Let me introduce the authors
First we have Wathelokko which is Nicholas Lim Zhi Wern he wrote the post concerning fast food.
Second we have Say Thin chu which is Chu Say Thin who wrote about Soap
Our third author is Mei Qi which is Hee Mei Qi who wrote about achne
Our last and final author is Shun Lin which is Wong Shun Lin who wrote about polymers.
That will be all I hope our blog has given you readers sufficient information concerning our topics. Any questions that you have you may ask by leaving a comment at the concerned post and we will get back to you as soon as we can. Thank you
The Wonders Of Organic Chemistry
This blog is to discuss organic chemicals that can be found in our daily life and the effects they have on us.
Sunday, 25 November 2012
Sunday, 18 November 2012
Chemistry in acne products
Acne problem is quite common nowadays
especially for teenagers. So what is your first reaction when the picture shown
above comes across your mind? Oh my god? Yuck? How come this happen? Did the
person not get enough sleep or rest in the past few days or have taken too much
oily food? If you
are that person or maybe he or she is your friend, what suggestions you will
give and how you going to solve this problem?
I am pretty sure that buy over-the-counter products will be the primary solution for
most of the readers. But, there are so
many acne products available in this market, such as Clean and Clear, Oxy,
Neutrogena, Biore and etc. which ones you gonna to choose? Erm, I guess most of
you will end up buying the products that your friends recommended. Have you ever asked yourself, it is
the acne product you choose is suit your skin condition? Different people has different skin
condition, the acne product your friends recommended doesn’t mean is suit you
(possibly more and more acnes appear or allergic to certain chemicals). Therefore,
today I’m going to write a blog post about the ingredients that you may found
in most of the acne products and what of its function.
First and foremost, salicylic acid is commonly found in acne
products. It is a compound that obtained naturally from the bark of the white willow
and wintergreen leaves and it can be prepared synthetically. Its molecular
formula is C7H6O3, which also known as 2-hydroxybenzenecarboxylic
acid. The diagram below shows the chemical structure of salicylic acid:
You may be shock that
as you possibly will find this in most of the fever pills, relieve pain
products because salicylic acid is the main metabolite of aspirin. Not only acne products but some of the
cleanser contains this ingredient as well.
Its function included:
- Promotes the healthy shedding of skin cells
- Skin cell slough off more steadily
- Prevents the dead skin cells from combining with the sebum on your skin
- Prevents the pores from clogging up
- Softens and loosens dry, scaly or thickened skin so that the skin cells can be removed easily
- Reduces redness and unplugging blocked skin pores to allow pimples to shrink
Resorcinol is another ingredient than you may
found in acne products. The molecular formula of resorcinol is C6H4 (OH) 2 and it also known as benzene-1,3-diol.
Its function includes:
- Remove hardened, roughly and scaly skin cells
- Break down the comedones (small, flesh-colored, white, or dark bumps that form a rough texture on skin).
The diagram below shows
the chemical structure of resorcinol:
Those black spots are comedones |
The comedones formed by acne and mostly found at the
opening of a pore associated with acne. By breaking down the comedones may
remove the obstructions that blockage your pores as well. Make sure that you are not allergic to resorcinol. It
is only allowed to use on skin, avoid from your eyes and mouth. Be careful, there are few possible side effects of
resorcinol. Such as nausea, headache, slow heart rate, skin irritation or skin
redness. If you have any of these symptoms, must immediately stop using the
acne product and seek help from medicals professionals. Moreover, remember don’t use too much of
resorcinol as it may absorb into our bloodstream and to prevents any side effects
occur.
Other
than salicylic acid and resorcinol, benzoyl peroxide is another acne product’s
ingredient. The molecular formula is C14H10O4. Benzoyl
peroxide has been used to remove acnes for few decades. The chemical structure of benzoyl peroxide as
shown below:
One of its significant
functions: target a specific bacterium, known as propionibacterium acnes and markedly reduce it. What is
propionibacterium acne? Propionibacterium acne is a bacterium that
present on all human skin and mostly detected after puberty. This bacterium
caused the growing of acne. You may curious on how benzoyl peroxide kills this specific bacterium.
Benzoyl peroxide is an oxidizer, with the present of oxygen, propionibacterium acnes
cannot survive.
Propionibacterium |
Other functions of benzoyl peroxide:
- Frees the skin from excess oil, mainly around nose, forehead and cheeks and smaller the skin pores
- Keep the skin pores away from debris and bacteria
- Prolong using benzoyl peroxide minimize the chance of the further outbreak of acne as well
A
lot of ingredients have its own side effects. Remember read or check the
ingredients and the directions to prevent allergic reaction or side effects. If
you feel uncomfortable, instantaneously stop using the acne product and ask for
help from doctors or pharmacist.
CHOOSE THE RIGHT PRODUCT, SAY GOODBYE TO ACNES.
Thanks for reading ; )
Thursday, 15 November 2012
Polymers
In our everyday life, we often give credit to
engineers for creating new gadgets to improve our standard of living. However,
do u ever give a though of where did all the plastics and other materials that
make productions these gadgets possible? It is the credits of chemist mostly
those polymer scientist that have done extensive research that our life is so
much easier today.
What are polymers? Polymers are large molecules
that are produces from small molecules by polymerization via chemical reaction.
These large molecules exist as chains of smaller molecules and these chains are
held together by intermolecular forces such as van der waals forces or hydrogen
bonds. The special thing about polymers is that they are partially crystalline
and partially amorphous. They do not simply form large crystals but rather
crystalline regions called crystallites within an amorphous base. These regions
where segments of the chains lie close together and those that are regularly
packed together would be crystalline and those where segments of the chains are
not regularly packed would be amorphous.
There a lot of types of polymers. However,
polymers can be classified into three category that is elastomers,
thermoplastics (thermoplastic polymers) and thermosets (thermosetting polymers).
Elastomers are polymers that can be stretched easily to several times their
original length and return to their original state when the applied stress is
released. Elastomers has this kind of property are due to their lightly
cross-linked with covalent bonds. The scarce number of cross link causes the
polymer to return to its original state when applied stress is released. These
polymers are usually come from natural rubber or syntheric rubber.
The second type of polymer is thermoplastics
which can be repeatedly softened by heating and solidified by cooling without
decomposition. Hence, their shape can be manipulated by repeatedly heating and
cooling. In thermoplastics, there are no covalent cross links between the
polymers chains but is replaced by weak van der waals forces or hydrogen bonds
instead. When heat is applied to it, these bonds can be easily broken and the
polymer chains can slide over one another making it easy for shape
manipulation. The ability to be remolded makes thermoplastics extremely useful
in industry and the production of thermoplastics greatly exceeds than that of
thermosets. Some of the thermosets are polyethene , poly propene or
polyphenylethene which are usually the plastic that are found in our every life
usage.
Thermosets on the other hand are polymers which
its shape cannot be changed once it is solidified. Hence, they can be only be
moulded once. This is because they are extensive covalent cross links between
the polymer chains making the polymer structure rigid and strong. Some examples
of thermosets are Bakelite, polyurethanes and epoxy resins.
Wednesday, 14 November 2012
How soap is actually made and how it acts as a cleansing agent?
“Lux, Dove,
Palmolive, Nivea…” all these are very common brands and products of soap that
can be found everywhere in the market. Soap is an essential cleansing agent
that we used for bathing, cleaning and washing in our daily life. It helps us
to get rid of stain and wash away oil, grease and dirt. Nowadays, there are
many different types of soap produced by the soap industries for various usages
such as personal use soap, kitchen soap, laundry soap and medicated soap. We
know soap is necessary in our life and we use it every day. However, have you
ever wondered how soap is made and how it acts as a cleansing agent?
Lye is a strong alkali used in saponification. Lyes can either be prepared as sodium hydroxide (caustic soda) or potassium hydroxide (caustic potash). Traditionally, lye was prepared by pouring water to wood ashes. This is because the ashes contain potassium carbonate, the solution that results is basic. Lye is very corrosive chemical that can causes serious injury and damage. Thus, it must be handled in a safe and proper way. When triglyceride is hydrolyzed with the presence of strong alkali, the ester linkage is broken down. As a result of this reaction, a glycerol molecule and fatty acid salt are produced. The fatty acid salt that formed is called soap. This is also the industrial method to prepare glycerol.
saponification of triglyceride by using sodium hydroxide as lye
Soap can be
categorized into two kinds: soft soap and hard soap. Soft soap is more readily
dissolve in water compared to hard soap. Soft soap is made by using caustic
potash whereas hard soap is made by using caustic soda. In addition, soft soap
can be prepared by either using cold process or hot process, but hard soap can
only be prepared by using hot process. The cold process soap-making requires
several days until the soap is completely saponified. Unlike cold processed
soap, the hot process soap-making takes only a few hours. Hot process soap-making
is more preferable than cold process soap-making because in hot process, exact
measurement of the amount of lye and fats/oils is not required.
This video shows the demonstration of making soap (Adapted from website http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFpZYfwbR-E)
A soap molecule
is made up of both polar and non-polar structures. One end is the long
hydrocarbon chain which is non-polar and hydrophobic while another end is
hydrophilic head consists of sodium or potassium ion. The non-polar end tends
to attract non-polar molecules such as grease and oil and the polar end
attracts water.
When soap is dissolved in water, the sodium or potassium ions will move freely in the solution.The long chain carboxylate ions do not exist as individual ions in aqueous solution. Instead, they will arrange themselves in a spherical clusters called micelles. A soap micelle is formed
with hydrophilic heads point outwards, forming outer surface of the spherical
structure and the non-polar tails are buried in the center of micelle in order to minimize their contact with water.
Water alone is not a very effective cleaner because dirt is carried by non-polar molecules. Soap acts as an emulsifier by trapping the fats/oils within the micelles. Since the surface of micelles is charged, therefore individual micelles repel each other instead of clustering together. The soap micelles are easily washed away in soft water. However, the concentrations of calcium and magnesium are high in hard water, micelles will aggregates to form precipitate that we called soap scum.
The cleansing action of soap ( Adapted from website
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjZDTiV2s_w&feature=fvwrel)
Soap making is actually creative and fun. It is not really difficult to
make your own soap. You can get more information and learn more about soap
making here <http://www.soap-making-resource.com/>.
Monday, 1 October 2012
You Are
What You Eat!
Eating is
a part of our everyday lives. We eat as it is essential for our survival. But
are we aware on what we are eating? Do we actually understand what are the
benefits and harms of the food we are consuming to our body? The answer for
these questions for most of you readers is NO!
Fast food
chain outlets such as McDonalds, Burger King, KFC are everywhere in the world.
And due to their rich flavours human crave for it. Little do they know that
what they are consuming is worse than eating their own shit. In fact it is a
lot healthier eating shit than that garbage most of our society call food. Dear
readers I am about to enlighten you on the chemicals these scoundrels in
McDonalds have been using to produce the food you crave for so much. I would
like to ask you to leave this blog as after reading the next paragraph your
view on McDonalds will never be the same again. Let’s first start with the
McNuggets. Every child’s favourite. McNuggets are made of 50% white chicken.
And guess what the other 50% is made of. You guess it chemicals. Dr Mercola a
researcher on this McNuggets quoted "Chicken McNuggets, rather than being merely
chicken fried in a pan, are a McFrankenstein creation of various elements not
utilized by the home cook." Now
what are these chemicals found in McFrankenstein Chicken McNuggets?
Coming in first place is an organic chemical known
as dimethylpolysiloxane.
This is the chemical commercially used in cosmetics, hair conditioners, and
dare I say it filler fluid in breast implants. Yeah that’s right you’re eating
food plastic surgeons use to enlarge breast. Congratulations! Now let’s go into
detail about this chemical. Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) belongs to a group of polymeric organosilicon compounds that are commonly
referred to as silicones. PDMS is the most widely used silicon-based organic polymer, and is particularly known for
its unusual rheological (or flow) properties. PDMS is
optically clear, and, in general, is considered to be inert, non-toxic and
non-flammable. I know what you must be thinking, Its NON-TOXIC. Yes my dear
reader it does say non-toxic but think about Dimethylpolysiloxane, although typically listed
as an “antioxidant,” is not a natural antioxidant but instead a synthetic
chemical preservative found in many processed foods, varnishes, lacquers, and
pesticides, among others. Would you eat that? I know I won’t and I haven’t even
gotten to the best part.
Structure Of the Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)
Besides
that, tertiary
butylhydroquinone is also present. What’s so dangerous about this chemical one
may ask. Well “A Consumer’s Dictionary of Food Additives, quoted”One gram
can cause nausea, vomiting, ringing in the ears, delirium, a sense of
suffocation, and collapse.” Yeah that’s right too many of those Chicken
McNuggets made by McFrenkenstein and the Grim Reaper will be knocking on your
door. Tertiary butylhydroquinone is more often used as a food preservative. And
although both the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have evaluated TBHQ and
determined that it is safe to consume at the concentration allowed in foods, we
cannot ignore the fact that Tertiary butylhuydroquinone can promote the
activation of cancerous cells when we are exposed to it for a long period of
time. After knowing this will you dear reader continue to eat food from
McDonalds? Will you value your life as it is? By the way this is only on the
McNuggets, I haven’t even begun to mention McFrenkenstein’s French fries and
burgers which I WILL in my next blog entry.
To find
out more on what McDonalds and other Fast Food Chain Outlests have been doing
to our body there was a documentary called Super Size Me that really opened my
eyes. Here is the link for the full video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-eRXuuH9AI
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