Awesome photos of swirls and chemical crystals

If you learn about it periodic table, if you sparked exothermic reactions in your kitchen, here are some ways to renew your relationship with Wenting Zhu and Yan Liang.

To create images from a collection of 300 photos The beauty of chemistryToday, Zhu and Liang have used infrared thermal imaging techniques, along with high-speed, time-lapse micro-photos, to immerse readers in the minute world of molecules and the many amazing reactions between them. With atomic clarity, science writer Philip Ball recounts this visual journey through the little-appreciated chemical beauty that surrounds us, from describing the principles that create the unique symmetry of snowflakes to connecting real silvers created by silicate salts to the very origin of life. .

Perhaps the most basic and surprising of these concepts is the hydrogen bond, which brings together the literal things in life: water. Each water molecule is made up of two hydrogen atoms attached to an oxygen atom, but oxygen has six electrons on its outer surface. Only two electrons are needed to form this chemical bond with hydrogen; so four negatively charged electrons, both grouped in “hanging” pairs, roam the microspace in hopes of a way to balance themselves. These pairs weakly pull the hydrogen atoms that bind to adjacent water molecules, forming a second trillion short bond before breaking and reforming with another hydrogen atom. And this constant dance allows for a chemical movement that allows for life, which Ball calls the “molecular dialogue” that lies between order and chaos.

This precipitate of chromium hydroxide is in the process of solidification, rotating and diluting in its vessel. This reaction occurs when two liquid compounds contain positively and negatively charged ions, which come together and form a molecular molecule. In this case, chromium chlorides and sodium hydroxides exchange ions. Positively charged chromium and negatively charged hydroxide molecules are attracted to each other because they are energetically balanced. They form close bonds that freeze the molecules in place, creating a solid byproduct that has no place for all of these water molecules to enter properly. The reaction also produces sodium chloride, known as table salt, which dissolves very well in water.