“Why are we learning about acids and bases?” my student once asked me. “Well,” I said with confidence, “the chemistry of acids and bases underlie many important industrial and commercial applications…” “No, how will I use it in my life,”…
Chapter 1: How do we count and represent numbers? In modern times, we use Arabic numerals to represent numbers. There are ten symbols that are used to represent numbers: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9.…
Provence is a historical province in southeastern France. It has a Mediterranean climate, characterised by hot and dry summers and mild winters. This climate is a result of the strong Mistral winds that help to blow away clouds and storms…
Many of us have probably been advised since young to not place metals, in any shape or form, into a microwave oven, unless we wish to warm up the house, in addition to heating up our food. But if we…
Nanozymes are man-made nanomaterials that can catalyse biological reactions and display similarities to biological enzymes. There are generally three types of nanozymes: metal-based nanozymes (e.g. Au, Pt, Co), metal oxides or metal sulfide nanozymes, and carbon-based nanozymes (e.g. fullerenes, graphene,…
The use of natural enzymes to catalyse chemical reactions in industry is one method to achieve a greener reaction process, since enzymes are targeted and can shorten pathways for chemical synthesis, allowing for reduced use of toxic reagents and the…
Nanoporous metals are metals which contain pores or cavities in the nanometer scale. Their range of interesting properties and potential wide range of applications has led to much research interest in them. Nanoporous metals are usually synthesised from a starting…
Metals usually exist in a crystalline structure, with the metal ions arranged in an orderly lattice structure. We learn in school how this structure gives rise to the characteristic properties of metals, such as malleability. However, in real metal samples,…
Resonance is a method in valence bond theory (VBT), most commonly used to explain delocalised bonding. In VBT, bonds are assumed to be formed from the overlap of the atomic orbitals of two atoms, and is localised in the region…
