CHEMISTRY GLOSSARY

sol    →   sol

Sols are dispersions of small solid particles in a liquid. The particles may be macromolecules or may be clusters of small molecules. Lyophobic sols are those in which there is no affinity between the dispersed phase and the liquid (e.g. silver chloride dispersed in water). Lyophobic sols are inherently unstable, in time the particles aggregate, and form a precipitate. Lyiophilic sols, on the other hand, are more like true solutions in which the solute molecules are large and have an affinity for the solvent (e.g. starch in water). Association colloids are systems in which the dispersed phase consists of clusters of molecules that have lyophobic and lyophilic parts (e.g. soap in water).

spin    →   spin

Spin is the intrinsic angular momentum of an elementary particle, or system of particles such as nucleus, that is also responsible for the magnetic moment; or, a particle or nucleus possessing such a spin. The spins of nuclei have characteristic fixed values. Pairs of neutrons and protons align to cancel out their spins, so that nuclei with an odd number of neutrons and/or protons will have a net non-zero rotational component characterized by a non-zero quantum nuclear spin number.

Stern-Gerlach experiment: a beam of silver atoms is split into two beams when it traverses a nonuniform magnetic field. Atoms with spin quantum number m_s=+1/2 follow one trajectory, and those with m_s=+1/2 follow another.

solar cell    →   sunčeva ćelija

Solar cell, or photovoltaic cell, is a device that captures sunlight and transforms it directly to electricity. All solar cells make use of photovoltaic effect, so often they are called photovoltaic cells. Almost all solar cells are built from solid-state semiconducting materials, and in the vast majority of these the semiconductor is silicon.

The photovoltaic effect involves the generation of mobile charge carriers-electrons and positively charged holes-by the absorption of a photon of light. This pair of charge carriers is produced when an electron in the highest filled electronic band of a semiconductor (the valence band) absorbs a photon of sufficient energy to promote it into the empty energy band (the conduction band). The excitation process can be induced only by a photon with an energy corresponding to the width of the energy gap that separates the valence and the conduction band. The creation of an electron-hole pair can be converted into the generation of an electrical current in a semiconductor junction device, wherein a layer of semiconducting material lies back to back with a layer of either a different semiconductor or a metal. In most photovoltaic cells, the junction is p-n junction, in which p-doped and n-doped semiconductors are married together. At the interface of the two, the predominance of positively charged carriers (holes) in the p-doped material and of negatively charged carriers (electrons) in the n-doped material sets up an electric field, which falls off to either side of the junction across a space-charge region. When absorption of a photon in this region generates an electron-hole pair, these charge carriers are driven in opposite directions by the electric field, i.e. away from the interface and toward the top and bottom of the two-layer structure, where metal electrodes on these faces collect the current. The electrode on the top layer (through which light is absorbed) is divided into strips so as not to obscure the semiconducting layers below. In most widely used commercial solar cells, the p-doped and n-doped semiconductive layers are formed within a monolithic piece of crystalline silicon. Silicon is able to absorb sunlight at those wavelengths at which it is most intense-from the near-infrared region (wavelengths of around 1200 nm) to the violet (around 350 nm).

standard hydrogen electrode    →   standardna vodikova elektroda

Standard hydrogen electrode is a system in which hydrogen ion and gaseous hydrogen are present in their standard states. The convention is to designate the cell so that the standard hydrogen electrode is written first.

The electrode is used as a reference (of zero) for the values of other standard electrode potentials.

sucrose    →   saharoza

Sucrose (saccharose), or ordinary table sugar, is a disaccharide in which α-D-glucopyranose and β-D-fructofuranose are joined at their anomeric carbons by a glycosidic bond. There are no hemiacetals remaining in the sucrose and therefore sucrose is not a reducing sugar and does not exhibit mutarotation. Sugar is a white crystalline sweet compound found in many plants and extracted from sugar cane and sugar beet. It is used as a sweetening agent in food and drinks. If heated to 200 °C, sucrose becomes caramel. When sucrose is hydrolyzed it forms an equimolar mixture of glucose and fructose. This mixture of monosaccharides is called invert sugar. Honeybees have enzymes called invertases that catalyze the hydrolysis of sucrose. Honey, in fact, is primarily a mixture of glucose, fructose, and sucrose.

tautomerism    →   tautomerija

Tautomerism refers to equilibrium between two different structures of the same compound. Usually the tautomers differ in the point of attachment of a hydrogen atom. One of the most common examples of a tautomeric system is the equilibrium between a ketone (keto) and aldehyde (enol).

tear gas    →   suzavac

Tear gases is the common name for substances which, in low concentrations, cause pain in the eyes, flow of tears and difficulty in keeping the eyes open. Tear gases are used mainly in military exercises and in riot control, etc., but have also been used as a method of warfare. Irritating gases have been used in war since ancient times but it was not until after the Second World War that a more systematic search for effective substances was started. Among a long series of substances, three have become of greater importance than the others. These substances are chloroacetophenone (codename CN), orto-chlorobenzylidene-malononitrile (CS) and dibenz(b,f)-1,4-oxazepine (CR).

TNT    →   TNT

TNT (2,4,6-trinitrotoluene) is a coluorless to pale yellow, odorless crystalline compound. It is an explosive used in military shells, bombs, and grenades, in industrial uses, and in underwater blasting.

ununbium    →   ununbij

Ununbium was discovered by S. Hofmann et al. collaboration at the Heavy Ion Research Laboratory (Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung, GSI) in Darmstadt, Germany in February 1996. The new element has not yet been officially named, but it is known as ununbium, according to the system designated by the IUPAC for naming new elements. It is synthetic radioactive metal. Using the electromagnetic velocity filter SHIP, fusion-like residues of the reaction of ⁷⁰Zn with enriched ²⁰⁸Pb targets were measured. Two chains of localized alpha-emitters were identified as originating with ²⁷⁷112 + ¹n.

ununquadium    →   ununkvadij

The discovery of ununquadium was reported informally in January 1999 following experiments towards the end of December 1998 involving scientists at Dubna (Joint Institute for Nuclear Research) in Russia and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, USA. The new element has not yet been officially named, but it is known as ununquadium, according to the system designated by the IUPAC for naming new elements. It is synthetic radioactive metal. Only few atoms of element 114 (²⁸⁹114) has ever been made (through a nuclear reaction involving fusing a calcium atom with a plutonium atom) isolation of an observable quantity has never been achieved.