Examples of Physicochemical Phenomena

The physicochemical phenomena are those that modify, at the same time, the internal nature (molecular) of the substances, as well as its physical state, that is, its shape or the arrangement of its constituent elements. For example: solutions, catalysis, electrolysis.

Traditionally, a distinction is made between physical phenomenaY chemicals on the basis that the former modify the state of an object or a substance without altering its composition, while the latter alter the very essence of the object or substance.

Thus, melting an ice cube or boiling water will be examples of physical phenomena, since the substance retains its composition (H₂O), while the oxidation of an iron nail or the combustion of wood will be physical phenomena that transform one substance into a different one.
Physicochemical phenomena, on the other hand, carry out both tasks at the same time, so their object of study is the molecular relationships and interactions presented by the matter in its various physical states and processes.

The origin of this discipline dates back to the 19th century, when the American chemist Willard Gibbs published his Study on the balance of heterogeneous substances, where he postulated terms such as free energy, chemical potential and phase rule, which today constitute some of the main points of interest in physicochemistry.

We could conclude that the area of ​​expertise of physicochemistry are those perspectives that physics and chemistry separately they fail to address or explain satisfactorily.

Examples of physicochemical phenomena

1. Solutions. The solutions are Homogeneous mixtures between two or more pure substances that react with each other and are found together in varying proportions. Between them there is an electrochemical type of nexus that reconstructs the atomic bonds of each one, so that they cannot be separated except through certain physicochemical processes.
2. Catalysis. This is the name given to the processes by which the speed of a chemical reaction determined through the participation of another substance, alien to the original reaction, which is called catalyst and that, by not participating in the reaction, maintains its constant mass.
3. Transport. Transport phenomena are those that transmit a quantity of movement, energy and / or matter between substances or actors involved, and that are they study from three different levels: microscopic, macroscopic and molecular, using a joint perspective physics-chemistry-mathematics.
4. Ion exchanges. The process of transmission of atoms or electrically charged molecules (ions) between two substances electrically conductive (electrolytes) or one of them and a chemical complex (coordination bonds). It is also a phenomenon favored in processes of purification, separation or decontamination of ionic solutions.
5. Chemical balance. This equilibrium appears when the substances involved in a reversible chemical reaction do not present a favorable concentration in either of the two senses in which the chemical change (forward or reversed).
6. Liquid crystal. A very particular state of aggregation of matter is called liquid crystal, which responds both to the physical considerations of the solid state as from liquid simultaneously. They are of particular interest for the physicochemical study of the phases.
7. Polymer relaxation. This is the name given to a phenomenon in which certain plastics (and hence their name) modify their shape and structure in the face of a sustained effort applied to them, ordering the chains of polymers in the most energetically favorable position, that is, the one that contains the least entropy.
8. Quantum jumps. A quantum leap is the sudden and sudden change of state of matter, which occurs at atomic levels and is part of the phenomena explored by spectroscopy (quantum chemistry). It is, for example, the sudden state of excitation of an electron in an atom when it is hit with a photon (light).
9. Electrolysis. Mechanism used to separate the chemical elements within a compound from the introduction of electricity, forcing the capture and release of electrons at each pole (cathode and anode respectively), thus generating processes of reduction and oxidation at once.
10. Energy transfers. Physicochemistry is particularly interested in energy transfer phenomena, either caloric or electrical, and that is why it attends to almost all cases of energetic interaction of the molecules of two or more substances interacting.

Follow with: