1.
Melting point
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The melting point of a solid is the temperature at which it changes state from solid to liquid at atmospheric pressure. At the melting point the solid and liquid phase exist in equilibrium, the melting point of a substance depends on pressure and is usually specified at standard pressure. When considered as the temperature of the change from liquid to solid. Because of the ability of some substances to supercool, the point is not considered as a characteristic property of a substance. For most substances, melting and freezing points are approximately equal, for example, the melting point and freezing point of mercury is 234.32 kelvins. However, certain substances possess differing solid-liquid transition temperatures, for example, agar melts at 85 °C and solidifies from 31 °C to 40 °C, such direction dependence is known as hysteresis. The melting point of ice at 1 atmosphere of pressure is close to 0 °C. In the presence of nucleating substances the freezing point of water is the same as the melting point, the chemical element with the highest melting point is tungsten, at 3687 K, this property makes tungsten excellent for use as filaments in light bulbs. Many laboratory techniques exist for the determination of melting points, a Kofler bench is a metal strip with a temperature gradient. Any substance can be placed on a section of the strip revealing its thermal behaviour at the temperature at that point, differential scanning calorimetry gives information on melting point together with its enthalpy of fusion. A basic melting point apparatus for the analysis of crystalline solids consists of an oil bath with a transparent window, the several grains of a solid are placed in a thin glass tube and partially immersed in the oil bath. The oil bath is heated and with the aid of the melting of the individual crystals at a certain temperature can be observed. In large/small devices, the sample is placed in a heating block, the measurement can also be made continuously with an operating process. For instance, oil refineries measure the point of diesel fuel online, meaning that the sample is taken from the process. This allows for more frequent measurements as the sample does not have to be manually collected, for refractory materials the extremely high melting point may be determined by heating the material in a black body furnace and measuring the black-body temperature with an optical pyrometer. For the highest melting materials, this may require extrapolation by several hundred degrees, the spectral radiance from an incandescent body is known to be a function of its temperature. An optical pyrometer matches the radiance of a body under study to the radiance of a source that has been previously calibrated as a function of temperature, in this way, the measurement of the absolute magnitude of the intensity of radiation is unnecessary. However, known temperatures must be used to determine the calibration of the pyrometer, for temperatures above the calibration range of the source, an extrapolation technique must be employed
2.
Oxygen
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Oxygen is a chemical element with symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the group on the periodic table and is a highly reactive nonmetal. By mass, oxygen is the third-most abundant element in the universe, after hydrogen, at standard temperature and pressure, two atoms of the element bind to form dioxygen, a colorless and odorless diatomic gas with the formula O2. This is an important part of the atmosphere and diatomic oxygen gas constitutes 20. 8% of the Earths atmosphere, additionally, as oxides the element makes up almost half of the Earths crust. Most of the mass of living organisms is oxygen as a component of water, conversely, oxygen is continuously replenished by photosynthesis, which uses the energy of sunlight to produce oxygen from water and carbon dioxide. Oxygen is too reactive to remain a free element in air without being continuously replenished by the photosynthetic action of living organisms. Another form of oxygen, ozone, strongly absorbs ultraviolet UVB radiation, but ozone is a pollutant near the surface where it is a by-product of smog. At low earth orbit altitudes, sufficient atomic oxygen is present to cause corrosion of spacecraft, the name oxygen was coined in 1777 by Antoine Lavoisier, whose experiments with oxygen helped to discredit the then-popular phlogiston theory of combustion and corrosion. One of the first known experiments on the relationship between combustion and air was conducted by the 2nd century BCE Greek writer on mechanics, Philo of Byzantium. In his work Pneumatica, Philo observed that inverting a vessel over a burning candle, Philo incorrectly surmised that parts of the air in the vessel were converted into the classical element fire and thus were able to escape through pores in the glass. Many centuries later Leonardo da Vinci built on Philos work by observing that a portion of air is consumed during combustion and respiration, Oxygen was discovered by the Polish alchemist Sendivogius, who considered it the philosophers stone. In the late 17th century, Robert Boyle proved that air is necessary for combustion, English chemist John Mayow refined this work by showing that fire requires only a part of air that he called spiritus nitroaereus. From this he surmised that nitroaereus is consumed in both respiration and combustion, Mayow observed that antimony increased in weight when heated, and inferred that the nitroaereus must have combined with it. Accounts of these and other experiments and ideas were published in 1668 in his work Tractatus duo in the tract De respiratione. Robert Hooke, Ole Borch, Mikhail Lomonosov, and Pierre Bayen all produced oxygen in experiments in the 17th and the 18th century but none of them recognized it as a chemical element. This may have been in part due to the prevalence of the philosophy of combustion and corrosion called the phlogiston theory, which was then the favored explanation of those processes. Established in 1667 by the German alchemist J. J. Becher, one part, called phlogiston, was given off when the substance containing it was burned, while the dephlogisticated part was thought to be its true form, or calx. The fact that a substance like wood gains overall weight in burning was hidden by the buoyancy of the combustion products
3.
Ultraviolet
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Ultraviolet is an electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength from 10 nm to 400 nm, shorter than that of visible light but longer than X-rays. UV radiation constitutes about 10% of the light output of the Sun. It is also produced by electric arcs and specialized lights, such as lamps, tanning lamps. Consequently, the effects of UV are greater than simple heating effects. Suntan, freckling and sunburn are familiar effects of over-exposure, along with risk of skin cancer. Living things on dry land would be damaged by ultraviolet radiation from the Sun if most of it were not filtered out by the Earths atmosphere. More-energetic, shorter-wavelength extreme UV below 121 nm ionizes air so strongly that it is absorbed before it reaches the ground, Ultraviolet is also responsible for the formation of bone-strengthening vitamin D in most land vertebrates, including humans. The UV spectrum thus has both beneficial and harmful to human health. Ultraviolet rays are invisible to most humans, the lens in a human eye ordinarily filters out UVB frequencies or higher, and humans lack color receptor adaptations for ultraviolet rays. Under some conditions, children and young adults can see ultraviolet down to wavelengths of about 310 nm, near-UV radiation is visible to some insects, mammals, and birds. Small birds have a fourth color receptor for ultraviolet rays, this gives birds true UV vision, reindeer use near-UV radiation to see polar bears, who are poorly visible in regular light because they blend in with the snow. UV also allows mammals to see urine trails, which is helpful for animals to find food in the wild. The males and females of some species look identical to the human eye. Ultraviolet means beyond violet, violet being the color of the highest frequencies of visible light, Ultraviolet has a higher frequency than violet light. He called them oxidizing rays to emphasize chemical reactivity and to them from heat rays. The terms chemical and heat rays were eventually dropped in favour of ultraviolet and infrared radiation, in 1878 the effect of short-wavelength light on sterilizing bacteria was discovered. By 1903 it was known the most effective wavelengths were around 250 nm, in 1960, the effect of ultraviolet radiation on DNA was established. The discovery of the ultraviolet radiation below 200 nm, named vacuum ultraviolet because it is absorbed by air, was made in 1893 by the German physicist Victor Schumann
4.
Jmol
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Jmol is computer software for molecular modelling chemical structures in 3-dimensions. Jmol returns a 3D representation of a molecule that may be used as a teaching tool and it is written in the programming language Java, so it can run on the operating systems Windows, macOS, Linux, and Unix, if Java is installed. It is free and open-source software released under a GNU Lesser General Public License version 2.0, a standalone application and a software development kit exist that can be integrated into other Java applications, such as Bioclipse and Taverna. A popular feature is an applet that can be integrated into web pages to display molecules in a variety of ways, for example, molecules can be displayed as ball-and-stick models, space-filling models, ribbon diagrams, etc. Jmol supports a range of chemical file formats, including Protein Data Bank, Crystallographic Information File, MDL Molfile. There is also a JavaScript-only version, JSmol, that can be used on computers with no Java, the Jmol applet, among other abilities, offers an alternative to the Chime plug-in, which is no longer under active development. While Jmol has many features that Chime lacks, it does not claim to reproduce all Chime functions, most notably, Chime requires plug-in installation and Internet Explorer 6.0 or Firefox 2.0 on Microsoft Windows, or Netscape Communicator 4.8 on Mac OS9. Jmol requires Java installation and operates on a variety of platforms. For example, Jmol is fully functional in Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, Google Chrome, fast and Scriptable Molecular Graphics in Web Browsers without Java3D
5.
Vapor pressure
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Vapor pressure or equilibrium vapor pressure is defined as the pressure exerted by a vapor in thermodynamic equilibrium with its condensed phases at a given temperature in a closed system. The equilibrium vapor pressure is an indication of a liquids evaporation rate and it relates to the tendency of particles to escape from the liquid. A substance with a vapor pressure at normal temperatures is often referred to as volatile. The pressure exhibited by vapor present above a surface is known as vapor pressure. As the temperature of a liquid increases, the energy of its molecules also increases. As the kinetic energy of the molecules increases, the number of molecules transitioning into a vapor also increases, the vapor pressure of any substance increases non-linearly with temperature according to the Clausius–Clapeyron relation. The atmospheric pressure boiling point of a liquid is the temperature at which the pressure equals the ambient atmospheric pressure. With any incremental increase in temperature, the vapor pressure becomes sufficient to overcome atmospheric pressure. Bubble formation deeper in the liquid requires a pressure, and therefore higher temperature. More important at shallow depths, is the temperature required to start bubble formation. The surface tension of the wall lead to an overpressure in the very small initial bubbles. Thus, thermometer calibration should not rely on the temperature in boiling water, the vapor pressure that a single component in a mixture contributes to the total pressure in the system is called partial pressure. Vapor pressure is measured in the units of pressure. The International System of Units recognizes pressure as a unit with the dimension of force per area. One pascal is one newton per square meter, experimental measurement of vapor pressure is a simple procedure for common pressures between 1 and 200 kPa. Most accurate results are obtained near the point of substances. Better accuracy is achieved when care is taken to ensure that the entire substance and this is often done, as with the use of an isoteniscope, by submerging the containment area in a liquid bath. Very low vapor pressures of solids can be measured using the Knudsen effusion cell method, the Antoine equation is a mathematical expression of the relation between the vapor pressure and the temperature of pure liquid or solid substances
6.
Insecticide
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An insecticide is a substance used to kill insects. They include ovicides and larvicides used against insect eggs and larvae, Insecticides are used in agriculture, medicine, industry and by consumers. Insecticides are claimed to be a factor behind the increase in agricultural 20th centurys productivity. Nearly all insecticides have the potential to significantly alter ecosystems, many are toxic to humans, Insecticides can be classified in two major groups, systemic insecticides, which have residual or long term activity, and contact insecticides, which have no residual activity. Furthermore, one can distinguish three types of insecticide, natural insecticides, such as nicotine, pyrethrum and neem extracts, made by plants as defenses against insects. Organic insecticides, which are chemical compounds, mostly working by contact. The mode of action describes how the pesticide kills or inactivates a pest and it provides another way of classifying insecticides. Mode of action is important in understanding whether an insecticide will be toxic to unrelated species, such as fish, birds, Insecticides are distinct from insect repellents, which do not kill. Systemic insecticides become incorporated and distributed throughout the whole plant. When insects feed on the plant, they ingest the insecticide, systemic insecticides produced by transgenic plants are called plant-incorporated protectants. For instance, a gene that codes for a specific Bacillus thuringiensis biocidal protein was introduced into corn, the plant manufactures the protein, which kills the insect when consumed. Contact insecticides are toxic to insects upon direct contact and these can be inorganic insecticides, which are metals and include arsenates, copper and fluorine compounds, which are less commonly used, and the commonly used sulfur. Contact insecticides can be organic insecticides, i. e. organic chemical compounds, synthetically produced, or they can be natural compounds like pyrethrum, neem oil etc. Contact insecticides usually have no residual activity, efficacy can be related to the quality of pesticide application, with small droplets, such as aerosols often improving performance. Many organic compounds are produced by plants for the purpose of defending the host plant from predation, a trivial case is tree rosin, which is a natural insecticide. Specific, the production of oleoresin by conifer species is a component of the response against insect attack. Many fragrances, e. g. oil of wintergreen, are in fact antifeedants, the technique has been expanded to include the use of RNA interference RNAi that fatally silences crucial insect genes. RNAi likely evolved as a defense against viruses, midgut cells in many larvae take up the molecules and help spread the signal
7.
European Chemicals Agency
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ECHA is the driving force among regulatory authorities in implementing the EUs chemicals legislation. ECHA helps companies to comply with the legislation, advances the safe use of chemicals, provides information on chemicals and it is located in Helsinki, Finland. The Agency, headed by Executive Director Geert Dancet, started working on 1 June 2007, the REACH Regulation requires companies to provide information on the hazards, risks and safe use of chemical substances that they manufacture or import. Companies register this information with ECHA and it is freely available on their website. So far, thousands of the most hazardous and the most commonly used substances have been registered, the information is technical but gives detail on the impact of each chemical on people and the environment. This also gives European consumers the right to ask whether the goods they buy contain dangerous substances. The Classification, Labelling and Packaging Regulation introduces a globally harmonised system for classifying and labelling chemicals into the EU. This worldwide system makes it easier for workers and consumers to know the effects of chemicals, companies need to notify ECHA of the classification and labelling of their chemicals. So far, ECHA has received over 5 million notifications for more than 100000 substances, the information is freely available on their website. Consumers can check chemicals in the products they use, Biocidal products include, for example, insect repellents and disinfectants used in hospitals. The Biocidal Products Regulation ensures that there is information about these products so that consumers can use them safely. ECHA is responsible for implementing the regulation, the law on Prior Informed Consent sets guidelines for the export and import of hazardous chemicals. Through this mechanism, countries due to hazardous chemicals are informed in advance and have the possibility of rejecting their import. Substances that may have effects on human health and the environment are identified as Substances of Very High Concern 1. These are mainly substances which cause cancer, mutation or are toxic to reproduction as well as substances which persist in the body or the environment, other substances considered as SVHCs include, for example, endocrine disrupting chemicals. Companies manufacturing or importing articles containing these substances in a concentration above 0 and they are required to inform users about the presence of the substance and therefore how to use it safely. Consumers have the right to ask the retailer whether these substances are present in the products they buy, once a substance has been officially identified in the EU as being of very high concern, it will be added to a list. This list is available on ECHA’s website and shows consumers and industry which chemicals are identified as SVHCs, Substances placed on the Candidate List can then move to another list
8.
Odor
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An odor or odour or fragrance is caused by one or more volatilized chemical compounds, generally at a very low concentration, that humans or other animals perceive by the sense of olfaction. Odors are also commonly called scents, which can refer to both pleasant and unpleasant odors, the terms fragrance and aroma are used primarily by the food and cosmetic industry to describe a pleasant odor, and are sometimes used to refer to perfumes, and to describe floral scent. In contrast, malodor, stench, reek, and stink are used specifically to describe unpleasant odor, the term smell is used for both pleasant and unpleasant odors. In the United Kingdom, odour refers to scents in general, the sense of smell gives rise to the perception of odors, mediated by the olfactory nerve. The olfactory receptor cells are present in the olfactory epithelium. There are millions of olfactory receptor neurons that act as sensory signaling cells, each neuron has cilia in direct contact with air. The olfactory nerve is considered the smell mediator, the axon connects the brain to the external air, odorous molecules act as a chemical stimulus. Molecules bind to receptor proteins extended from cilia, initiating an electric signal, thus, by using a chemical that binds to copper in the mouse nose, so that copper wasn’t available to the receptors, the authors showed that the mice couldnt detect the thiols. However, these also found that MOR244-3 lacks the specific metal ion binding site suggested by Suslick. When the signal reaches a threshold, the fires, sending a signal traveling along the axon to the olfactory bulb. Interpretation of the begins, relating the smell to past experiences. The olfactory bulb acts as a station connecting the nose to the olfactory cortex in the brain. Olfactory information is processed and projected through a pathway to the central nervous system. Odor sensation usually depends on the concentration available to the olfactory receptors, the olfactory system does not interpret a single compound, but instead the whole odorous mix, not necessarily corresponding to concentration or intensity of any single constituent. The widest range of odors consists of compounds, although some simple compounds not containing carbon, such as hydrogen sulfide. The perception of an effect is a two-step process. First, there is the part, the detection of stimuli by receptors in the nose. The stimuli are processed by the region of the brain which is responsible for olfaction
9.
Immediately dangerous to life or health
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Examples include smoke or other poisonous gases at sufficiently high concentrations. It is calculated using the LD50 or LC50, IDLH values are often used to guide the selection of breathing apparatus that are made available to workers or firefighters in specific situations. The NIOSH definition does not include oxygen deficiency although atmosphere-supplying breathing apparatus is also required, examples include high altitudes and unventilated, confined spaces. It also uses the broader term impair, rather than prevent, for example, blinding but non-toxic smoke could be considered IDLH under the OSHA definition if it would impair the ability to escape a dangerous but not life-threatening atmosphere. The OSHA definition is part of a standard, which is the minimum legal requirement. If the concentration of substances is IDLH, the worker must use the most reliable respirators. Such respirators should not use cartridges or canister with the sorbent, in addition, the respirator must maintain positive pressure under the mask during inspiration, as this will prevent the leakage of unfiltered air through the gaps. The following examples are listed in reference to IDLH values, NIOSH IDLH site 1910.134 Respiratory protection definitions
10.
Boiling point
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The boiling point of a substance is the temperature at which the vapor pressure of the liquid equals the pressure surrounding the liquid and the liquid changes into a vapor. The boiling point of a liquid varies depending upon the environmental pressure. A liquid in a vacuum has a lower boiling point than when that liquid is at atmospheric pressure. A liquid at high pressure has a boiling point than when that liquid is at atmospheric pressure. For a given pressure, different liquids boil at different temperatures, for example, water boils at 100 °C at sea level, but at 93.4 °C at 2,000 metres altitude. The normal boiling point of a liquid is the case in which the vapor pressure of the liquid equals the defined atmospheric pressure at sea level,1 atmosphere. At that temperature, the pressure of the liquid becomes sufficient to overcome atmospheric pressure. The standard boiling point has been defined by IUPAC since 1982 as the temperature at which boiling occurs under a pressure of 1 bar, the heat of vaporization is the energy required to transform a given quantity of a substance from a liquid into a gas at a given pressure. Liquids may change to a vapor at temperatures below their boiling points through the process of evaporation, evaporation is a surface phenomenon in which molecules located near the liquids edge, not contained by enough liquid pressure on that side, escape into the surroundings as vapor. On the other hand, boiling is a process in which molecules anywhere in the liquid escape, a saturated liquid contains as much thermal energy as it can without boiling. The saturation temperature is the temperature for a corresponding saturation pressure at which a liquid boils into its vapor phase, the liquid can be said to be saturated with thermal energy. Any addition of energy results in a phase transition. If the pressure in a system remains constant, a vapor at saturation temperature will begin to condense into its liquid phase as thermal energy is removed, similarly, a liquid at saturation temperature and pressure will boil into its vapor phase as additional thermal energy is applied. The boiling point corresponds to the temperature at which the pressure of the liquid equals the surrounding environmental pressure. Thus, the point is dependent on the pressure. Boiling points may be published with respect to the NIST, USA standard pressure of 101.325 kPa, at higher elevations, where the atmospheric pressure is much lower, the boiling point is also lower. The boiling point increases with increased pressure up to the critical point, the boiling point cannot be increased beyond the critical point. Likewise, the point decreases with decreasing pressure until the triple point is reached
11.
Density
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The density, or more precisely, the volumetric mass density, of a substance is its mass per unit volume. The symbol most often used for density is ρ, although the Latin letter D can also be used. Mathematically, density is defined as mass divided by volume, ρ = m V, where ρ is the density, m is the mass, and V is the volume. In some cases, density is defined as its weight per unit volume. For a pure substance the density has the numerical value as its mass concentration. Different materials usually have different densities, and density may be relevant to buoyancy, purity, osmium and iridium are the densest known elements at standard conditions for temperature and pressure but certain chemical compounds may be denser. Thus a relative density less than one means that the floats in water. The density of a material varies with temperature and pressure and this variation is typically small for solids and liquids but much greater for gases. Increasing the pressure on an object decreases the volume of the object, increasing the temperature of a substance decreases its density by increasing its volume. In most materials, heating the bottom of a results in convection of the heat from the bottom to the top. This causes it to rise relative to more dense unheated material, the reciprocal of the density of a substance is occasionally called its specific volume, a term sometimes used in thermodynamics. Density is a property in that increasing the amount of a substance does not increase its density. Archimedes knew that the irregularly shaped wreath could be crushed into a cube whose volume could be calculated easily and compared with the mass, upon this discovery, he leapt from his bath and ran naked through the streets shouting, Eureka. As a result, the term eureka entered common parlance and is used today to indicate a moment of enlightenment, the story first appeared in written form in Vitruvius books of architecture, two centuries after it supposedly took place. Some scholars have doubted the accuracy of this tale, saying among other things that the method would have required precise measurements that would have been difficult to make at the time, from the equation for density, mass density has units of mass divided by volume. As there are units of mass and volume covering many different magnitudes there are a large number of units for mass density in use. The SI unit of kilogram per metre and the cgs unit of gram per cubic centimetre are probably the most commonly used units for density.1,000 kg/m3 equals 1 g/cm3. In industry, other larger or smaller units of mass and or volume are often more practical, see below for a list of some of the most common units of density
