| Introduction To Inorganic Chemistry |
Introduction
Inorganic Chemistry,
study of the structure, properties, and reactions of the
chemical elements and their compounds. Inorganic chemistry does not include
the investigation of
hydrocarbons�compounds composed of carbon and hydrogen that are the parent
material of all other organic compounds. The study of organic compounds is
called
organic chemistry.
Inorganic chemists have made significant advances in
understanding the minute particles that compose our world. These particles,
called atoms, make up the elements, which are the building blocks of all the
compounds and substances in the world around us. Just as the entire English
language is constructed from combinations of the 26 letters in the alphabet, all
chemical substances are made from combinations of the 112 chemical elements
found on the periodic table.
Ninety elements are known to occur in nature, and
22 more have been made artificially. Elements�which include substances such as
oxygen, nitrogen, and sulfur�cannot be broken into more elementary substances by
ordinary chemical means. The elements are arranged in the periodic table in rows
from the lightest element (hydrogen) to the heaviest (ununbium). These rows are
split so that elements with similar chemical properties fall in the same columns
(for more information, see the Periodic Law section of this article).
The smallest representative unit of an element is an
atom. (For example, the smallest representative of the element helium (He)
is a helium atom.) When atoms that come in close contact have a sufficiently
large attractive force, a chemical bond, or binding link, forms between them.
The combination of two or more atoms bonded together is called a
molecule. A molecule is the smallest particle of a substance possessing the
specific chemical properties of that substance. For example, an atom of oxygen
(O) combines with two atoms of hydrogen (H) to form a water molecule (H2O).
While molecules of H2O possess the properties of water, individual
oxygen and hydrogen atoms do not.
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