Introductory Chemistry: A Foundation - Zumdahl S.S., DeCoste D.J. 2019
Chemistry: An Introduction
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Chemistry deals with the natural world.
Did you ever see a fireworks display on July Fourth and wonder how it’s possible to produce those beautiful, intricate designs in the air? Have you read about dinosaurs—how they ruled the earth for millions of years and then suddenly disappeared? Although the extinction happened 65 million years ago and may seem unimportant, could the same thing happen to us? Have you ever wondered why an ice cube (pure water) floats in a glass of water (also pure water)? Did you know that the “lead” in your pencil is made of the same substance (carbon) as the diamond in an engagement ring? Did you ever wonder how a corn plant or a palm tree grows seemingly by magic, or why leaves turn beautiful colors in autumn? Do you know how the battery works to start your car or run your calculator? Surely some of these things and many others in the world around you have intrigued you. The fact is that we can explain all of these things in convincing ways using the models of chemistry and the related physical and life sciences.
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Fireworks are a beautiful illustration of chemistry in action.
Chemistry: An Introduction
Objective
· To understand the importance of learning chemistry.
Although chemistry might seem to have little to do with dinosaurs, knowledge of chemistry was the tool that enabled paleontologist Luis W. Alvarez and his coworkers from the University of California at Berkeley to “crack the case” of the disappearing dinosaurs. The key was the relatively high level of iridium found in the sediment that represents the boundary between the earth’s Cretaceous (K) and Tertiary (T) periods—the time when the dinosaurs disappeared virtually overnight (on the geologic scale). The Berkeley researchers knew that meteorites also have unusually high iridium content (relative to the earth’s composition), which led them to suggest that a large meteorite impacted the earth 65 million years ago, causing the climatic changes that wiped out the dinosaurs.
A knowledge of chemistry is useful to almost everyone—chemistry occurs all around us all of the time, and an understanding of chemistry is useful to doctors, lawyers, mechanics, business-people, firefighters, and poets, among others. Chemistry is important—there is no doubt about that. It lies at the heart of our efforts to produce new materials that make our lives safer and easier, to produce new sources of energy that are abundant and nonpolluting, and to understand and control the many diseases that threaten us and our food supplies. Even if your future career does not require the daily use of chemical principles, your life will be greatly influenced by chemistry.
A strong case can be made that the use of chemistry has greatly enriched all of our lives. However, it is important to understand that the principles of chemistry are inherently neither good nor bad—it’s what we do with this knowledge that really matters. Although humans are clever, resourceful, and concerned about others, they also can be greedy, selfish, and ignorant. In addition, we tend to be shortsighted; we concentrate too much on the present and do not think enough about the long-range implications of our actions. This type of thinking has already caused us a great deal of trouble—severe environmental damage has occurred on many fronts. We cannot place all the responsibility on the chemical companies because everyone has contributed to these problems. However, it is less important to lay blame than to figure out how to solve these problems. An important part of the answer must rely on chemistry.
One of the “hottest” fields in the chemical sciences is environmental chemistry—an area that involves studying our environmental ills and finding creative ways to address them. For example, meet Bart Eklund, who works in the atmospheric chemistry field for Radian Corporation in Austin, Texas. Bart’s interest in a career in environmental science was fostered by two environmental chemistry courses and two ecology courses he took as an undergraduate. His original plan to gain several years of industrial experience and then to return to school for a graduate degree changed when he discovered that professional advancement with a B.S. degree was possible in the environmental research field. The multidisciplinary nature of environmental problems has allowed Bart to pursue his interest in several fields at the same time. You might say that he specializes in being a generalist.
The environmental consulting field appeals to Bart for a number of reasons: the chance to define and solve a number of research problems; the simultaneous work on a number of diverse projects; the mix of desk, field, and laboratory work; the travel; and the opportunity to perform rewarding work that has a positive effect on people’s lives.
Among his career highlights are the following:
· Spending a winter month doing air sampling in the Grand Tetons, where he also met his wife and learned to ski;
· Driving sampling pipes by hand into the rocky ground of Death Valley Monument in California;
· Working regularly with experts in their fields and with people who enjoy what they do;
· Doing vigorous work in weather while wearing a rubberized suit, double gloves, and a respirator; and
· Getting to work in and see Alaska, Yosemite Park, Niagara Falls, Hong Kong, the People’s Republic of China, Mesa Verde, New York City, and dozens of other interesting places.
Bart Eklund’s career demonstrates how chemists are helping to solve our environmental problems. It is how we use our chemical knowledge that makes all the difference.
An example that shows how technical knowledge can be a “double-edged sword” is the case of chlorofluorocarbons . When the compound (originally called Freon-12) was first synthesized, it was hailed as a near-miracle substance. Because of its noncorrosive nature and its unusual ability to resist decomposition, Freon-12 was rapidly applied in refrigeration and air-conditioning systems, cleaning applications, the blowing of foams used for insulation and packing materials, and many other ways. For years everything seemed fine—the actually replaced more dangerous materials, such as the ammonia formerly used in refrigeration systems. The were definitely viewed as “good guys.” But then a problem was discovered—the ozone in the upper atmosphere that protects us from the high-energy radiation of the sun began to decline. What was happening to cause the destruction of the vital ozone?
Much to everyone’s amazement, the culprits turned out to be the seemingly beneficial . Inevitably, large quantities of had leaked into the atmosphere, but nobody was very worried about this development because these compounds seemed totally benign. In fact, the great stability of the (a tremendous advantage for their various applications) was in the end a great disadvantage when they were released into the environment. Professor F. S. Rowland and his colleagues at the University of California at Irvine demonstrated that the eventually drifted to high altitudes in the atmosphere, where the energy of the sun stripped off chlorine atoms. These chlorine atoms in turn promoted the decomposition of the ozone in the upper atmosphere. (We will discuss this in more detail in Chapter 13.) Thus a substance that possessed many advantages in earth-bound applications turned against us in the atmosphere. Who could have guessed it would turn out this way?
Chemistry in Focus Dr. Ruth—Cotton Hero
Dr. Ruth Rogan Benerito may have saved the cotton industry in the United States. In the 1960s, synthetic fibers posed a serious competitive threat to cotton, primarily because of wrinkling. Synthetic fibers such as polyester can be formulated to be highly resistant to wrinkles both in the laundering process and in wearing. On the other hand, 1960s cotton fabrics wrinkled easily—white cotton shirts had to be ironed to look good. This requirement put cotton at a serious disadvantage and endangered an industry very important to the economic health of the South.
AP Photo/Eric Risberg
Ruth Benerito, the inventor of easy-care cotton.
During the 1960s Ruth Benerito worked as a scientist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), where she was instrumental in developing the chemical treatment of cotton to make it wrinkle resistant. In so doing she enabled cotton to remain a preeminent fiber in the market—a place it continues to hold today. She was honored with the Lemelson—MIT Lifetime Achievement Award for Inventions in 2002 when she was 86 years old.
Dr. Benerito began her career when women were not expected to enter scientific fields. However, her mother, who was an artist, adamantly encouraged her to be anything she wanted to be.
Dr. Benerito graduated from high school at age 14 and attended Newcomb College, the women’s college associated with Tulane University. She majored in chemistry with minors in physics and math. At that time she was one of only two women allowed to take the physical chemistry course at Tulane. She earned her B.S. degree in 1935 at age 19 and subsequently earned a master’s degree at Tulane and a Ph.D. at the University of Chicago.
In 1953 Dr. Benerito began working in the Agriculture Department’s Southern Regional Research Center in New Orleans, where she mainly worked on cotton and cotton-related products. She also invented a special method for intravenous feeding in long-term medical patients.
Dr. Benerito retired from the USDA in 1986 but continued to teach and tutor until her death in 2013 at the age of 97. She held 55 patents, including the one for wrinkle-free cotton awarded in 1969. Everyone who knew Dr. Benerito described her as a class act.
See Problem 1.4
The good news is that the U.S. chemical industry is leading the way to find environmentally safe alternatives to , and the levels of in the atmosphere are already dropping.
The saga of the demonstrates that we can respond relatively quickly to a serious environmental problem if we decide to do so. Also, it is important to understand that chemical manufacturers have a new attitude about the environment—they are now among the leaders in finding ways to address our environmental ills. The industries that apply the chemical sciences are now determined to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem.
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A chemist in the laboratory.
As you can see, learning chemistry is both interesting and important. A chemistry course can do more than simply help you learn the principles of chemistry, however. A major by-product of your study of chemistry is that you will become a better problem solver. One reason chemistry has the reputation of being “tough” is that it often deals with rather complicated systems that require some effort to figure out. Although this might at first seem like a disadvantage, you can turn it to your advantage if you have the right attitude. Recruiters for companies of all types maintain that one of the first things they look for in a prospective employee is the ability to solve problems. We will spend a good deal of time solving various types of problems in this book by using a systematic, logical approach that will serve you well in solving any kind of problem in any field. Keep this broader goal in mind as you learn to solve the specific problems connected with chemistry.
Although learning chemistry is often not easy, it’s never impossible. In fact, anyone who is interested, patient, and willing to work can learn the fundamentals of chemistry. In this book we will try very hard to help you understand what chemistry is and how it works and to point out how chemistry applies to the things going on in your life.
Our sincere hope is that this text will motivate you to learn chemistry, make its concepts understandable to you, and demonstrate how interesting and vital the study of chemistry is.