627 articles
All articles — Page 7
Every article in the chemistry library, newest first.
Teaching Photosynthesis from a Chemistry Angle
A teaching guide that frames photosynthesis as redox and energy chemistry: three lessons with pondweed, leaf-disc and chromatography practicals, misconceptions and questions.
Water in the Human Body
Why water makes up about 60% of your body: where it is, how its hydrogen bonds control temperature and dissolve nutrients, how kidneys balance it, and how much you need.
AAS vs ICP Techniques
Comparing atomic absorption spectroscopy with ICP-OES and ICP-MS for measuring metals: how each works, detection limits, one element at a time vs many at once, sample throughput, interferences, isotopes, running costs, and a guide to choosing the right technique for water, food, soil and clinical samples.
Acid–Base Indicators: How They Change Colour
What indicators are, why they change colour with pH, the chemistry of the colour switch, natural and synthetic examples, and how indicators are used in the lab, the garden and medicine.
Acid–Base Reactions Practice Questions
25 practice questions on acid–base reactions: predicting products, balancing neutralisation equations, ionic equations, identifying acids and bases, and reacting quantities, with full worked answers.
Acid–Base Titration: Method, Equipment and Accuracy
A complete practical guide to acid–base titration: equipment, step-by-step method, concordant results, a fully worked calculation, sources of error and how to make your results more accurate.
Handling Acids and Bases Safely in the Lab
A practical safety guide for acids and alkalis: hazard labels, protective equipment, diluting correctly, safe storage and transport, what to do after spills and splashes, and the specific hazards of common reagents.
What Makes an Acid Strong? Bond Strength, Polarity and Stability
Why some acids give up protons easily and others don't: bond strength, electronegativity, oxygen count in oxyacids, inductive effects, resonance and solvation, with ranking examples.
Acidic Foods, Tooth Enamel and pH
How acids from food, drinks and mouth bacteria dissolve tooth enamel, the critical pH of 5.5, why fluoride helps, how saliva repairs teeth, and practical chemistry-based ways to protect them.
Acidic Oxides vs Basic Oxides
Why metal oxides are basic and non-metal oxides are acidic, the amphoteric and neutral exceptions, their reactions with water, acids and alkalis, the Period 3 trend, and where these oxides matter in the real world.
Acids and Bases Study Guide
A complete revision guide to acids and bases: definitions, pH, strong vs weak, neutralisation, salts, titrations, Ka and buffers, with a checklist, key equations and exam tips for every level.
Acids and Bases: Myths and Misconceptions
Twelve common misconceptions about acids, bases and pH, from 'all acids burn' to 'neutralisation always gives pH 7', each with a clear explanation of what's actually true and why.
The Most Important Industrial Acids
The acids that underpin modern industry: sulfuric, phosphoric, nitric, hydrochloric, hydrofluoric, acetic and others, with how each is made, how much is produced, and what it's used for.
Acids vs Bases: The Key Differences
A side-by-side comparison of acids and bases: definitions, ions, pH, indicator colours, reactions, strength, examples and safety, plus how they cancel each other out.
Adrenaline (Epinephrine): Fight-or-Flight Chemistry
A chemical profile of adrenaline: its catecholamine structure and chirality, how the body makes it from tyrosine, how it acts through α and β receptors, the fight-or-flight response, its history as the first isolated hormone, and its medical uses in anaphylaxis and cardiac arrest.
Aerobic vs Anaerobic Respiration
Aerobic and anaerobic respiration compared: equations, ATP yield, where they happen, lactic acid fermentation in muscles, alcoholic fermentation in yeast, oxygen debt, and why cells bother with a process that makes so little ATP.
Alkaline Water: What the Chemistry Says
Alkaline water is sold with big health claims. We look at what it is, how it's made, what happens when you drink it, what the body does with pH, and what the evidence does and doesn't support.
Amino Acids: Structure and the 20 Standard Types
The general structure of amino acids, chirality and L-forms, zwitterions and isoelectric points, and all 20 standard amino acids grouped by side chain (non-polar, polar, acidic and basic) with codes and key features.
Amino Acids as Acids and Bases: Zwitterions and pI
How amino acids carry both acidic and basic groups, why they exist as zwitterions, how their charge changes with pH, how to calculate the isoelectric point, and why it matters for proteins and electrophoresis.
Amphoteric and Amphiprotic Substances
What it means for a substance to behave as both an acid and a base, the difference between amphoteric and amphiprotic, and the chemistry of water, aluminium oxide, zinc hydroxide and amino acids.
Careers in Analytical Chemistry
What analytical chemists do and where they work: pharmaceuticals, environment, food, forensics, clinical labs, materials and research; typical roles from technician to lab manager; the skills employers want; qualifications; and how students can start building experience now.
Analytical Chemistry Study Guide
A structured revision guide to analytical chemistry: key vocabulary, titrations, gravimetric analysis, chromatography, spectroscopy and mass spectrometry, data and uncertainty, a technique-selection table, exam-style checkpoints and a two-week revision plan with links to every topic.
Titrating an Antacid Tablet
A back-titration practical to find how much acid an antacid tablet can neutralise and how much calcium carbonate it really contains, with method, sample results, full calculation, evaluation and extensions.
Antimatter and Positrons: The Mirror Image of Ordinary Matter
What antimatter is, how the positron was predicted and discovered, what happens when matter and antimatter meet, how PET scans use positrons, and why the universe is made almost entirely of matter.
Arrhenius Acids and Bases
The Arrhenius definition explained: acids make H⁺, bases make OH⁻ in water. How Svante Arrhenius arrived at it, how to apply it, worked examples, and where the theory breaks down.
Catching Art Forgers with Chemistry
How scientists test whether a painting is genuine: anachronistic pigments like titanium white and Prussian blue, X-ray fluorescence, Raman and infrared spectroscopy, X-radiography, lead isotopes, radiocarbon dating of canvas and the 'bomb peak'.
Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy
How atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) measures metal concentrations: atomising samples in a flame or furnace, hollow cathode lamps, why each element absorbs specific wavelengths, calibration, and uses from drinking water to blood lead.
Atomic Emission Spectroscopy: Identifying Elements by Their Light
How atomic emission spectroscopy works, from a simple flame photometer to an argon-plasma ICP-OES: excitation, emission lines, calibration, interferences and where the technique is used.
The Atomic Mass Unit (Dalton): Definition and Uses
What the atomic mass unit (u or Da) is, why it's defined as one-twelfth of a carbon-12 atom, its value in kilograms, how it connects to the mole and molar mass, why protons and neutrons aren't exactly 1 u, history of hydrogen, oxygen and carbon scales, and uses in chemistry, biochemistry and mass spectrometry.
Models of the Atom: Practice Questions
Fifteen practice questions on the history of atomic models, from Dalton and Thomson to Rutherford, Bohr, Chadwick and the quantum model, with a full answer key and a summary timeline.