CHEMISTRY GLOSSARY

holography    →   holografija

Holography is a technique for creating a three-dimensional image of an object by recording the interference pattern between a light beam diffracted from the object and a reference beam. The image can be reconstructed from this pattern by a suitable optical system.

pigment    →   pigment

Pigments are the substances that give paint colour. Pigments are derived from natural or synthetic materials that have been ground into fine powders. A pigment is different from a dye in that a pigment is insoluble in the media in which it is used.

Pigment is an organic substance found in plant and animal cells that creates colouring.

chlorinity    →   klorinitet

Originally chlorinity (symbol Cl) was defined as the weight of chlorine in grams per kilogram of seawater after the bromides and iodides had been replaced by chlorides. To make the definition independent of atomic weights, chlorinity is now defined as 0.3285233 times the weight of silver equivalent to all the halides.

The Mohr-Knudsen titration method served oceanographers for more than 60 years to determine salinity from chlorinity. This modification of the Mohr method uses special volumetric glassware calibrated directly in chlorinity units. The Mohr method uses potassium chromate (K₂CrO₄) as an indicator in the titration of chloride ions chloride (plus a small amount of bromide and iodide) with a silver nitrate (AgNO₃) standard solution.

The other halides present are similarly precipitated.

A problem in the Mohr titration was that silver nitrate is not well suited for a primary standard. The Danish physicist Martin Knudsen (1871-1949) suggested that a standard seawater (Eau de mer Normale or Copenhagen Normal Water) be created and distributed to oceanographic laboratories throughout the world. This water was then used to standardize the silver nitrate solutions. In this way all chlorinity determinations were referred to one and the same standard which gave great internal consistency.

The relationship between chlorinity Cl and salinity S as set forth in Knudsen's tables is

In 1962, however, a better expression for the relationship between total dissolved salts and chlorinity was found to be

Contat-Gockel’s valve    →   Contat-Gockelov ventil

Contat-Göckel’s valve is used for maintenance of inert atmosphere in a flask. The valve is filled with a saturated solution of sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO₃) so that the end of the tube is covered. Solution inside the valve keeps the flask contents away from the oxygen influence from air. If low pressure is created inside the flask (when the flask is cooled), the solution will penetrate inside it from funnel and in a reaction with acid CO₂ is generated which fills up the flask.

Solution from the funnel will keep penetrating until CO₂ pressure in the flask is equalised with the outer pressure.

plain salt    →   jednostavna sol

Plain salt is a salt that contains only metal ions (or ammonium ions) and acid radical. It is created when all ions of hydrogen in an acid are replaced with ions of metal (or ammonium ions).

provitamin    →   provitamin

Provitamins are substances in food from which certain vitamins are created in the organism, for example the carotene is the provitamin of vitamin A.

corrosion    →   korozija

Corrosion is a harmful and undesirable construction material consumption by the chemical activity of its surroundings. Corrosion concept refers to metal and nonmetal construction materials, but it is usually used for metals, Corrosion of metal, according to the mechanism process, is divided into chemical (corrosion in nonelectrolytes) and electrochemical (corrosion in electrolytes).

Chemical corrosion appears by direct action of molecule of some element or compound on metal, thus directly creating corrosion products.

Electrochemical corrosion of metals occurs in electrolytes, so reduction of metal atom into free cation appears which by secondary processes gives molecules of compound which are considered a corrosion product.

Dalton’s atomic theory    →   Daltonova atomska teorija

Dalton’s atomic theory is a theory of chemical combination, first stated by John Dalton in 1803. It involves the following postulates:

1. Elements consist of indivisible small particles (atoms).

2. All atoms of the same element are identical; different elements have different types of atom.

3. Atoms can neither be created nor destroyed.

4. ’Compound elements’ (i.e. compounds) are formed when atoms of different elements join in simple ratios to form ’compound atoms’ (i.e. molecules).

Dalton also proposed symbols for atoms of different elements (later replaced by the present notation using letters).

dipole molecule    →   dipolna molekula

Dipole molecules are created when mutual electronic pair at covalent bond is asymmetrical. If different atoms are bonded by a covalent bond, which can have different electron affinity, then the the atom with greater electron affinity will attract the electron pairs more strongly. In this way an asymmetrical distribution of negative charge appears in a molecule, so one part of the molecule becomes relatively negatively (the one closer to the electron pair) and the other becomes relatively positively charged.

foam    →   pjena

Foams are dispersions of gases in liquids or solids. The gas globule may be of any size, from colloidal to macroscopic, as in soap bubbles. Bakers’ bread and sponge rubber are examples of solid foams. Typical liquid foams are those used in fire-fighting, shaving creams, etc. Foams made by mechanical incorporation of air are widely used in the food industry (e.g. whipped cream, egg white, ice cream, etc.). Foams can be stabilized by surfactants.