Interesting facts about chemistry. Interesting facts about chemical elements

First discovered in 1817 and used as a zinc impurity, cadmium was relatively unremarkable until the early 1900s, when zinc mining began at the Kamioka Mine in central Japan. During the zinc purification process, cadmium was discharged into the Jinzu River. By 1930, the waste had affected the bones of local residents and made them incredibly fragile; one doctor broke a girl's wrist while trying to take her pulse. It was not until 1961 that it was determined that cadmium was the cause of this disease. Research showed that local crops were laden with cadmium, which was carried into the rice fields from river water.

The atomic structure of cadmium allows it to bind metallothionein, a protein in the body's cells that binds more biologically important metals. When locals ate rice, cadmium curdled zinc, calcium and other minerals needed to strengthen bones. In 1972, the mining company paid compensation to 178 surviving residents who lived or worked along the river. Twelve years later, when filmmakers needed to kill Godzilla in the final sequel, they used cadmium-tipped missiles.

Chemical element Gallium, disappearing spoon

An element for laboratory pranksters, gallium was discovered in 1875 by French chemist Paul Émile François Lecoq de Boisbaudran. Although solid at room temperature, the metal melts as low as 84°F. This means you could hypothetically fashion a spoon out of gallium, pass it to a friend to stir his morning coffee, and see his reaction when the spoon disappears into the hot drink. (Despite gallium's low toxicity, your friend shouldn't drink this coffee.) In addition to its use in practical jokes, gallium's ability to withstand a wide range of temperatures in liquid form makes it a convenient replacement for mercury for high-temperature thermometers.

Chemical element Phosphorus, devil's element

One of the key components in modern explosives, phosphorus was first discovered in an unlikely place: urine. In 1669, German alchemist Hennig Brand attempted to create the “philosopher’s stone,” a legendary artifact that could transform metal into gold. Alchemists placed great importance on the color of substances, and since urine was (more or less) similar in color to gold, Brand probably assumed that he could use it to make gold.

Brand had no idea that he had made the first discovery of an element since ancient times

After boiling and decomposing a large amount of liquid waste, presumably taken from local alehouses, the alchemist obtained a black paste. He mixed the result with sand, then heated and distilled it, producing a white, waxy substance that glowed faintly in the dark, sometimes even emitting a flame when exposed to air! (Hence the nickname: “Devil Element”). Brand had no idea that he had made the first discovery of an element since ancient times; he only knew that his unappetizing project did not produce the gold he was looking for.

Chemical element Oxygen, the secret of life

While still a boy, Joseph Priestley noticed that spiders sealed in jars eventually died. He knew his captives had run out of air, but what was left in the jar with the dead spider? Years later, while working as a preacher, Priestley is still occupied with this question. Then an idea struck him: what if there were different types of air? Priestley's curiosity only increased when he realized that, unlike animals, plants could survive in sealed jars.

To test his theory, he placed mice in a jar with mint sprigs. When his subjects stayed longer in the jar of greens, he concluded that the plants were producing something vital. Priestley later called his discovery "dephlogisticated air," an awkward term that French chemist Antoine Lavoisier replaced with "oxygen" after conducting a series of similar experiments.

In the early 1770s, Priestley shared his observations with his friend Benjamin Franklin, who later wrote, “I hope this will give cause to reconsider the violent destruction of trees which occurs from the opinion that trees may be infected. I am confident, after long observation, that there is nothing unhealthy in the air of the forests.”

Chemical element Seaborgium

After helping to discover 10 elements at Berkeley, including plutonium, americium and curium, chemist Glenn Seaborg wouldn't mind lending his name to one of them. But in 1974, a team from Russia in the city of Dubna announced that they had discovered element 106, several months before the Berkeley team. A cold war broke out over who exactly first discovered this new element and what name it should have; the Americans wrote it down as Seaborgium.

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry intervened and abolished the name in the early 90s. Backed by powerful chemistry journals, the Americans insisted on keeping the name, and it was officially restored in 1997. The Dubna city team also received its prize: element 105, dubnium. To celebrate his victory, Seaborg was photographed next to the large periodic table, and his element on it, the only one ever publicly named after a living person.

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, calls to ban the use of dihydrogen monoxide have frequently appeared on websites and in mailing lists. 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.

The closest subject of chemistry is the study of homogeneous substances, from the composition of which all the bodies of the world are made, their transformations into each other and the phenomena accompanying such transformations.

— DI. Mendeleev

For all chemistry lovers, site editors Self Hacker, I have prepared a small selection of interesting facts about chemistry.

Let's start with one of the pressing issues that concerns chemistry as a science.

In what case can ethyl alcohol serve as an antidote?

Methyl alcohol is indistinguishable from ethyl alcohol in taste and smell, but its effect on the body is much more threatening to our health. Even a small amount of methanol can lead to blindness, and a dose of 30 ml can lead to death.

This explains the frequent cases of methyl alcohol poisoning, either due to ignorance or in the case of drinking counterfeit alcohol. It is interesting that in the case of such poisoning, the antidote is ordinary, that is, ethyl alcohol. This is due to the fact that the processes of binding both alcohols in the body occur with the participation of one enzyme - alcohol dehydrogenase, but since the reaction with ethanol occurs faster, the result is much less harmful products of the breakdown of methanol in the blood.

We invite you to watch a video of how polystyrene foam is produced - it’s interesting and informative.

Hydrogel for healing fractures, a well-deserved invention in the chemical industry.

Bioengineers at Rice University have created a hydrogel that instantly changes from a liquid to a semi-solid state at temperatures close to human body temperature, and then breaks down at a suitable rate. The gel can be used as support for broken bones or other tissues in the patient's body. At room temperature, the hydrogel remains liquid, but when it enters the patient’s body, it hardens and fills the empty space, which will later be replaced by natural tissue.

The hydrogel can also be used to deliver stem cells to skeletal defects, which should cause accelerated bone tissue regeneration. After performing its functions, the gel decomposes and is excreted from the body. The authors of the discovery expect that the gel can be tuned so that its rate of degradation corresponds to different rates of bone growth.

And now Interesting Facts in chemistry that you definitely didn’t know:

For example, when we cut an onion and “cry”, the merit of these fictitious emotions belongs to the sulfur that is absorbed into the soil where the onion grows.
In the province of Indonesia there is a volcano completely filled with sulfur, which is called Kawa Ijen. It settles on the pipes, after which workers knock it down with fittings and carry it for weighing. This is how they earn their living there.
Hygienic “products” based on sulfur created specifically for cleansing problematic skin from acne and rashes.
Earwax, which we have been taught to remove since childhood with cotton swabs, “poisons” life with noble intentions. It contains special lysozyme enzymes; They are the ones who “keep out” all bacteria from entering our body.

In 1985, a group of American and English researchers discovered molecular compounds made of carbon that strongly resemble a soccer ball in shape. They wanted to name the discovery in honor of him, but scientists did not agree on which term to use - football or soccer (the term for football in the USA). As a result, the compound was named fullerenes in honor of the architect Fuller, who came up with a geodesic dome composed of tetrahedra.
The French chemist, pharmacist and physician Nicolas Lemery (1645-1715) at one time observed something similar to a volcano when he mixed 2 g of iron filings and 2 g of powdered sulfur in an iron cup and touched it with a hot glass rod. After some time, black particles began to fly out of the prepared mixture, and the mixture itself, having greatly increased in volume, became so hot that it began to glow.
The separation of fluorine gas from fluorinated substances turned out to be one of the most difficult experimental problems. Fluorine has exceptional reactivity; and often its interaction with other substances occurs with ignition and explosion.
Iodine was discovered in 1811 by the French chemist B. Courtois. There is such a version of the discovery of iodine. According to it, the culprit of Courtois's discovery was his beloved cat: he lay on the chemist's shoulder while he was working in the laboratory. Wanting to have fun, the cat jumped onto the table and pushed the vessels that were standing nearby onto the floor. One of them contained an alcohol solution of seaweed ash, and the other contained sulfuric acid. After mixing the liquids, a cloud of blue-violet vapor appeared, which was nothing more than iodine.
100,000 chemical reactions occur in the human brain in one second
In 1903, in the American state of Kansas, a gas fountain suddenly erupted from an oil well. To the great surprise of the oil workers, the gas turned out to be non-flammable. A new meeting with him took place during the First World War. A German airship dropping bombs on London is hit by an incendiary shell, but the airship does not burst into flames. Slowly leaking gas, he flew away. The British secret services were alarmed: before this, German airships exploded when hit by shells, as they were filled with hydrogen. Chemical experts recalled that long before the war, German ships for some reason carried monazite sand from India and Brazil as ballast. This gas was helium. Monazite sand, which has long been the main helium-bearing raw material, contains the radioactive element thorium, the decay of which produces helium, which in density is second only to hydrogen, but has an advantage over hydrogen: it is non-flammable and chemically inert.

This concludes our interesting facts about such science as. If you know interesting facts from the field of chemistry, then write them to us in the comments and we will definitely add them to our list.

How did imperfect knowledge of the English language help to discover one of the sugar substitutes?

One of the most effective sugar substitutes, sucralose, was discovered by accident. Professor Leslie Hugh of King's College London instructed his student Shashikant Phadnis to test the substance trichlorosucrose obtained in the laboratory. The student knew English at a level that was far from perfect and instead of “test” he heard “taste”, immediately tasting the substance and finding it very sweet.

Which car part was invented by accident?

Unbreakable glass was invented by accident. In 1903, French chemist Edouard Benedictus accidentally dropped a flask filled with nitrocellulose. The glass cracked, but did not shatter into small pieces. Having realized what was going on, Benedictus made the first modern windshields to reduce the number of victims of car accidents.

What was the profession of the man whom Muscovites called the luminous monk in legends?

Academician Semyon Volfkovich was among the first Soviet chemists to conduct experiments with phosphorus. At that time, the necessary precautions had not yet been taken, and phosphorus gas soaked into clothing during work. When Wolfkovich returned home through the dark streets, his clothes emitted a bluish glow, and sparks shot out from under his shoes. Each time a crowd gathered behind him and mistook the scientist for an otherworldly creature, which led to the spread of rumors throughout Moscow about the “luminous monk.”

How did Mendeleev discover the periodic law?

There is a widespread legend that the idea of the periodic table of chemical elements came to Mendeleev in a dream. One day he was asked if this was true, to which the scientist replied: “I’ve been thinking about it for maybe twenty years, but you think: I sat there and suddenly... it’s ready.”

Which famous physicist was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry?

What birds helped the miners?

How was vulcanization discovered?

What creatures are responsible for the color of Bloody Falls in Antarctica?

In Antarctica, the Bloody Falls sometimes emerge from the Taylor Glacier. The water in it contains divalent iron, which, when combined with atmospheric air, oxidizes and forms rust. This is what gives the waterfall its bloody red color. However, divalent iron does not appear in water just like that - it is produced by bacteria living in a reservoir isolated from the outside world, deep under the ice. These bacteria were able to organize a life cycle in the complete absence of sunlight and oxygen. They process organic residues and “breathe” ferric iron from surrounding rocks.

Even if you listened carefully to everything in your lessons at school and in classes at the university, you do not know all the interesting facts about chemical elements. In this article we will talk about interesting moments in history associated with chemical elements, as well as their unusual properties.

1. Hydrogen

The earth's crust contains very little hydrogen - about 0.15 percent, while this same element makes up about 50% of the mass of the Sun. Another interesting thing is that in liquid form hydrogen is the densest substance, and in gaseous form, on the contrary, it is the least dense.

2. Sodium

Sodium (better known as salt) originally had a different name. Until the 18th century, people called this element sodium. For this reason, sodium salts had such a strange name as hydrochloric soda, or soda sulfate. Here in Russia, this name took root thanks to Hermann Hess.

3. Metals

Few people know, but iron can go into a gaseous state; to do this, it needs to be heated up to 50,000 degrees Celsius.

4. Gold

One of the most precious metals that everyone knows - gold, is found in places you didn't know about. So, in a ton of ordinary ocean water there is about 7 mg. In total, there are more than 10 billion tons of this metal in the ocean.

5. Platinum

At first, platinum, due to its similarity with silver, was given a similar name - “silver”. It was much cheaper than silver. Later, when they figured out where this metal could be used, everything changed dramatically. Now platinum is tens of times more expensive than silver.

6. Silver

By the way, about silver - its bactericidal properties were discovered by accident. The Macedonian army was exposed to an epidemic, but it affected only ordinary military personnel; the commanders were healthy. It turned out that everything was connected with the dishes. The bosses had it in silver, and the military had it in tin.

7. Metals in liquid state

There are several metals that are liquid at “room” temperature: mercury, cesium, francium and gallium.

8. Metals and planets

Previously, people knew only 7 metals and the same number of planets, so they divided them “in pairs”. The Moon meant silver, Mars - iron, Mercury was assigned to Mercury, and the Sun, naturally, gold. Jupiter became tin, Venus became copper, and Saturn became lead.

Sand snake. Interesting chemical experiment at home: