May 14, 2006

Nature of the Chemical Bond NCB-2 howdt edition

When we hear the term bonds, we think of Barry Bonds attempt to pass the Babe or about collecting stocks and bonds in an attempt to gain value. But chemical bonds - the type that store energy never come up in common conversation. The strength of chemical bonds - the bond order - is a measure of the tightness of covalency.

A single bond has a bond order of one, a double bond has a bond order of two and a triple bond, well those store lots of energy at bond order three. A broken bond releases energy all at once and other bonds form to tie up some of the loose energy, while some is released as either heat or work. The net energy released or gained during the reaction decided whether the process require net energy input - endothermic - or produced a net output - exothermic. Generally there is a required activation energy, which must be accumulated before the reaction can start.

Life works in a very similar way. The degree of bonding with acquaintences can be likened to a single bond, while friends and family form a doubole bond. You would like to be triple bonded with your mate and your children, but the third bond is very tough to form and you slip into a partial state of flux between bond orders two and three that may have a serious degree of range. Physical proximity is required for stronger bonds - they don't hold at long distance.

Water has a bond order of one half - and is an amazing compound for its solvent properties, if nothing else. The dielectric constant of water will change depending on the solute concentration, and so bonded water has completely different properties from 'not-bonded' water. In proteins and enzymes, the attached hydrated water should really be considered to be part of the formula weight for the entity.

Polymers are chains of repeat units of organic molecules that are bonded together permanently by a chemical reaction. Polymers can be unidimentional like metal wires or planar sheets like plastics. They can be molded and set, and will retain their shape. You can crunch down a milk jug, but you can also blow air into it and it will reform its remembered shape. Biopolymers are units that link similar types of organic molecules like amino acids in proteins and enzymes or base pairs in DNA and RNA.

It takes energy to make chemical bonds, which release energy once set, such that it takes more energy to break an existing chemical bond than to let it remain, unless the destruction of the bond is part of the combustion process. Combustion uses high energy via spark or flame to ignite chemicals and reap or harvest their bond energy. No matter how much energy the bonds have stored, it is all used in the process of complete combustion, with the result being carbon dioxide and water. The less efficient combustions put dust and soot into the air in the form of partially burnt, unstable organic chemicals, which then must create new bonds to become stable, causing a disruption on the local environment.

The analogy to people still holds. Combustible people flame out and burn their relationships, breaking the bonds that they will later need in their personal support network. So many individuals have developed triple bonds with themselves, that they form a hardened shell and disrupt everything they touch while looking for a means to lose some of that mental energy resonating within by sharing with another soul. But the fear of everything planted by modern social society, along with the random enforcement that makes an instant lifestyle alteration an awkward unchosed option for too many people, means that we need a new chaos to usher in a new order. Hence - we have the meltdown of the political entity and the fiscal entity in situ - and we will have to work at creating bond energy at a person basis to feed ourselves when the wave hits.

NCB-1

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Wow. Hugely insightful observations there. I've loved chemistry since before I even knew that's what I was thinking about or doing, but never thought to apply some of its fundamentals to human interactions. Thank you for giving me a lot to think about.