Chemical Reactions

A chemical Reaction can be described as a process where elements or compounds are transformed. Don’t confuse a chemical reaction with a physical reaction, where the only changes that happen are physical.

To avoid confusion, some of the main physical properties are Temperature, Aggregation State, Crystalline structure. For example let’s see how Diamonds are formed, for those who don’t know a diamond is made of Carbon.

Carbon

Diamond

This was just a physical change, on the crystalline structure of the atom and is not considered a chemical reaction

In a chemical reaction a chemical change must occur, this is that atomic bonds must be formed or broken, like the rust on an old car, this is the Iron(Fe) exposed to Oxygen (O2) forms an Oxide commonly called as rust.

The atoms or compounds that are initially involved on a chemical reaction are called REAGENTS and the atoms or molecules resulting of the chemical changes are called PRODUCTS.

Atomic Bonding Introduction

There are many ways that Atomic Bonds can be described or defined, many scientists use their own comprehension to define on their own way the Atomic Bonds.
There are many types of Atomic Bonds, depending on which atoms are bonded together and under what circumstances.

The concept of Chemical Reaction states that an Reaction is considered chemical when 1 or more bonds are formed or broken, very different to Physical Reactions where the only changes that occur are physical properties such as aggregation state or crystalline structure.To be honest i couldn't understand how Atomic Bonds worked on High school and i only did when i was on the University.

Source: www.uniongas.com

For example, Ice melting is a Physical Reaction where water just changes from a solid state to a liquid state.









Most of the elements follow a certain “rule” as i like to call it, they are jealous  of the Noble Gases (I'm not kidding), elements want to look like noble gases because they are stable and non-reactive (is normal conditions).

What’s that special characteristic of noble gases that makes everyone wanting look like them? They have their last Shell FULL, that’s it; they have 8 electrons on the last Shell making them unable to react with other elements (this rule does not apply to all elements; some are weird and hard to understand).

Cooking? Think you should know this

Every cook in the world is making science, mixing compounds, taking substances to a state where its properties modify.

Pic Source: http://oodlelinks.com/Cooking.php

Even in the simplest task at home we are doing a little bit of science, when we are making Coffee, for example before  going out to work. We are using an extraction method where Hot water extracts compounds from a solid mixture.

Pic Source: http://willows95988.typepad.com/tongue_cheek/2008/01/index.html

But how do we get that Hot water? we boil it right? Did you know that depending on where you live, the time you spend doing this simple procedure of boiling water is different? this is considering that other factors such as Heat source or amount of water are the same. There is another IMPORTANT factor that influences on the simple everyday task of boiling water.

Pic Source: http://lifeslessons-lisa.blogspot.com/2010/11/cooking-sites-and-funny-recipes.html

This factor is your city’s altitude or elevation; as many of you can tell, cities with low altitudes have, in the most cases, a tropical weather and those with high altitude have the tendency to be cold. A clear example would be that at the beach you are at sea level (Zero Altitude) but in the Tibet you are above sea level (around 5000 m. or 16000 ft.).

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Pic Source: http://www.creighton.edu/ccas/asianworldcenter/publiclecturesandforums/asianethicsforum/index.php

But this is the weird fact, where do you think it takes longer to boil water? some would say that in a hot environment boiling water would take less time than in a Cold freezing weather, well if you think so then you are wrong.
It is true that the environment would have an effect on how quickly you heat up the water, but this isn't the main factor.

I'm hoping some of you have learned this on school if not i would be very disappointed with your Teachers ^^ , but like i always say it’s never too late to learn new stuff.
Let’s explain first, what does it mean to boil water. The boiling point of ANY substance can be defined like this: “The boiling Point of a substance or element is a temperature where the vapor pressure of the liquid equals the atmospheric pressure in that location”. 

Vapor Pressure

What happens when you boil water, It’s nothing geek but take a look for a moment what happens when you start heating water, you see that there is vapor that starts raising up right?, well as the temperature of ANY liquid substance raises this vapor increases. Did you know that a liquid substance constantly evaporates? it is true, and vapor pressure is the pressure of the gas phase over the liquid phase at any given temperature.

Atmospheric Pressure

What is Pressure? Pressure is the amount of force per area unit.
The atmospheric pressure can be explained as the amount of Air mass that is above a certain location. So the lower your location altitude, the higher is the mass of air above you. and likewise, the higher your location altitude there is less amount of mass over your head therefore the atmospheric Pressure over you is lower than lower altitudes.

This means that as you start heating up water the Vapor pressure increases and HAS to be equal to the atmospheric pressure of your location to hit the boiling point, if the atmospheric pressure is lower than sea level (as a reference sea level atmospheric pressure is around 14.7 psi or 1 Bar or 1 atm., water at this pressure boils at 100ºC or 212ºF) it would take less time to reach that pressure.

• 0 m. (0 ft.) sea level -----> 100ºC  (212 ºF)  (Reference)
• 2500 m. (8400 ft.) my city -----> around 92ºC (197 ºC) , Here boiling water would take less time than sea level

by simple logic at higher altitudes like the Tibet (around 5000 m. or 16000 ft.) even if it is a cold place, water would take less time to boil.

I'm not taking in consideration that the main purpose of boiling water is to get rid of any kind of microorganism that could have contaminated the water and could give you some sort of disease. In this places it is highly advised even though the water has already boiled to leave it boiling for a few seconds more to be sure all bacteria has been killed.

And as many have noticed already i got a new domain with the help of a friend, hopefully in some time and with some extra money i will get a website hosting service to bring you better content. Stay tuned :)

Petroleum Industry

Petroleum Industry started around 1950, with the first exploration and extraction of this natural resource. The whole Petroleum industry can be described in 3 streams or parts. The Upstream that refers to the exploration and discovery of Petroleum and Gas Sources.
The Midstream that refers to the small portion of the industry that takes care of the handling, storing and transportation of Petroleum and Gas.
And the Downstream, that is commonly generalized as “Petroleum Industry”, that includes the refining of Crude Oil or Petroleum and Gas.

All the Petroleum extracted is transported to a Process Plant where it is refined into other products such as Gasoline, Diesel Oil, Kerosene, Asphalt and others.Through the ages we have relied our lives on many energy resources, Petroleum is one of those, mainly for the wide products there can be extracted from it. There are many Oil companies that manage all the Crude Oil market, therefore they control the sub products market aswell.

Many countries have based their economy on the exploration and extraction of Petroleum, spending millions of dollars on it. The technology used on these operations is not cheap, many countries just extract the Crude Oil and then export it to another country with the capabilities to process it. This is when environmental disasters happen, you must have probably heard about Oil disaster on the sea.

 
Petroleum Processing

It’s all in the carbons, that’s what i always say to explain how Petroleum processing works.
Petroleum is a mixture of several different compounds, all with 1 similar characteristic: They all have Carbons; the more carbons the molecule has, the heavier it is.

Compounds on Petroleum have from 1 carbon atom to probably around 20 carbon atoms, this composition depends on the Source of the Petroleum, as in some parts of the world the oil could be heavy or light.

This difference on the weight of the molecules has a direct effect on its boiling point, The boiling point is where the molecule changes from a liquid state to a gas state.
 This principle is used on huge distillation columns, this is why if you see an oil industry, they have tall columns. These columns are heated on the bottom and as you go higher the temperature decreases, so depending on the height you can extract different compounds of the Oil:

Heavier components such as lubricants, asphalt, kerosene are extracted at the bottom and lighter components like gasoline, propane from the top. This is just a rough example on how Petroleum is refined, it takes several processes and many distillation columns to achieve the final product, also the temperatures and the composition (#of Carbons) are not accurate as some of the final products still have some percentage of some other compounds.

Hope you enjoyed it and if you want more information feel free to Contact Us.

Acids Nomenclature

Let’s deal with these compounds now, many must have heard about acids at some point, on a movie, or in jokes; but everything points to their destructive capability.
The following acids are Oxacids, as they have oxygen in their structure; there is another kind of acids, the hydroacids that only have the Non-Metal and the Hydrogen.

Acids are formed when Non-Metal Oxides (also known as Anhydrides) react with Water.

SO₃      +       H₂O     ------>      H₂SO₄

Acid formulas are a bit tricky to make, but with a little practice it becomes very easy.
First as usual, I'm going to start with the formula writing structure:

H Non-Metal O

As you can see the Hydrogen comes first, then the No-Metal and the Oxygen is last.
Most of the Acids have only subscripts on the Hydrogen and Oxygen but some rare have it on the No-Metal aswell.

H_A Metal_C O_B

There are many ways to figure out the subscripts; I'm going to teach you the easiest one in my opinion.

Write down the elements in the correct order. (2 examples)

H S O                                              H Cl O

  

Now check the valence of the No-Metal you are going to use, is it an EVEN or ODD number. (For valences check this page: Valences)

• If it is EVEN ---->the HYDROGEN’s SUBSCRIPT is 2
• If it is ODD ---->the HYDROGEN’s SUBSCRIPT is 1

            

S ---> Ox # = +2 +4 +6 (Let’s do the formula for the valence +4) H2 S O

Cl ---> Ox # = +1 +3 +5 +7 (Let’s do the formula for the valence +3) H1Cl O   There's no need to write the subscript if its 1

Now here is the trick part: SUM the OXIDATION NUMBER of the Non-Metal with the HYDROGEN SUBSCRIPT

  
Now take this number and divide it by 2, this is now the OXYGEN’s SUBSCRIPT; weird isn't it? but this is the best way to do it.

ACIDS NOMENCLATURE

There are 3 ways of naming Acids.

• TRADITIONAL nomenclature
• IUPAC nomenclature
• STOCK nomenclature

IUPAC and STOCK nomenclature in acids is not used frequently, as it is a bit difficult and general chemical compound markets in the most part use only the TRADITIONAL nomenclature. 

TRADITIONAL NOMENCLATURE
 
You need to learn a little system of prefixes and suffixes (for the oxidation numbers)

Hip----ous	--ous	---ic	Per-----ic
	+2	+4	+6
+1	+3	+5	+7

Note that the suffix does not depend on the number but on how many valences the element has.

EXAMPLE

Name this Acid

HClO₄

Remember how to make Acid formulas? Now we just need to go backwards to figure out which oxidation number the metal is using. Take the oxygen subscript, multiply it by 2 and subtract the Hydrogen subscript.

Now that we know which it is, let’s find the correct suffix to use. It has 4 oxidation numbers:

+1 ----> Hip-----ous

+3 ----> -ous

+5 ----> -ic

+7 ----> Per------ic

Traditional nomenclature has this writing structure:

[ELEMENT NAME][SUFFIX] Acid

So we just need to fill the name of the Non-metal and the suffix

PerChloric Acid

Coming up! Acids Exercises

Metal and Non Metal Valences Page

A very important part of learning the basics of Inorganic Nomenclature is learn the valences properly, but this is a slow process so it doesn't matter if you don't know them by memory the first week.

So for those needing that little extra help when doing their Nomenclature Exercises here i have a table with the most common elements and their valences, Enjoy.

Metal and Non-Metal Valences

Energy Sources: Petroleum

Have you ever wondered where Gasoline comes from? You use it everyday on your car but how much do you know about its origin and processing.

Petroleum, or Oil how it is called in some countries, is a liquid consisting of many organic compounds, these compounds have various molecular structures and were formed beneath the Earth’s surface.

Million years ago plants and animals in the oceans died and got trapped under several layers of soil and sand; Time, pressure and Heat turned these rests of animals and plants into oil.

Oil is a nonrenewable energy source; it took millions of years to make and seconds to be consumed.

Origin

On Earth there are Carbon-based lifeforms, that includes us, animals and plants; following the Lavoisier Law of Mass conservation, that mass cannot be destroyed but only TRANSFORMED, all the rests of animals and plants trapped under layers and layers of soil and sand suffered changes.

The real origin of oil is uncertain, there are only theories about how it formed.
My favorite is the one that says that tiny animals and plants started to deposit at the bottom of the oceans.

This decomposed matter was eventually covered by layers of sand.

The conditions of pressure and heat, added to the lack of oxygen worked together to promote the formation of liquid petroleum and gas.

Composition

The composition of Oil is different depending on the source, that is where it was extracted from. Usually it contains around 84% of Carbon and 11% of Hydrogen, the rest are mostly Sulfur and Nitrogen.

There are 4 major groups that are present on Petroleum, depending on their Molecular Structure.

Paraffins

Paraffins are Organic Molecules consisting on C-H linked together by simple bonds, all are lineal and can be branched.

Olefins

Olefins have the same structure than Paraffins, but C-H are linked together by double bonds.

Naphthenes

These organic compounds have C-C and C-H bonds, but the structure have simple bond rings,  mostly

Aromatics

Aromatic compounds are similar as Naphthenes, but the only difference is that they have double bond rings, and rings are made out of 6 carbons.

 

There are other organic compounds that have Nitrogen and Sulfur within their structure.
Fuels and many other products are extracted from this complicated mixture, along with some Gases like methane that are dissolved in the mix.

COMING NEXT!! Petroleum Industry

Hydroxides Exercises

Let’s get you on that practice side now.

Name these hydroxides with all 3 nomenclatures:

NaOH

Sodium has a valence of +1

Sodium Hydroxide                <--- Traditional

Sodium MonoHydroxide       <--- IUPAC

Sodium(I) Hydroxide             <--- Stock

Ca(OH)₂

Calcium has a valence of +2.

Calcium Hydroxide               <--- Traditional

Calcium diHydroxide            <--- IUPAC

Calcium(II) Hydroxide          <--- Stock

Al(OH)₃

Aluminum has a valence of +3

Aluminum Hydroxide                  <--- Traditional

Aluminum TriHydroxide              <--- IUPAC

Aluminum (III) Hydroxide           <--- Stock

Pb(OH)₄

Lead has a valence of +4 in this hydroxide.

Plumbic Hydroxide                   <--- Traditional

Lead tetraHydroxide                <--- IUPAC

Lead(IV) Hydroxide                 <--- Stock

CuOH

Copper has a valence of +1

Cuprous Hydroxide              <--- Traditional

Copper DiHydroxide           <--- IUPAC

Copper(II) Hydroxide          <--- Stock

Coming up! Acids Nomenclature