Discoveries in the field of chemistry - By Rajalakshmi

Class XII - Chemistry Investigatory Project - Thrishul Study center - Rajapalayam

1. A PROJECT REPORT ON
DISCOVERIES IN THE FIELD OF CHEMISTRY
s______________



SUBMITTED BY
V.SHRI RAJALAKSHMI
CLASS - XII
Academic Year 2021-2022

UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF
Mrs.M.AMUTHA RANI, M.Sc, B.Ed

DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY
MAHARISHI VIDYA MANDIR
RAJAPALAYAM

2. DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY





MAHARISHI VIDYA M ANDIR
RAJAPALAYAM
CERTIFICATE

This is certify that V.SHRI RAJALAKSHMI of Class XII has prepared
the report on the project entitled “Discoveries in the field of
Chemistry ”.The report is the result of her effort and
endeavours. The report is found worthly of acceptance as final
project report for the subject Chemistry of Class XII. She has
prepared the report under my guidance.




Mrs.M.AMUTHA RANI , M.Sc, B.Ed
DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY
MAHARISHI VIDYA MANDIR
RAJAPALAYAM

3. DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY





MAHARISHI VIDYA MANDIR
RAJAPALAYAM

CERTIFICATE
The project report entitled “DISCOVERIES IN THE FIELD
OF CHEMISTRY ”Submitted byV.SHRI RAJALAKSHMI
of Class XII for the CBSE Senior Secondary School Examination
class XII of Chemistry at Maharishi Vidya Mandir,Rajapalayam
has been examined.





SIGNATURE OF SIGNATURE OF SIGNATURE OF
PRINCIPAL INTERNAL EXAMINER EXTERNAL EXAMINER

4. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express a deep sense of thanks and graduate
to my project guide Mrs.M.Amutha Rani for guiding me
immensely through the course of project. She always evinced
keen interest in my work. Her constructive advice and constant
motivation have been responsible for the successful completion of
this project.

My sincere thanks goes to Shri V. Suresh our Principal sir,
for this coordination in extending every possible support for the
completion of this project.

I also thanks to my parents to their motivation and support.
I must thanks to allwho supports for the completion of this
project.

Last but not least, I would like to thanks all those who has
helped directly or indirectly toward the completion of this
project.






V.SHRI RAJALAKSHMI
CLASS XII

6. INTRODUCTION

Throughout history, many great discoveries
have been made either by accident or
someone searching for the way that something
works. Some of these discoveries are more
important than others, but they are all
important nonetheless. Some are in the field
of chemistry while others have a basis in
chemistry and they also combine ideas from
physics and other sciences. Here , I have listed
the seven discoveries in the Field of Chemistry for Investigatory
Project.

7. GREAT DISCOVERY OF OXYGEN GAS
Oxygen was discovered by Swedish
Pharmacist “Carl Wilhelm Scheele” in
Uppsala in 1773 and “Joseph Priestley ” in
Wiltshire , England in 1774. Oxygen is
the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic
number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in
the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and
an oxidizing agent that readily
forms oxides with most
elements as well as with
other compounds. Oxygen is
Earth's most abundant
element, and
after hydrogen and helium, it is
the third-most abundant element in the universe. At standard temperature and
pressure, two atoms of the element bind to form dioxygen, a colorless and
odorless diatomic gas with the formula O2.
Diatomic oxygen gas currently constitutes 20.95% of the Earth's atmosphere, though
this has changed considerably over long
periods of time. Oxygen makes up almost
half of the Earth's crust in the form of oxides
the relationship between combustion and
air was conducted by the 2nd
century BCE Greek writer on
mechanics, Philo of Byzantium. In his
work Pneumatica, Philo observed that
inverting a vessel over a burning candle and
surrounding the vessel's neck with water
resulted in some water rising into the neck.
Many centuries later Leonardo da Vinci built on Philo's work by observing that a
portion of air is consumed during combustion and respiration.In one experiment, he
found that placing either a mouse or a lit candle in a closed container over water
caused the water to rise and replace one-fourteenth of the air's volume before
extinguishing the subjects.
[9] From this, he surmised that nitroaereus is consumed in
both respiration and combustion.Mayow observed that antimony increased in
weight when heated, and inferred that the nitroaereus must have combined with
it. He also thought that the
lungs separate nitroaereus
from air and pass it into the
blood and that animal heat and
muscle movement result from
the reaction of nitroaereus with
certain substances in the body.

8. DISCOVERY OF VACCINE

The word "vaccine" is derived from the Latin word "vaccines" which means
"from the cows".A vaccine is a substance that is used for the production of
antidotes in the body and provides immunity against one or a few diseases. In
biological terms, a vaccine is defined as a biological and formulated
preparation to provide acquired immunity for a particular disease.Generally, a
vaccine is an agent which contains a weakened or killed form of the disease-
causing agent, its surface, or its toxins. When this solution is introduced to the
human body, the immune system is able to identify the threat and destroy
it.The process of implementing the vaccine is called vaccination.

The practice of immunization of the body dates back hundreds of years,
but the first official vaccination was
developed by Edward Jenner who is
considered the founder of vaccinology. In
1796, he injected a 13 year-old-boy with
cowpox(vaccinia virus) and established
immunity to smallpox. In 1798, the very first
smallpox was developed. During the 18th and
19th centuries, systematic implementation of
mass smallpox immunization culminated in its global establishment in
1979.

Uses of vaccine :
Vaccines are very important because they protect us from infectious
diseases. In some areas or populations, infectious diseases are endemic.
For example, cholera, polio, smallpox, hepatitis B and COVID – 19 .

EXAMPLE : COVAXIN , COVIESHIELD , MMR etc,...

Covaxin (codenamed as BBV152) is an inactivated
virus-based COVID-19
vaccine developed
by Bharat Biotech in
collaboration with
the Indian Council of
Medical Research -
National Institute of
Virology. On 3
November 2021,
the World Health Organization (WHO) validated the vaccine for emergency use.

9. THE HISTORY OF THE PERIODIC TABLE
The modern periodic table organizes the known elements in several ways: it lists
them in order of patterns of atomic weight, electron configuration, reactivity, and
electronegativity. It is such a good method of organizing and presenting the known
elements that it has been used to successfully predict the existence of certain
elements. The table has recognizable origins in the 17th century and draws on
knowledge and experience of medieval and earlier eras.

Scientists began to notice similarities and patterns among known elements, and a
great research interest of the 19th century was to develop a
systematic method to report and classify them. Russian
chemistry professorDmitri Mendeleev
and German chemist Julius Lothar
Meyer independently presented their own
versions of the periodic table in 1869 and
1870. Mendeleev’s approach was ultimately
adopted for several reasons: For one, he
left gaps for elements that had yet to be
discovered. In doing so, he predicted
the elements gallium and germanium. He also placed atoms
based principally on their chemical properties, not atomic
mass. As it turns out, organizing by chemical family correctly
sorts most of the elements by their atomic number; atomic mass
is not perfectly correlated with atomic number.Early philosophers and scientists
appreciated that matter was composed of atoms and that many elements reacted in
predictable proportions to each other. The periodic table was constructed in order to
organize those observations and measurements. The principle of valence emerged,
attributable to the presence or absence of electrons and the energy of those electrons
in the volume around an atom’s nucleus. Electrons, negatively charged subatomic
particles, define an atom’s chemical reactivity. Electron are organized in energy
levels or electron shells, which correspond to the periods on the periodic table.

10. DISCOVERY OF DRUGS &MEDICINES
FOR DEADLY DISEASES
It should be noted that treatments and medicines are only effective if they are
administered to the patient, which is dominantly the reason why these diseases are
still prevalent in developing and impoverished nations.

New Drugs to Eliminate Malaria
Researchers from the Burnet
Institute, Monash University, and Deakin
University in Australia were able to cut
down the supply of proteins to the Malaria
parasite essential for its survival. Since
the Malaria parasite lives inside the RBC,
the immune system is not able to detect it.
Tania de Koning-Ward, co-author of
the paper and an
eminent member of
Deakin’s Medical School,
published her findings
in Nature. She said that the
research had shown that the
proteins could get access to
the RBC through a single
entrance, which eventually
provided a path to get into the RBC so that it could
survive and multiply. The scientists managed to change the function of this entry
point so that the proteins could not get into the RBC, and then starve and kill the
parasite.

Breakthrough in the Treatment of Cancer
Gleevec, which is also known as Imatinib, is greatly considered a miracle drug
to many. It was initially given an approval in 2001 by the US Food and Drug
Administration to cure Chronic Myelogenous
Leukemia (CML). The drug has had a
phenomenal success rate, with Complete
Hematologic Responses (CHR) being
observed in 53 out of 54 patients, according
to oncologist, Biran Duker. Each patient was
given a regular dosage of 300 mg and the
response was evident within the first four
weeks following therapy.Recently, the results
of a follow-up study which lasted for five
years were outstanding.

Therapy in the Treatment of Heart Failure

11. Swiss pharmaceutical firm, Novarits,
recently stated that the US Food and Drug
Administration had given the breakthrough
therapy status to Serelaxin, which is used in
the treatment of acute heart failure.
According to Novartis, the FDA’s decision
was based by safety and efficacy outcomes
from a late stage trial of its drug, Serelaxin.
The study also proved that the drug cut
down the deaths of patients by 37% at six
months following acute heart failure in
comparison to patients receiving standard therapy.Last year. Novartis had said that
Serelaxin was a promising drug to be released soon.

New Drug could Treat Most Aggressive Form of Lung Cancer
Scientists have found a new drug that could
possibly treat small cell lung cancer, the most
destructive form of the diseaseThe
Professor Caroline Dive, the
leader of the research, said that
small cell lung cancer has a dim
prognosis and there has not been
any significant breakthrough in its
treatment. The drug named
AZD3965 – has not yet been experimented with in small cell lung
cancer.

New Ebola Drug Cures Monkeys in Clinical Trial
The cure for the fatal Ebola virus may finally have
just been discovered. Recently, there has been reports
by scientists of Ebola-infected monkeys being
completely cured. Around 18 monkeys infected with
Ebola were found to be totally cured after being
administered.
Professor Peter Piot, Director of
the London School of Hygiene &
Tropical Medicine, stated that these
trials now have a strong backing and
should be used in humans. On the
other hand, it should be noted that
two patients treated with the drug
had died, but it may have been
because the drug was administered
too late for it to be effective.

12. INVENTION OF FERTILIZER`S

Historically fertilization came from natural or organic sources: compost, animal
manure, human manure, harvested minerals, crop rotations and byproducts of
human-nature industries (i.e. fish processing waste, or bloodmeal from animal
slaughter). However, starting in the 19th century, after innovations in plant
nutrition, an agricultural industry developed around synthetically created fertilizers.
This transition was important in transforming the global food system, allowing for
larger-scale industrial agriculture with large crop yields. In particular nitrogen-
fixing chemical processes such as the Haber process at the beginning of the 20th
century, amplified by production capacity created during World War II led to a
boom in using nitrogen fertilizers. In the later half of the 20th century, increased use
of nitrogen fertilizers (800% increase between 1961 and 2019) have been a crucial
component of the increased productivity of conventional food systems (more than
30% per capita) as part of the so-called "Green Revolution".Synthetic fertilizer used
in agriculture has wide-reaching environmental consequences. The use of fertilizer
has also led to a number of direct environmental consequences: agricultural
runoff which leads to downstream effects like ocean dead zones and waterway
contamination, soil microbiome degradation, and accumulation of toxins in
ecosystems. Indirect environmental impacts include: the environmental impacts of
fracking for natural gas used in the Haber process, the agricultural boom is partially
responsible for the rapid growth in human population and large-scale industrial
agricultural practices are associated with habitat destruction, pressure on
biodiversity and agricultural soil loss.Fertilizers enhance the growth of plants. This
goal is met in two ways, the traditional one being additives that provide nutrients.
The second mode by which some fertilizers act is to enhance the effectiveness of the
soil by modifying its water retention and aeration. Fertilizers typically provide, in
varying proportions:
Three main macronutrients:
• Nitrogen (N): leaf growth 0 makes up most of the atmosphere, it is in a
form that is unavailable to plants. Nitrogen is the most important
fertilizer since nitrogen is present in proteins, DNA and other
components (e.g., chlorophyll).
• Phosphorus (P): Development of roots, flowers, seeds, fruit
• Potassium (K): Strong stem growth, movement of water in plants,
promotion of flowering and fruiting;
Three secondary macronutrients: calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), and sulfur (S);
micronutrients: copper (Cu), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), molybdenum (Mo), zinc (Z
n), boron (B). Of occasional significance are silicon (Si), cobalt (Co), vanadium (V).

13. DISCOVERY OF PROTONS

The discovery of protons dates back to the year 1815 when the English chemist
William Prout suggested that all atoms are made up of hydrogen atoms (which he
referred to as protyles). When canal rays (positively charged ions formed by gases)
were discovered by the German physicist Eugen Goldstein in the year 1886, it
was observed that the charge-to-mass ratio of the hydrogen ion was the highest
among all gases. It was also observed that the hydrogen ion had the smallest size
among all ionized gases.

The nucleus of the atom was discovered by Ernest
Rutherford in the year 1911 in his famous gold
foil experiment. He concluded that all the
positively charged particles in an atom were
concentrated in a singular core and that most of
the atom’s volume was empty. He also stated that
the total number of positively charged particles in
the nucleus is equal to the total number of
negatively charged electrons present around it.

He observed that his scintillation detectors
detected hydrogen nuclei when a beam of alpha
particles was shot into the air.After investigating
further, Rutherford found that these hydrogen nuclei were produced from the
nitrogen atoms present in the atmosphere.He then proceeded to fire beams of alpha
particles into pure nitrogen gas and observed that a greater number of hydrogen
nuclei were produced.He concluded that the hydrogen nuclei originated from the
nitrogen atom, proving that the hydrogen nucleus was a part of all other atoms.This
experiment was the first to report a nuclear reaction, given by the equation:
14N + α
→
17O + p [Where α is an alpha particle which contains two protons and two
neutrons, and ‘p’ is a proton]
The hydrogen nucleus was later named ‘proton’ and recognized as one of the
building blocks of the atomic nucleus.

14. CREATION OF PLASTIC
The word plastic derives from the Greek πλαστικός (plastikos) meaning "capable of
being shaped or molded," As a noun the word most commonly refers to the solid
products of petrochemical-derived manufacturing.

Plastics are a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic materials that
use polymers as a main ingredient. Their plasticity makes it possible for plastics to
be moulded, extruded or pressed into solid objects of various shapes. This
adaptability, plus a wide range of other properties, such as being lightweight,
durable, flexible, and inexpensive to produce, has led to its widespread use. Plastics
typically are made through human industrial systems.
Most modern plastics are derived from fossil fuel-
based chemicals like natural gas or petroleum;
however, recent industrial methods use variants made
from renewable materials, such
as corn or cotton derivatives.In developed economies,
about a third of plastic is used in packaging and
roughly the same in buildings in applications such
as piping, plumbing or vinyl siding.Other uses include automobiles (up to 20%
plastic), furniture, and toys.

The world's first fully synthetic plastic
was Bakelite, invented in New York in 1907, by Leo
Baekeland, who coined the term "plastics". Dozens
of different types of plastics are produced today,
such as polyethylene, which is widely used
in product packaging, and polyvinyl
chloride (PVC), used in construction and pipes
because of its strength and durability. Many
chemists have contributed to the materials
science of plastics, including Nobel
laureate Hermann Staudinger, who has been called "the father of polymer
chemistry" and Herman Mark, known as "the father of polymer physics".The success
and dominance of plastics starting in the early 20th century has caused widespread
environmental problems, due to their slow decomposition rate in natural
ecosystems. Toward the end of the 20th
century, the plastics
industry promoted recycling in order to
ease environmental concerns while
continuing to produce virgin plastic.
Plastic pollution can be found in all the
world's major water bodies, for
example, creating garbage patches in all
of the world's oceans and
contaminating terrestrial ecosystems.