Chemical Industry and Sustainability

What is Chemical Industry and Sustainability?

Within Chemistry, which covers atoms, bonding, reactions, the periodic table, organic chemistry and the chemistry of everyday life, this topic explains Chemical Industry and Sustainability. Chemistry links what you can see in the lab to the particles and bonds behind it, so each topic here shows that link in a model.

Check that you can explain Chemical Industry and Sustainability in your own words and give one example from everyday life. If you can do that, you have understood the core idea.

Understanding Chemical Industry and Sustainability helps you explain why substances behave as they do, from cleaning products and food to medicines.

Chemical Industry and Sustainability in detail

The chemical industry makes fuels, plastics, fertilisers, medicines, paints and many other products. Factors in choosing a process include raw materials, energy, yield, rate, atom economy, waste, cost, safety and environmental effects, and the location of a plant.

Sustainable development meets present needs without harming the ability of future generations to meet theirs. Green chemistry aims to use renewable raw materials, reduce waste, use catalysts, work at lower temperatures and design products that can be recycled or degrade safely. Companies conduct life cycle assessments and aim for a circular economy.

How the interactive helps you understand Chemical Industry and Sustainability

Watch the cycle in the interactive. Use any sliders or buttons it offers to change the values and see how the cycle responds.

Before you change anything, predict the result. Then change one value at a time and check whether your prediction was right. This is a quick way to build a correct mental model of Chemical Industry and Sustainability.

Real-life uses and examples

• Link Chemical Industry and Sustainability to everyday products such as cleaning agents, food and medicines.
• Read a chemical equation or diagram and work out what Chemical Industry and Sustainability shows.
• Explain Chemical Industry and Sustainability in an exam by linking the particles involved to what you observe.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Mixing up the names of substances or ions when you describe Chemical Industry and Sustainability.
• Describing what happens without explaining the particles or bonds involved.
• Learning the definition without testing it. Use the quiz and the interactive to check that you can apply the idea.