CHEMISTRY GLOSSARY

decomposition    →   raspadanje

Decomposition occurs when chemical compounds are broken up into simple molecules, and even as far as their original elements. These processes are normally irreversible. An example of decomposition is when ammonium nitrate is heated. This produces nitrous oxide and water which are unable to recombine.

mineral water    →   mineralna voda

Mineral water is a groundwater that rises to the surface through a natural opening in the earth or rock and contains a relatively high concentration of mineral ions and trace of elements which can be radioactive or thermal.

molecular formula    →   molekularna formula

Molecular formula is a formula which represents one molecule of an element or a compound, and the number of atoms in each one of them.

nascent state    →   nascentno stanje

Nascent state is an especially active state of an element in a moment when it is released from a compound during chemical reaction, e.g. nascent hydrogen.

neon    →   neon

Neon was discovered by Sir William Ramsay and Morris W. Travers (England) in 1898. The origin of the name comes from the Greek word neon meaning new. It is colourless, odourless inert gas. Non-reactive even with fluorine. Fourth most abundant element in the universe. Neon is obtained by liquefaction of air and separated from the other gases by fractional distillation. Primarily for lighting.

dubnium    →   dubnij

Dubnium was discovered by workers at the Nuclear Institute at Dubna (USSR) and by workers at the University of California, Berkeley (USA) in 1967. The origin of the name dubnium is the Joint Nuclear Institute at Dubna, Russia, an institute heavily involved in the search for heavy elements. It is synthetic radioactive metal. Dubnium was made by bombarding californium-249 with a beam of nitrogen-15 ions. There are now five known isotopes of dubnium. The longest-lived is dubnium-262, with a half-life of 34 seconds.

Earth’s crust    →   Zemljina kora

Crust is outer layer of the solid earth, above the Mohorovicic discontinuity. Its thickness averages about 35 km on the continents and about 7 km below the ocean floor, and has the approximate chemical composition:

electrochemical series    →   elektrokemijski niz

Electrochemical series is a series of chemical elements arranged in order of their standard electrode potentials. The hydrogen electrode

is taken as having zero electrode potential. An electrode potential is, by definition, a reduction potential.

Elements that have a greater tendency than hydrogen to lose electrons to their solution are taken as electropositive; those that gain electrons from their solution are below hydrogen in the series and are called electronegative.

The series shows the order in which metals replace one another from their salts; electropositive metals will replace hydrogen from acids.

electron configuration    →   elektronska konfiguracija

The electron configuration shows how many electrons there are in an atom or ion and their distribution along orbitals (see Table of electronic configuration of elements). Structure and all regularity in the periodic system depend upon electronic configuration of atoms of elements. Characteristics of elements mainly depend on electronic configuration of the outer shell. Refilling of the new electronic shell atoms of elements of similar electronic configuration emerge as well as in the previous shell, which adds up to periodicities of characteristics of elements.

neutrino    →   neutrino

Neutrino is a stable elementary particle in the lepton family. Neutrinos have zero (or at least near-zero) rest mass and spin 1/2.