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Types of inorganic compounds
Typical inorganic chemical reactions
Analysis and characterization of inorganic compounds
The number of known chemical elements that occur naturally on Earth is 94 and the number of diverse inorganic chemical compounds derived by combinations of those elements is virtually innumerable. The characterization of those compounds includes the measurement of chemical and physical properties such as boiling points, melting points, density, solubility, refractive index and the pH and electrical conductivity of solutions.
The techniques of qualitative and quantitative analytical chemistry can provide the composition of a chemical compound in terms of its constituent chemical elements and can thus determine the chemical formula of a compound.
Modern laboratory equipment and techniques can provide many more details for characterizing chemical compounds. Some of the more commonly used modern techniques are:
- Chromatography: A process for separating mixtures into their component constituents.
- X-ray diffraction or X-ray crystallography: A technique that determines three-dimensional arrangement of atoms within a molecule.
- Spectrometry or qualitative Spectroscopy: A technique for the identification of substances through the electromagnetic spectrum emitted from or absorbed by them.
- Voltammetry: An electrochemical method for studying a chemical substance by measuring the electrical potential and/or current (amperes) in an electrochemical cell containing the substance.