CHEMICAL REACTIONS

A chemical reaction is a process that leads to the transformation of one set of chemical substances to
another. Classically, chemical reactions include changes that only involve the positions of electrons in the
forming and breaking of chemical bonds between atoms, with no change to the nuclei and can often be
described by a chemical equation. Nuclear chemistry is a sub-discipline of chemistry that involves the
chemical reactions of unstable and radioactive elements where both electronic and nuclear changes may
occur. The substance (or substances) initially involved in a chemical reaction are called reactants. Chemical
reactions are usually characterized by a chemical change, and they produce one or more products, which
usually have different properties from the reactants. Reactions often consist of a sequence of individual
steps, the so-called elementary reactions, and the information on the precise course of action is part of the
reaction mechanism. Chemical reactions are described with chemical equations, which symbolically present
the starting materials, end products, and sometimes intermediate products and reaction conditions.
Chemical reactions happen at a given temperature and chemical concentration. Typically, reaction rates
increase with increasing temperature because there is more thermal energy available to reach the activation
energy necessary for breaking bonds between atoms. Reactions proceed until they go to completion or
reach equilibrium. Some reactions produce heat and are called exothermic reactions and others may require
heat to enable the reaction to occur, which are called endothermic reactions. When chemical reactions occur,
the atoms are rearranged and the reaction is accompanied by an energy change as new products are
generated. An example is the reaction between sodium and water to produce sodium hydroxide and
hydrogen. So much energy is released that the hydrogen gas released spontaneously burns in the air. This is
an example of a chemical reaction because the end products are chemically different from the substances
before the reaction.
Inorganic chemistry describes the reactions of elements and compounds that, in general, do not
involve carbon. The changes typically take place in laboratories, or on a larger scale in heavy industries.
Typical types of change include neutralization (mixing an acid with a base, resulting in water and salt),
oxidization including combustion, redox reactions etc.
Organic chemistry is concerned with the chemistry of carbon and the elements and compound with
which it reacts. These compounds include mineral oil and all of its products and much of the output of
industries manufacturing pharmaceuticals, paints, detergents, cosmetics, fuels etc. Typical examples of
organic chemical changes include refining hydrocarbons at an oil refinery to create more gasoline from
crude oil, as gasoline is in higher demand than other products, such as diesel, which is a by-product. Other
reactions include condensation, polymerisation, halogenation etc.
Redox reactions can be understood as transfer of electrons from one involved species (reducing
agent) to another (oxidizing agent). In this process, the former species is oxidized and the latter is reduced.
Though sufficient for many purposes, these descriptions are not precisely correct. Oxidation is better
defined as an increase in oxidation state, and reduction as a decrease in oxidation state. In practice, the
transfer of electrons will always change the oxidation state, but there are many reactions that are classed as
"redox" even though no electron transfer occurs (such as those involving covalent bonds).