CHEMISTRY GLOSSARY

thallium    →   talij

Thallium was discovered by Sir William Crookes (England) in 1861. The origin of the name comes from the Greek word thallos meaning green twig or green shoot. It is soft grey metal that looks like lead. Tarnishes in moist air. Reacts in heated moist air and in acids. Compounds highly toxic by inhalation or ingestion. Cumulative effects. Thallium is found in iron pyrites. Also in crookesite, hutchinsonite and lorandite. Most is recovered from the by-products of lead and zinc refining. Its compounds are used in rat and ant poisons. Also for detecting infrared radiation.

melt    →   talina

Melt is the liquid aggregate state of metals and alloys

melting point    →   talište

Melting point is the temperature at which a solid becomes a liquid at normal atmospheric pressure.

A more specific definition of melting point (or freezing point) is the temperature at which the solid and liquid phases of a substance are in equilibrium at a specified pressure (normally taken to be atmospheric unless stated otherwise). A pure substance under standard condition of pressure has a single reproducible melting point. The terms melting point and freezing point are often used interchangeably, depending on whether the substance is being heated or cooled.

absolute temperature    →   apsolutna temperatura

Absolute temperature denoting a temperature measured on the absolute scale, a scale of temperature based on absolute zero as the lowest temperature.

Avogadro, Amadeo    →   Avogadro, Amadeo

Amadeo Avogadro (1776-1856) is an Italian chemist and physicist that proposed a correct molecular explanation for Gay-Lussac’s law of combining volumes. His work provided a simple way to determine atomic weights and molecular weights of gases. He is published a theory about the movement of particles in gases that became known as Avogadro’s Law.

Avogadro’s law    →   Avogadrov zakon

Avogadro’s law: Equal volumes of all gases contain equal numbers of molecules at the same pressure and temperature. The law, often called Avogadro’s hypothesis, is true only for ideal gases. It was proposed in 1811 by Italian chemist Amadeo Avogadro (1776-1856).

carbon    →   ugljik

Carbon has been known since ancient times. The origin of the name comes from the Latin word carbo meaning charcoal. Graphite form of carbon is a black, odourless, slippery solid. Graphite sublimes at 3825 °C. Diamond form is a clear or colored; an extremely hard solid. C60 is Buckminsterfullerine. Carbon black burns readily with oxidants. Carbon is made by burning organic compounds with insufficient oxygen. There are close to ten million known carbon compounds, many thousands of which are vital to organic and life processes. Radiocarbon dating uses the carbon-14 isotope to date old objects.

electrochemical cell    →   elektrokemijski članak

Electrochemical cell is a device that converts chemical energy into electrical energy or vice versa when a chemical reaction is occurring in the cell. It consist of two electronically conducting phases (e.g., solid or liquid metals, semiconductors, etc) connected by an ionically conducting phase (e.g. aqueous or non-aqueous solution, molten salt, ionically conducting solid). As an electric current passes, it must change from electronic current to ionic current and back to electronic current. These changes of conduction mode are always accompanied by oxidation/reduction reactions.

An essential feature of the electrochemical cell is that the simultaneously occurring oxidation-reduction reactions are spatially separated. E.g., in a spontaneous chemical reaction during the oxidation of hydrogen by oxygen to water, electrons are passed directly from the hydrogen to the oxygen.

In contrast, in the spontaneous electrochemical reaction in a galvanic cell the hydrogen is oxidised at the anode by transferring electrons to the anode and the oxygen is reduced at the cathode by accepting electrons from the cathode. The ions produced in the electrode reactions, in this case positive hydrogen ions and the negative hydroxyl (OH^-) ions, will recombine in the solution to form the final product of the reaction: water. During this process the electrons are conducted from the anode to the cathode through an outside electric circuit where the electric current can drive a motor, light a light bulb, etc. The reaction can also be reversed: water can be decomposed into hydrogen and oxygen by the application of electrical power in an electrolytic cell.

eutectic    →   eutektik

Eutectic is a solid solution consisting of two or more substances and having the lowest freezing point of any possible mixture of these components.

Eutectic point is the lowest temperature at which the eutectic mixture can exist in a liquid phase. A liquid having the eutectic composition will freeze at a single temperature without a change of composition.

fatty acid    →   masna kiselina

Fatty acids are aliphatic monocarboxylic acids characterized by a terminal carboxyl group (R-COOH). The higher members of this series of acids occur in nature in the combined form of esters of glycerol (fats), and hence all acids of this family are called fatty acids. Natural fatty acids commonly have a chain of 4 to 28 carbons (usually unbranched and even-numbered), which may be saturated or unsaturated. The most important of saturated fatty acids are butyric (C4), lauric (C12), palmitic (C16), and stearic (C18). The most common unsaturated acids are oleic, linoleic, and linolenic (all C18).

The physical properties of fatty acids are determined by the chain length, degree of unsaturation, and chain branching. Short-chain acids are pungent liquids, soluble in water. As the chain length increases, melting points are raised and water-solubility decreases. Unsaturation and chain branching tend to lower melting points.