CHEMISTRY GLOSSARY

spontaneously combustible    →   samozapaljivi materijal

Spontaneously combustible materials are materials that can ignite without an external source of heat. Heat sufficient to reach the ignition temperature may be generated by reaction with oxygen in the air, by the absorption of moisture, from heat generated during processing, or even from radioactive decay.

synthetic material    →   sintetički materijal

Synthetic material (artificial material) is a substance manufactured by chemical synthesis.

point-like object    →   materijalna točka

Point-like object is an expression, usual in kinematics: a point-like object (or a particle) is an object with dimensions, which can be neglected while considering its motion.

absolute volume    →   apsolutni volumen

Absolute volume is the total volume of the particles in a granular material, including both permeable and impermeable voids but excluding spaces between particles.

accelerated corrosion test    →   ubrzana korozija

Accelerated corrosion test is method designed to approximate, in a short time, the deteriorating effect under normal long-term service conditions.

acceleration    →   akceleracija

If a point-like object undergoes a change in velocity Δv=v_f-v_i in time Δt=t_f-t_i (indexes i and f stand for initial and final instant as well as for initial and final velocity) its average acceleration, a is defined as

The instantaneous acceleration, a, is obtained from the average acceleration by shrinking the time interval Δt towards zero. The average acceleration approaches a limiting value, which is the acceleration of a given instant:

Acceleration is a vector quantity. SI unit for acceleration is m s^-2.

activated charcoal    →   aktivni ugljen

Activated charcoal or activated carbon is charcoal that has been activated for adsorption by steaming or by heating in a vacuum. Charcoal is obtained by burning wood, nutshells, coconut husks or other materials. Charcoal becomes activated by heating it with steam to approximately 1000 °C in the absence of oxygen.

The chemical nature of amorphous carbon, combined with a high surface area makes it an ideal medium for the adsorption of organic chemicals. A single gram of such material can have 400 m² to 1 200 m² square meters of surface area. Activated charcoal is widely used to decolorize liquids, recover solvents, and remove toxins from water and air.

aerogel    →   aerogel

Aerogel is a low-density porous transparent material that consists of more than 90 % air. Usually based on metal oxides or silica, aerogels are used as drying agents and insulators.

ageing    →   starenje

Ageing is the physical and/or chemical change of a material with respect to time, under defined environmental conditions, leading to improvement or deterioration of properties.

anisotropy    →   anizotropija

Anisotropy is the property of molecules and materials to exhibit variations in physical properties along different molecular axes of the substance.