Chemistry

Chemistry Thursday (on Sunday): Osmosis (updated)

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What the heck is osmosis? “Osmosis is the movement of solvent molecules through a selectively permeable membrane into a region of higher solute concentration, aiming to equalize the solute concentrations on the two sides. It may also be used to describe a physical process in which any solvent moves, without input of energy, across a...

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Chemistry Thursday: What is a molecule?

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What does it mean if something is a molecule? “A molecule is an electrically neutral group of two or more atoms held together by covalent chemical bonds.” (Wikipedia). In other words, a molecule is when you have two or more atoms bound together in some way. One atom does not make a molecule – hydrogen...

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Surfactants – what are they?

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Quite a few people have written to tell me lately that they are avoiding surfactants in their products. The problem is this – Surfactants aren’t just about the foamy lathery things you find in body washes and conditioners. They are found in things we eat, things we use on our hair and bodies, and even...

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Essential oils: Eugenol and the phenylpropenes

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Let’s take a moment to look at the compound called eugenol (or 4-allyl-2-methoxyphenol) that we find in clove, cinnamon, allspice, bay, basic, rose, jasmine, and carnation plants and oils. “Eugenol is a phenylpropene, an allyl chain-substituted guaiacol.” (From Wikipedia.) It’s a polyphenol, meaning it has a phenyl ring (the six sided molecule) and and has a...

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Chemistry Thursday: Isomers

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I mentioned in the post on lavender essential oil that there were two stereoisomers of linalool – what the heck is an isomer? I liked this family tree type picture to give you an idea of the different kinds of isomers, so I’m including it in this post! Isomers are compounds that have the same...

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