The Chemistry of Everyday Life

The Chemistry of Everyday life An article from: Chemistry.com Various authors August 20, 2010, Updated March 19, 2013

We need to talk you about the Chemistry There are substances of daily life. Chemistry is an which can be exciting experimental science dissolved in which lets us to understand our water (salt for world and makes our life easier. example), and As you will read in the following articles, others that can't (for chemistry is in our everyday life: in our body, at example oil). Water and oil don't mix together, so if home, in the nature... in every second of our lives! we try to clean an oily stain from a cloth or from the skin, water is not enough. We How soap cleans? need soap.

Soap is formed by molecules with a "head" which likes water (hydrophilic) and a long chain which hates it (hydrophobic).

Because of this dualism, soap molecules act like a diplomat, improving the relationship between water and oil. How? When soap is added to the water, the hydrophilic heads of its molecules stay into the water (they like it!), while the long hydrophobic chains join the oil particles and remain inwards (escaping from the water). In that way, they form circular groups named micellas, with the oily material absorbed inside and trapped. An emulsion of oil in water is then formed, this means that the oil particles become suspended and dispersed into the water. Thus, those oil particles are liberated from the cloth or the skin, and the emulsion is taken away with the rinsing. In summary, soap cleans by acting as an emulsifier.

It allows oil and water to mix so that oily grime can be removed during rinsing. There are more things involved in this process, such as for instance changes in the superficial tension of water, but this is the general idea. Vegetables and colors - Part 1 White light from the sun contains all the Spinach, parsley and plants in general are green wavelengths, because they contain chlorophyll, a pigment which but when it enables the plant to carry on photosynthesis, impacts on an transforming solar energy and carbon dioxide into object some of chemical energy in the form of carbohydrates and its wavelengths oxygen. This is a process essential for life. are absorbed and some As you can see in the picture in previous column, the reflected. An structure of chlorophyll is very complicated, so let's object is simply say that it contains a big ring with a colored because magnesium atom in the center. Curiously, the of the light that it reflects. For example red objects structure of hemoglobin (the carrier of oxygen in our reflect 'red' light, which is light with a long blood) is pretty similar to chlorophyll, though it has wavelength. Many vegetables and fruits are strongly an atom of iron instead of magnesium in its center. colored because they contain an especial kind of chemical compounds named carotenoids. These The chlorophyll masks the other colors in vegetables compounds have an area called choromophore, which and as its amount decreases the rest of colors become absorbs and gives off particular wavelengths of light, evident. This explains for example why tomatoes are generating the color that we then perceive. initially green and then become red when they ripen.

The chromophore is formed by a sequence of linear carbon-carbon double bonds (represented as C=C), The iron in your blood oxidizes, rusts, to carry much stronger than simple bonds (represented as C- oxygen through your blood stream to your body's C), so the atoms remain closer to each other. In cells. The rest of the body runs through chemical and general, it's necessary at least seven linear conjugated electrical actions. double bonds for a carotenoid to produce a color. Besides, the bigger the number of bonds conjugated, the bigger the wavelength of the light absorbed and Steel is one of the hardest and most useful metals we also the more red the vegetable, as you can see in this have ever created. Its original creation was an picture of the light spectrum: accident, now days we know that steel is iron with 6% The tomato is red because of the carotenoid lycopene, carbon. which contains 11 conjugated carbon-carbon double bonds. You can count these bonds in the picture A battery is chemistry in action, as it creates a ionic below, they are selected in red (the atom carbons are charge on the negative pole that creates a flow of omitted, only the bonds are shown). This compound electrons to the positive pole. is generated by the plant to protect itself from the air oxidation. So it's a good antioxidant useful for us too, When you burn something and look at the light protecting our cells against the action of free radicals through a prism you see the spectrum of it and all (potent oxidants), which are one of the main chemicals and elements have their unique spectrum. molecules responsible for cardiovascular diseases, We use this knowledge to determine what elements cancer and aging. exist in stars and hot gases in space. This fundamental understanding of astronomy is all due to chemistry. The pigment present in carrots is the betacarotene, with 9 linear conjugated double bonds, less than in From the ink on the paper we read to the very air we lycopene so they are no red but orange (smaller breathe I can't think of a way that chemistry doesn't wavelength than red, check it in the spectrum affect us every day. It is in all our products, one of the picture). This compound is also a potent antioxidant fundamental pillars of our technology and an and besides it's transformed in our body into vitamin extremely important field. A, very important for the maintenance of healthy skin, good vision and a robust immune system. Electricity, and the invention of the light bulb is one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century, but it break from a deeper would not be possible without knowing the chemistry scratch. of Tungsten! Chemistry is in everything, from how the circuit boards are made to the paint on the Today, Gorilla is in over finished products all electrical devices and 100 products, (most applications have to thank chemistry for their use. droids), newest TV’s But, the exchange and sharing of electrons is the basis and many more of all chemistry and how all chemical processes products on the happen. Chemistry is truly a fundamental force. horizon. $170 million in annual 1960s Gorilla Glass Used for TVs and Cell Phones sales this year... In 1962, Corning invented 'Gorilla glass', a super- Just goes to show strong glass that is hard an old invention may turn out to be a to scratch or break. It goldmine! sounds like a great This article could go on for days and go through an material, right? It is, entire ream of chemically created paper without ever but there wasn't a touching the surface of how chemistry affects our market for the glass lives. before cell phones and flat screen televisions came along, where a strong and thin layer of glass was perfect for the application. Why has Gorilla glass, which was originally dubbed 'Chemcor', basically gone unused for so long? The glass cost too much to mass produce originally. But

with today’s chemistry, and a few tweaks in its Transparent Aluminum chemical makeup now has it used in many products. Unlike many glasses used in these kinds of Armor applications, Gorilla glass had to be chemically strengthened. We all know glass is a brittle material, and brittle materials are extremely strong under compression but extremely weak under tension. When you chemically temper a glass, you immerse it in a salt bath and you stuff larger ions in all the surfaces and put them all under compression. What’s unique about Gorilla Glass is that because of its inherent special composition, it can allow those larger ions to penetrate the surface more deeply to increase the compression tolerance and tolerate deeper scratches without breaking. What is so amazing is the compression forces Over time, a regular pane of bullet-resistant glass will between the molecules of Gorilla Glass actually be worn away by windblown desert sand, not to pushes a flaw or scratch back out toward the surface, mention incoming rounds from an assault rifle or it does not penetrate as easily, and cause a break. shrapnel from roadside bombs. Transparent aluminum Now mind you, it can still be broken but it is harder to armor, on the other hand, is hardier. It stands up to . 50-caliber rounds, is less affected by sand and fends on the behavior of the body’s immune cells, which off scratches more easily than traditional transparent defend against infectious disease and foreign armor. materials. DNA robots can function in a similar Surmet Corporation is now manufacturing transparent manner and may potentially lead to the development aluminum. OK, technically it’s a ceramic made from of new types of targeted cancer treatments that kill aluminum oxynitride (AlON). Surmet molds the only abnormal cells. The technology combines material under high pressure (15,000 psi), fuses it under chemistry, enzymology, and nanotechnology and high heat (2,000° for two days) and then polishes it until computer science with the unique physical properties it’s optically clear. The result’s currently used for high- of DNA molecules ability to fold according to stress applications: lenses in battlefield cameras, the predictable chemical rules. windows over the sensors in missiles and, oh yeah, armored windows . . . The material is four times harder BIOLOGY BASICS than fused silica glass, almost as hard as sapphire. Whereas a .50 caliber projectile can penetrate over three Shaped in the form of a double-stranded helix DNA inches of laminated “bulletproof” glass, just 1.6 inches genetic information in our cell. DNA is composed of of AlON stops the lead dead. Thanks to chemistry four bases: adenine, thymine, guanine and cytosine another wonderful tool for safety. (A, T, C and G) that bond in complementary pairs; A to T and C to G. the double strands have “sticky Self Healing/bleeding plastic. ends” that allow them to be joined together with other DNA. Scientists can program DNA with specific Earlier this week, scientists announced the folding instructions because it naturally seeks out its development of an entirely new genre of plastic that base counterpart. heals itself when it's scratched or cut, and bleeds like human skin — but researchers say you're more likely DNA ORIGAMI to find these next-gen materials wrapped around a car bumper than you are a freshly minted Galaxy SIII. Base pairing and “sticky ends” enable DNA robots constructed out of DNA strands to fold into a Bleeding is one of the ways your body alerts you and clamshell shaped. Researchers call the ability to fold others to an injury. This material works the same way. DNA onto itself and be held together by nucleotides, Sure, we've seen smart, self-healing materials like this “DNA origami.” The robots can be pre-programmed before, but there aren't that many materials that can to open up in the presence of cancerous cells. When heal themselves and weep like a freshly skinned knee. DNA binds to protein on cancer cells, the two double strands unzip and the clamshell swings open to That means that — at least for now — some of the unleash it targeted drug treatment. This approach most promising applications for these bleeding would require lower doses of chemotherapy and plastics are in materials that could benefit from a produce fewer toxic side effects. damage warning system, like automobile fenders, or the structural components on airplanes. FUTURE RESEARCH According to the journal Science, researchers Chemistry of Medicine programmed DNA robots in a laboratory Petri dish to unfold in the presence of leukemia and lymphoma cells. The robots delivered immune system antibodies that caused the cells to trigger a biological process that occurs in all cells, called apoptosis, which eliminates abnormal cells. Future research will focus on testing the system in animals, modifying the robot to prevent filtering by the kidneys or the liver before it has a chance to locate cancer cells. Researchers at Harvard University have created Although promising, scientists caution that it could be miniature “DNA robots” that can be “programmed” to a decade before DNA robot technology is seek out and destroy cancer cells. The idea is based commercialized.