Nylon - Chemistry Encyclopedia
In 1928 E. I.
Organic Chemistry - Chemistry Encyclopedia
Organic chemistry is the chemistry of carbon compounds. All organic compounds contain carbon; however, there are some compounds of carbon that are not classified as organic.
Organic Halogen Compounds - Chemistry Encyclopedia
Organic halogen compounds are a large class of natural and synthetic chemicals that contain one or more halogens (fluorine, chlorine, bromine, or iodine) combined with carbon and other elements. The simplest organochlorine compound is chloromethane, also called methyl chloride (CH3Cl).
Organometallic Compounds - Chemistry Encyclopedia
Organometallic compounds have at least one carbon to metal bond, according to most definitions. This bond can be either a direct carbon to metal bond (σ bond or sigma bond) or a metal complex bond (π bond or pi bond).
Osmium - Chemistry Encyclopedia
Oxygen - Chemistry Encyclopedia
Ozone - Chemistry Encyclopedia
Earth's ozone layer plays a critical role in protecting Earth's surface from the Sun's harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Every ozone molecule, which consists of three oxygen atoms, has the ability to absorb a certain amount of UV radiation.
Palladium - Chemistry Encyclopedia
Paracelsus - Chemistry Encyclopedia
Paracelsus was born Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim. He was a contemporary of Martin Luther and Nicolaus Copernicus.
Penicillin - Chemistry Encyclopedia
Penicillin was discovered accidentally in 1929 when Sir Alexander Fleming observed bacterial cultures contaminated with a mold that inhibited bacterial growth. The antibiotic penicillin was subsequently isolated from cultures of the Penicillium mold.
Peptide Bond - Chemistry Encyclopedia
A peptide bond is a linkage between the building blocks of proteins called amino acids (shorter strings of linked amino acids are known as peptides). A peptide bond forms when the carboxylic acid group (R-C[O]OH) of one amino acid reacts with the amine group (R-NH2) of another.
Periodic Table - Chemistry Encyclopedia
The Periodic Table places the symbols of chemical elements, sequenced by atomic number, in rows and columns that align similar properties.
Pesticides - Chemistry Encyclopedia
Pesticides are chemicals that kill pests, and are categorized by the types of pests they kill. For example, insecticides kill insects, herbicides kill weeds, bactericides kill bacteria, fungicides kill fungi, and algicides kill algae.
Petroleum - Chemistry Encyclopedia
Petroleum is a naturally occurring complex mixture made up predominantly of carbon and hydrogen compounds, but also frequently containing significant amounts of nitrogen, sulfur, and oxygen together with smaller amounts of nickel, vanadium, and other elements. Solid petroleum is called asphalt; liquid, crude oil; and gas, natural gas.
Pharmaceutical Chemistry - Chemistry Encyclopedia
Pharmaceutical chemists are involved in the development and assessment of therapeutic compounds. Pharmaceutical chemistry encompasses drug design, drug synthesis, and the evaluation of drug efficacy (how effective it is in treating a condition) and drug safety.
Phospholipids - Chemistry Encyclopedia
Phospholipids are an important class of biomolecules. Phospholipids are the fundamental building blocks of cellular membranes and are the major part of surfactant, the film that occupies the air/liquid interfaces in the lung.
Phosphorus - Chemistry Encyclopedia
Photography - Chemistry Encyclopedia
It has long been known that certain substances, when illuminated, undergo permanent visible changes.
Photosynthesis - Chemistry Encyclopedia
No chemical process is more important to life on Earth than photosynthesis—the series of chemical reactions that allow plants to harvest sunlight and create carbohydrate molecules. Without photosynthesis, not only would there be no plants, the planet could not sustain life of any kind.
Physical Chemistry - Chemistry Encyclopedia
Physical chemistry is the branch of chemistry concerned with the interpretation of the phenomena of chemistry in terms of the underlying principles of physics. It lies at the interface of chemistry and physics, inasmuch as it draws on the principles of physics (especially quantum mechanics) to account for the phenomena of chemistry.
Pigments - Chemistry Encyclopedia
Pigments and dyes are called colorants. The ways in which colorants are used determines whether they are pigments or dyes.
Oppenheimer, Robert - Chemistry Encyclopedia
American physicist Robert Oppenheimer, scientific director of the Manhattan Project in which the atomic bomb was developed.
Ostwald, Friedrich Wilhelm - Chemistry Encyclopedia
Friedrich Wilhelm Ostwald, born in Riga, Latvia, Russia, almost single-handedly established physical chemistry as an acknowledged academic discipline. In 1909 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work on catalysis, chemical equilibria, and reaction velocities.
Particles, Fundamental - Chemistry Encyclopedia
Fundamental particles are the elementary entities from which all matter is made. They have no known smaller parts.
Pasteur, Louis - Chemistry Encyclopedia
Louis Pasteur was born in 1882 in Dole, France. Many people are unaware of the fact that he was a chemist.
Pauli, Wolfgang - Chemistry Encyclopedia
Wolfgang Ernst Pauli was born in Vienna, Austria, where his father, regarded as one of the founders of colloid chemistry, was employed at the University of Vienna. His godfather was Ernst Mach, a famous physicist, philosopher, and one of the founders of logical positivism; he had a significant influence on Pauli's thinking.
Pauling, Linus - Chemistry Encyclopedia
Linus Carl Pauling was born in Portland, Oregon, on February 28, 1901, the first of three children of pharmacist Herman W. Pauling and Lucy Isabelle Pauling (née Darling).
Perkin, William Henry - Chemistry Encyclopedia
William Henry Perkin was an entrepreneur and a self-made millionaire at an early age, long before the era of personal computers and dot-coms. His serendipitous synthesis of the purple dye mauve (also known as mauveine or aniline purple) in 1856 brought brightly colored clothing to the masses and laid the foundation for today's chemical and pharmaceutical industries.