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Concept
Chemical affinity
Summary
In chemical physics and physical chemistry, chemical affinity is the electronic property by which dissimilar chemical species are capable of forming chemical compounds. Chemical affinity can also refer to the tendency of an atom or compound to combine by chemical reaction with atoms or compounds of unlike composition.
The idea of affinity is extremely old. Many attempts have been made at identifying its origins. The majority of such attempts, however, except in a general manner, end in futility since "affinities" lie at the basis of all magic, thereby pre-dating science. Physical chemistry, however, was one of the first branches of science to study and formulate a "theory of affinity". The name affinitas was first used in the sense of chemical relation by German philosopher Albertus Magnus near the year 1250. Later, those as Robert Boyle, John Mayow, Johann Glauber, Isaac Newton, and Georg Stahl put forward ideas on elective affinity in attempts to explain how heat is evolved during combustion reactions.
The term affinity has been used figuratively since c. 1600 in discussions of structural relationships in chemistry, philology, etc., and reference to "natural attraction" is from 1616. "Chemical affinity", historically, has referred to the "force" that causes chemical reactions. as well as, more generally, and earlier, the ′′tendency to combine′′ of any pair of substances. The broad definition, used generally throughout history, is that chemical affinity is that whereby substances enter into or resist decomposition.
The modern term chemical affinity is a somewhat modified variation of its eighteenth-century precursor "elective affinity" or elective attractions, a term that was used by the 18th century chemistry lecturer William Cullen. Whether Cullen coined the phrase is not clear, but his usage seems to predate most others, although it rapidly became widespread across Europe, and was used in particular by the Swedish chemist Torbern Olof Bergman throughout his book De attractionibus electivis (1775).
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