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Category
Chemical substances
Summary
A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Chemical substances can be simple substances (substances consisting of a single chemical element), chemical compounds, or alloys.
Chemical substances that cannot be separated into their simpler constituent elements by physical means are said to be 'pure'; this notion intended to set them apart from mixtures. A common example of a chemical substance is pure water; it has the same properties and the same ratio of hydrogen (H+) to oxygen (O2-) whether it is isolated from a river or made in a laboratory. Other chemical substances commonly encountered in pure form are diamond (carbon, C), gold (Au), table salt (sodium chloride, NaCl) and refined sugar (sucrose, C12H22O11). However, in practice, no substance is entirely pure, and chemical purity is specified according to the intended use of the chemical.
Chemical substances exist in different state, such as solids, liquids, gases, or plasma, and may change between these phases of matter with changes in temperature or pressure and time. Chemical substances may be combined or converted to others by means of chemical reactions.
A chemical substance may well be defined as "any material with a definite chemical composition" in an introductory general chemistry textbook. According to this definition a chemical substance can either be a pure chemical element or a pure chemical compound. But, there are exceptions to this definition; a pure substance can also be defined as a form of matter that has both definite composition and distinct properties. The chemical substance index published by CAS also includes several alloys of uncertain composition. Non-stoichiometric compounds are a special case (in inorganic chemistry) that violates the law of constant composition, and for them, it is sometimes difficult to draw the line between a mixture and a compound, as in the case of palladium hydride.
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