• Question: what is inorganic chemistry

    Asked by deathstar to Josh on 18 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Josh Makepeace

      Josh Makepeace answered on 18 Jun 2013:

      Hey deathstar (I love the name!) – that’s a good question. When we divide chemistry into organic and inorganic chemistry, we are talking mainly about the types of elements that are being used.

      Organic chemistry is the chemistry of carbon, which is the element that forms the building block for most biological molecules. Organic chemists look at proteins, drug molecules, sugars and load of other similar molecules.

      Inorganic chemistry looks at the rest of the periodic table, so lots of chemistry to do with metals, minerals, salts, catalysts and gases. One of the reasons I really like inorganic chemistry is that you’ve got so many elements to play around with!

      Thanks for the question 🙂

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