Related topics: catalyst · molecules · enzyme · atoms · fuel cell

Using light to produce medication and plastics more efficiently

Anyone who wants to produce medication, plastics or fertilizer using conventional methods needs heat for chemical reactions—but not so with photochemistry, where light provides the energy. The process to achieve the desired ...

Driving photochemistry with sub-molecular precision

Absorption of light initiates many natural and artificial chemical processes, for example, photosynthesis in plants, human vision, or even 3D printing. Until now, it seemed impossible to control a light-driven chemical reaction ...

Chemical reaction

A chemical reaction is a process that always results in the interconversion of chemical substances. The substance or substances initially involved in a chemical reaction are called reactants. Chemical reactions are usually characterized by a chemical change, and they yield one or more products, which usually have properties different from the reactants. Classically, chemical reactions encompass changes that strictly involve the motion of electrons in the forming and breaking of chemical bonds, although the general concept of a chemical reaction, in particular the notion of a chemical equation, is applicable to transformations of elementary particles, as well as nuclear reactions. Different chemical reactions are used in combination in chemical synthesis in order to get a desired product. In biochemistry, series of chemical reactions catalyzed by enzymes form metabolic pathways, by which syntheses and decompositions ordinarily impossible in conditions within a cell are performed.

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