Introduction to Chemistry

Chemistry studies the nature (atomic and molecular structure, etc.), properties, composition and transformations of matter. Here are some benefits that chemistry can provide:

♦ fabrics of the clothes we use in day-to-day are materials obtained through the development of Chemistry;

• the artificial fibers (nylon, tergal, etc.), synthetic rubbers, plastics, part of a group of materials called polymers; polymers have been numerous applications: plastic bags, towels, bottles, plastic pipes, electrical coatings, toys, records, upholstery, pan coatings;

Biochemistry has allowed not only to know precise mechanisms of the body, such as influence them, enabling the development of molecular biology and pharmacology, fundamental to the progress of medicine. And in the area of ​​Food Engineering, for example, is that chemistry plays a significant role? Yes. It is vital!

For example, the food industry uses the so-called "additives": substances are capable of providing the following foods: - antioxidant (inhibits the oxidation process); - Preservatives (increase durability); - Stabilizers (helps keep emulsions and suspensions); - Sweeteners (transmits sweet taste to products), etc. Most countries have four types of artificial sweeteners found in the consumer market: - saccharin (Pan American) - the CYCLAMATE (Brasfanta) - the ACESULFAME-K (Hoechst) - aspartame (Monsanto). Obtaining these sweeteners requires well-established synthetic routes developed in research in the field of chemistry. To understand the metabolism of sweeteners in humans and investigate the toxicity mechanisms have been proposed that involve a series of chemical reactions (w / details, see ref. *). As can be seen, chemistry has provided numerous benefits to humanity. On the other hand, we can not forget that many chemical processes are responsible for the degradation of the environment in which we live.