Some Basic Concepts of Chemistry

1. Some Basic Concepts of Chemistry
   

The study of chemistry is very important as its domain encompasses every sphere of life. Chemists study the properties and structure of substances and the changes undergone by them. All substances contain matter, which can exist in three states – solid, liquid or gas. The constituent particles are held in different ways in these states of matter and they exhibit their characteristic properties. 

Classification of Matter

Matter can also be classified into elements, compounds or mixtures. An element contains particles of only one type, which may be atoms or molecules. The compounds are formed where atoms of two or more elements combine in a fixed ratio to each other. Mixtures occur widely and many of the substances present around us are mixtures.

When the properties of a substance are studied, measurement is inherent. 

Measurements of Substances in SI System

The quantification of properties requires a system of measurement and units in which the quantities are to be expressed. Many systems of measurement exist, of which the English and the Metric Systems are widely used. The scientific community, however, has agreed to have a uniform and common system throughout the world, which is abbreviated as SI units (International System of Units).

Since measurements involve recording of data, which are always associated with a certain amount of uncertainty, the proper handling of data obtained by measuring the quantities is very important. The measurements of quantities in chemistry are spread over a wide range of 10-31 to 1023. Hence, a convenient system of expressing the numbers in scientific notation is used. The uncertainty is taken care of by specifying the number of significant figures, in which the observations are reported. The dimensional analysis helps to express the measured quantities in different systems of units. Hence, it is possible to interconvert the results from one system of units to another.

Basic Laws of Chemical Combination

The combination of different atoms is governed by basic laws of chemical combination — these being the 

1. Law of Conservation of Mass, 2. Law of Definite Proportions, 3. Law of Multiple Proportions, 

4. Gay Lussac’s Law of Gaseous Volumes and 5. Avogadro Law. 

All these laws led to the Dalton’s atomic theory, which states that atoms are building blocks of matter. 

Atomic and Molecular Mass

The atomic mass of an element is expressed relative to 12C isotope of carbon, which has an exact value of 12u. Usually, the atomic mass used for an element is the average atomic mass obtained by taking into account the natural abundance of different isotopes of that element. The molecular mass of a molecule is obtained by taking sum of the atomic masses of different atoms present in a molecule. The molecular formula can be calculated by determining the mass per cent of different elements present in a compound and its molecular mass.

Avogadro Number

 

The number of atoms, molecules or any other particles present in a given system are expressed in the terms of Avogadro constant (6.022 × 1023). This is known as 1 mol of the respective particles or entities.

Stoichiometric Calculations

Chemical reactions represent the chemical changes undergone by different elements and compounds. A balanced chemical equation provides a lot of information. The coefficients indicate the molar ratios and the respective number of particles taking part in a particular reaction. The quantitative study of the reactants required or the products formed is called stoichiometry. Using stoichiometric calculations, the amount of one or more reactant(s) required to produce a particular amount of product can be determined . 

The Amount of Substance in a Solution

The amount of substance present in a given volume of a solution is expressed in number of ways, e.g., 1. Mass Per cent, 2. Mole fraction, 3. Molarity and 4. Molality.