapter a week. An hour a day or so will allow you to take in the information slowly. Don’t rush. Chemistry is not difficult, but does take some thought to decipher at times. Just plow through at a steady rate. If you want more information on buffers, spend more time in Chap. 10. If you need the latest on biological markers, allow more time in Chap. 13. After completing the course and you are a chemist-in-training, this book can serve as a ready reference guide with its glossary, Chemistry-at-a-Glance study sheets, Periodic Table, appendix, and comprehensive index.

Linda D. Williams

Acknowledgments

Illustrations in this book were generated with CorelDRAW and Microsoft PowerPoint, courtesy of the Corel and Microsoft Corporations, respectively.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) information was used where indicated.

A special thanks to Paul Grover Miller, Ph.D., Associate Professor, College of Medicine, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, for suggestions on subject rearrangement and chemistry expertise during the technical review of this book.

Many thanks to Judy Bass at McGraw-Hill for her amazing energy and support despite life’s hiccups and occasional derailments. Chemistry Demystified, Second Edition, is a testament to her vision for the math and science books in the Demystified series.

About the Author

Linda D. Williams is a nonfiction writer with specialties in science, medicine, and space. Ms. Williams’s work has ranged from biochemistry and microbiology to genetics and human enzyme research. With a background in microbiology and immunology, she has worked as a lead scientist and/or technical writer for Wyle Laboratories, McDonnell Douglas Space Systems, and Rice University, and served as a science speaker for the Medical Sciences Division at NASA-Johnson Space Center. Ms. Williams has more than 20 years of science research experience and has published over a dozen books, including several in the Demystified series (e.g., Environmental Science Demystified). Her work has been translated into several languages. Additionally, she has been a substitute science teacher at the elementary, intermediate, and high school levels, and founded a Science Café to share science and technology discoveries with the public.

chapter 1

Chemistry

Our ancestors didn’t have readily available food, medicine, and machine-made products. Everyday life included drying fish and meats with salt, concentrating of liquids into dyes, and melting and shaping metal ores into tools. Trial-and-error testing offered clues to the makeup of the natural world. What worked was carried over by the next generation; what didn’t was discarded. Many substances of the physical world were a mystery.

CHAPTER OBJECTIVES

In this chapter, you will

• Learn how the scientific method works

• Understand the International System of Units (SI)

• Find out the difference between precision and accuracy

• Understand conversion factors

• Learn why temperature is important

What Is Matter?

Chemistry is a science centered around the simple question, what is matter? Aristotle (384–322 B.C.), a student at the Greek Academy, thought matter was composed of four elements: fire, water, air, and earth. He wrote that neither form nor matter existed alone, but in hot, moist, dry, and cold combinations, which united to form the elements. Aristotle’s explanation of the world was accepted for nearly 1800 years. But times changed, and so did our understanding of matter. The chapters of this book explore, step by step, the concepts about matter just as they were discovered and explained over time.

Alchemy

Aristotle’s four-element theory, along with the formation of metal alloys, was the basis of early chemistry and alchemy.

A mixture of trickery and art, alchemy promised amazing things (e.g., lead into gold) to those who held its power. Alchemists became superstars. Those who made wild claims but couldn’t deliver were permanently benched. Others made scientific progress. Crystallization and distillation of solutions began to be understood and used as standard practices. Many previously unknown elements and compounds were discovered.

Chemistry is the science of substances (i.e., matter), including structure, properties, and the reactions that change them into other substances.

What Is Modern Chemistry?

As a study of matter, chemistry is a physical science. Chemists isolate and study not just atoms and molecules, but solutions, ceramics, and metal alloys. Through experimentation, chemists study what substances do and how they react.

Chemistry is grouped into main areas or disciplines. (See Table 1-1.) These include

• Analytical chemistry—the use of precise instrumentation to analyze a mixture for the kinds and amounts of substances present

• Biochemistry—the study of living organisms and systems at the molecular level, including processes such as metabolism, reproduction, and digestion

• Inorganic chemistry—the study of the structure and properties of all compounds (except carbon) (e.g., salts)

TABLE 1-1 Chemistry disciplines

• Organic chemistry—the study of carbon and all substances containing carbon, including most biological compounds, drugs, petroleum, and plastics

• Physical chemistry—the study of matter’s physical properties and the creation of models examining why a chemical reacts in a specific way

Ancient Egyptians were the first chemists. They pioneered the art of chemistry using solutions. By 1000 B.C. ancient civilizations were using technologies that formed the basis of the various chemical disciplines. Analytical chemistry arose from extracting metal from ores, as well as chemicals from plants for medicine and perfume. Fermentation to make beer, wine, and cheese involved biochemistry. Inorganic chemistry was important in making alloys like bronze, pottery and glazes, glass, and pigments for cosmetics and paintings. The applications of organic chemistry were diverse, including the dying of cloth, tanning of leather, rendering of fat into soap, and making of organic pigments. Many of these techniques involved keen observations of the physical chemistry of compounds in order to isolate and change them for different purposes.

Basic and Applied Science

Chemistry is made up of both basic and applied science. Researchers peer into a chemical’s treasure chest of secrets and try to understand why it acts the way it does. Basic science then tries to understand the rules governing the properties of matter.

However, most people know more about applied science, since it applies to everyday things. How is rust formed and how do you remove it? How do clothes get clean when washed with soap made from ashes and fat? Why does copper turn green and then black when exposed to air? How can self-assembled carbon nanotubes carry information and electricity?

The federal government supports basic and applied science through many agencies like the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA). NASA is famous for applying basic science in new ways. NASA tests how something behaves in space with almost no gravity, like the formation of crystals or the loss of muscle tissue, and then uses that information to understand ground-based experiments.

By teaming with scientists in industry, NASA improves pharmaceuticals, optics, and bioengineering devices. Research applied in this way can more quickly travel from the laboratory to the individual. The partnering between federal institutions like NASA and industry is called spinoffs. A sampling of NASA’s science and technology spinoffs is provided in Table 1-2.

TABLE 1-2 NASA spinoffs

NASA spinoffs include computer technology, consumer products for recreation and the home, environmental and resource management, industry and manufacturing, public safety, and transportation.

The keys to the scientific method are curiosity and determination, observation and analysis, measurement and conclusion. As humans, we are curious by nature. In the following chapters, you’ll see how scientists satisfy this curiosity.

Scientific Method

The early development of the scientific method arose from Aristotle’s laws of logic. He saw the importance of observation and then classified what was observed in order to better understand nature.

In the Middle Ages, Ibn al-Haytham, a Persian mathematician and student of Greek philosophy, developed the scientific method further. His study of Aristotle’s works made him realize that physical science and mathematics were important keys to unlocking the universe’s mysteries. During his life, he developed different experiments to check his physical observations and made valuable discoveries in the study of vision. Al-Haytham’s seven-volume Book of Optics, written between A.D. 1011 and 1021, correctly described the transmission, reflection, and refraction of light. His work demonstrated the early power of the scientific method.

In modern times, Galileo (1564–1642) is commonly credited with being the father of the scientific method although many scientists have added to his understanding over the centuries. By the twentieth century, the scientific method was arranged into four steps:

• Observation

• Hypothesis

• Prediction

• Experimentation

Ever since fire was first discovered, people noticed how it changed its environment; nearby grass was burned and trees charred. Eventually, by following the scientific method, scientists made great discoveries, such as what happens when something burns. They realized collecting as much information as possible before any conclusions was critical to gaining understanding.

In the eighteenth century, Antoine Lavoisier, a French scientist, found that when silvery mercury was burned in the air, it turned into a red-orange substance with a greater mass than that of an original mercury sample. He also made observations about the gases in the air. For these discoveries, Lavoisier is often called the father of chemistry.

Hypothesis

When all facts are known, the next step in the scientific method is to develop a hypothesis. A hypothesis is a statement explaining an observation.

Lavoisier created a hypothesis based on his observations with fire and air. He proposed a hypothesis to explain combustion or how things burn. His idea was that some part of air combined with a burning sample and transformed it. Lavoisier called this mystery part oxygen.

Hypothesis is a statement that describes or explains an observation.

A hypothesis is important not just to explain what is seen, but also to predict what might happen. If something in the air combines with a sample, then the new substance (i.e., formed after burning) should have added mass from air’s contribution to the combustion. It also should be possible to reverse the process.

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Still Struggling

Lavoisier knew how important it was to carry out accurate experiments. He showed after burning mercury that a new, heavier substance, mercury oxide, was formed. He also showed the reverse reaction (i.e., mercury’s original mass could be regained). In other words, oxygen could be reclaimed from the mercury oxide.

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An experiment is a controlled testing of a substance or system’s properties by carefully recorded measurements.

Now to learn if a hypothesis is true, it must be tested with experiments. Lavoisier’s additional experiments showed that air is made up of several other gases (e.g., nitrogen), but unlike oxygen, they didn’t combine with mercury. His hypothesis on combustion became a theory, which is a hypothesis thoroughly proven by experimentation.

A theory is the result of thorough testing and the confirmation of a hypothesis.

Following later experimentation by other scientists in many different disciplines such as astronomy, electricity, mathematics, biology, chemistry, and medicine, data was recorded which supported how almost everything could be studied and predicted through a series of observations and calculations. When scientists around the world got the same results repeatedly, a particular hypothesis or theory became a law.

A scientific law is a hypothesis or theory that is tested time after time with the same resulting data and thought to be without exception.

Measurements

Observation and measurement, as in all of science, are the keys to chemistry. In research, as in other parts of life, we are constantly measuring. The baseball cleared the outfield fence by a foot. The soccer ball missed the flowerpot by 3 inches (in). The Austrian driver cruised at 160 kilometers per hour (km/h). The Kentucky Derby favorite pulled ahead by a length. The Olympic skier slid into first place by two one-hundredths of a second. The soldier’s letter home weighed 1 ounce (oz).

Research is all about measuring. To repeat an experiment or follow someone else’s method, the same units must be