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Chemical compound
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Chemical compound
A chemical compound is a chemical substance composed of many identical molecules (or molecular entities) containing atoms from more than one chemical element held together by chemical bonds. A molecule consisting of atoms of only one element is therefore not a compound. A compound can be transformed into a different substance by a chemical reaction, which may involve interactions with other substances. In this process, bonds between atoms may be broken or new bonds formed or both.
There are four major types of compounds, distinguished by how the constituent atoms are bonded together. Molecular compounds are held together by covalent bonds, ionic compounds are held together by ionic bonds, intermetallic compounds are held together by metallic bonds, and coordination complexes are held together by coordinate covalent bonds. Non-stoichiometric compounds form a disputed marginal case.
A chemical formula specifies the number of atoms of each element in a compound molecule, using the standard chemical symbols with numerical subscripts. Many chemical compounds have a unique CAS number identifier assigned by the Chemical Abstracts Service. Globally, more than 350,000 chemical compounds (including mixtures of chemicals) have been registered for production and use.
The term "compound"—with a meaning similar to the modern—has been used at least since 1661 when Robert Boyle's The Sceptical Chymist was published. In this book, Boyle variously used the terms "compound", "compounded body", "perfectly mixt body", and "concrete". "Perfectly mixt bodies" included for example gold, lead, mercury, and wine. While the distinction between compound and mixture is not so clear, the distinction between element and compound is a central theme.
Quicksilver ... with Aqua fortis will be brought into a ... white Powder ... with Sulphur it will compose a blood-red and volatile Cinaber. And yet out of all these exotick Compounds, we may recover the very same running Mercury.
Boyle used the concept of "corpuscles"—or "atomes", as he also called them—to explain how a limited number of elements could combine into a vast number of compounds:
If we assigne to the Corpuscles, whereof each Element consists, a peculiar size and shape ... such ... Corpuscles may be mingled in such various Proportions, and ... connected so many ... wayes, that an almost incredible number of ... Concretes may be compos’d of them.
In his Logick, published in 1724, the English minister and logician Isaac Watts gave an early definition of chemical element, and contrasted element with chemical compound in clear, modern terms.
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Chemical compound
A chemical compound is a chemical substance composed of many identical molecules (or molecular entities) containing atoms from more than one chemical element held together by chemical bonds. A molecule consisting of atoms of only one element is therefore not a compound. A compound can be transformed into a different substance by a chemical reaction, which may involve interactions with other substances. In this process, bonds between atoms may be broken or new bonds formed or both.
There are four major types of compounds, distinguished by how the constituent atoms are bonded together. Molecular compounds are held together by covalent bonds, ionic compounds are held together by ionic bonds, intermetallic compounds are held together by metallic bonds, and coordination complexes are held together by coordinate covalent bonds. Non-stoichiometric compounds form a disputed marginal case.
A chemical formula specifies the number of atoms of each element in a compound molecule, using the standard chemical symbols with numerical subscripts. Many chemical compounds have a unique CAS number identifier assigned by the Chemical Abstracts Service. Globally, more than 350,000 chemical compounds (including mixtures of chemicals) have been registered for production and use.
The term "compound"—with a meaning similar to the modern—has been used at least since 1661 when Robert Boyle's The Sceptical Chymist was published. In this book, Boyle variously used the terms "compound", "compounded body", "perfectly mixt body", and "concrete". "Perfectly mixt bodies" included for example gold, lead, mercury, and wine. While the distinction between compound and mixture is not so clear, the distinction between element and compound is a central theme.
Quicksilver ... with Aqua fortis will be brought into a ... white Powder ... with Sulphur it will compose a blood-red and volatile Cinaber. And yet out of all these exotick Compounds, we may recover the very same running Mercury.
Boyle used the concept of "corpuscles"—or "atomes", as he also called them—to explain how a limited number of elements could combine into a vast number of compounds:
If we assigne to the Corpuscles, whereof each Element consists, a peculiar size and shape ... such ... Corpuscles may be mingled in such various Proportions, and ... connected so many ... wayes, that an almost incredible number of ... Concretes may be compos’d of them.
In his Logick, published in 1724, the English minister and logician Isaac Watts gave an early definition of chemical element, and contrasted element with chemical compound in clear, modern terms.
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