The Organic Compound, Urea

     Interestingly enough, urea was first discovered in 1773 in human urine.  Then sometime in the 1800's, scientists discovered a laboratory procedure to create urea: by dehydrating ammonium carbonate.  Today, urea has different functions for different things.  Though urea has many uses, it makes me feel less grossed-out that scientists don't use the urea that come from pee any longer, but rather the one that is synthesized in the lab.  Next, I will tell of some of the uses urea has.

     Of all of the compounds containing nitrogen in fertilizers, urea contains the most nitrogen.  Therefore, urea is used in nitrogen-based fertilizers in agriculture to help fertilize soil.  It can also be found in plastic to help prevent the material from shrinking, absorbing water, and breaking easily.  It is also found in SNCR (Selective Non Catalytic Reduction), a method to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions in power plants that burn up coal, fossil fuel, and biomass.  It can also be used medically for re-hydration of skin, such as lotions (again, this is why am I am especially glad the urea used here doesn't come from urine).

     Last but not least, urea can be used to help make the process of organic tie-dye better (t-shirt tie-dyeing).  Urea helps serve two purposes in tie-dye: first, it helps any undissolved dye to be completely dissolved (especially true for the darker colors).  Secondly, it serves as a "water-attractor", so it keeps the shirt wet just long enough for the reaction of the tie-dye to occur effectively.

     Urea is a reasonably safe organic compound compared to many chemicals.  Pure urea is actually odorless, so if you ever run across smelly urea, it has gone bad.  The beauty of bad urea is this: though it is useless for tie-dye or medical uses, it can still be used as a fertilizer.  Urea is a green and an organic compound.  It doesn't get any better than that.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urea

http://www.pburch.net/dyeing/FAQ/urea.shtml

Greener Batteries

     For this assignment, I have to look for a material that has been made safer by using a greener process.  At first, I really did not know what to look for.  After a while, I eventually decided to write this blog about batteries.  Though making greener batteries is still a growing idea, I am going to talk about the current ideas on making them greener.
      As we all know, hundreds of thousands of regular batteries are ending up in landfills on a regular basis, and this is a huge problem since the metals these batteries contain are very toxic to the environment.  If you didn't know this before, now you do!  To help solve this environmental threat, rechargeable batteries were created.  The problem now is that these rechargeable batteries are just sitting on the shelves.  More people are still using the old batteries (maybe because they are way cheaper, and you don't have to wait hours for them to recharge).  So scientists are putting their brains together and are discovering new ways to make batteries greener and even cheaper than today's rechargeable and old metal batteries.
     Scientists are thinking of creating metal-free batteries from (of all things) algae, they call it conductive polymer batteries.  These will be very lightweight made of paper coated in thin layers of composite electrode polymer materials (or algae).  The algae paper is great because it has got a wide surface area, so it can hold more of the conducting polymer than the products of the old toxic battery can.  These future batteries are going to be cheaper to make, recyclable, sturdy, and definitely greener!  It has still got a long way to go before we start to see them in the market.
     Another way that scientists are thinking of making batteries (specifically lithium ion rechargeable batteries) greener is by having them recharge at an even faster rate.  The crazy part of this is that they have discovered a way to make them recharge in a matter of seconds!  All they did was wrap the metal in glass (lithium phosphate), and discovered that this made the battery charge instantaneously.  Turns out, this coating also helps the battery keep it's charge longer.  Can you imagine your phone fully charged in just nine seconds or so?  That's really awesome.
     Hopefully in the future we'll be able to see these batteries take over the market for the sake of the environment.  I could not find any specific chemical reactions to prove that the new and improved batteries are better.  I did my best to explain how these batteries are greener. These are great new discoveries!

 Sources:

http://www.treehugger.com/corporate-responsibility/researchers-say-9-second-charging-battery-within-2-years.html

http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090311/full/news.2009.156.html
http://www.eco20-20.com/Greener-Batteries.html

Three Chemical Compounds

     I go to the kitchen and pick up the first can I see-- pizza sauce.  I read under "ingredients" and run across Citric acid.  The correct formula for Citric acid is C₆H₈O₇.  Turns out that it is mixed into foods and soft drinks to add a sour taste.  This would explain why I found it on the label of a pizza sauce.  It is also naturally found in many fruits and vegetables, but citrus fruits has concentrated amounts of it (such as limes, lemons, and oranges).  Citirc acid is a weak organic acid, which would explain why our mouths don't corrode after we eat an orange.  Thank goodness!
     Then from a can of black olives, I pick out the second compound: Ferrous gluconate (C₁₂H₂₄FeO₁₄), an iron based compound.  The reason why they put this chemical compound in the can is so then the olives could maintain their  black color.  Ferrous gluconate is also used for treating hypochronic anemia (people who have little iron in their system).  Taking too much of this chemical compound, however, can be toxic.  An overdose can cause someone to be in a coma, but this would only be an extreme case.  Milder symptoms include dehydration, nausea, and loss of skin color.
     Last but not least, a can of veggies contains Calcium chloride (CaCl₂).  This chemical compound has multiple purposes.  It is used to absorb moisture in air-tight containers, to prevent ice from forming (useful on road surfaces and car tires during extremely cold temperatures), to provide more taste for pickles (it has a salty taste), to treat hypocalcaemia (people with low blood calcium), and even to level out calcium levels in pool water.  The reason why the canned veggies contained CaCl₂ is because this chemical compound serves as a "firming agent" (it helps strengthen the structure of the vegetables while in the can).  So now I know why the vegetables maintain their firm shapes when we open a veggie can.  It's a great thing that CaCl₂ can do that for canned veggies, otherwise they would be old and mushy!

What is Green Chemistry?

     When I first heard that the chemistry class I registered for was called "green goggles chemistry" I thought it had a lot to do about using chemicals that were environmentally safe, recycling recyclable materials, and making a planet a greener environment somehow.  I began to realize, before reading my chemistry textbook, that the idea of making the Earth a greener place is still a relatively new and growing idea, at least it seemed that way to me.  After I read chapter one in my textbook, I figured out that I already had a pretty good sense of what green chemistry was all about, but it is much more than just recycling and using environmentally safe chemicals.
     Green Chemistry is the study of the interaction between inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, physical chemistry, analytical chemistry, and biochemistry.  It is also the study of the interaction between the atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere, biosphere, and most importantly the anthrosphere.  These studies can then help scientists determine what is best for the environment.  They can make valuable decisions such as eliminating harmful substances to humans and its surrounding environment, preventing any unnecessary wastes, and recycling reusable materials.  These decisions that scientist can make are part of the twelve basic principles of green chemistry.  These principles (though I only named a few) are essential to making the environment a greener place to live in.
     As I said before, green chemistry is still a growing subject.  Because of this, it is important to have scientists willing to take risks and to try out new experiments that could potentially expand our knowledge of green chemistry.  I look forward to learning even more about green chemistry in the classes to come.