Along with universal indicator, litmus paper is one of the most commonly encountered pH indicators in school chemistry lessons. Unlike the range of colours produced by the former, litmus is pink-red in acidic solutions and blue in alkaline solutions. This graphic highlights its complex origins in lichens and the chemical changes that account for its colour change.
On this day (9th January) in 1868, Danish chemist Søren Sørensen was born. He’s best known for developing the pH scale, which we’ve likely all encountered, to measure the acidity or alkalinity of solutions. This graphic gives a brief overview of the pH scale and what it means.
For the first time since the onset of the pandemic, COVID’s domination of the science news cycle waned in 2022. The focus increasingly shifted to the longer-term crisis we face: that of climate change and taking steps to make components of our modern lives more sustainable. This graphic summarises some of the key chemistry news over the past year, with more detail and links to related articles below.
With the World Cup final taking place over the coming weekend, here’s an updated graphic on the chemistry of a football shirt, looking at the different polymer materials that are used in their manufacture.
What do the various different arrows used by chemists all mean? That’s the question this short summary graphic aims to answer, by highlighting the most common arrows encountered in chemistry lessons and textbooks and giving a brief explanation of their use with examples.
Rockets require a huge amount of energy to launch into orbit. In the latest edition of Periodic Graphics in Chemical & Engineering News we look at the different types of fuels used to get rockets off the ground and how spacecraft continue to propel themselves in space. Click through to the C&EN site to view and download the full graphic.