chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

, structural theory explains the large variety in

chemical compound A chemical compound is a chemical substance composed of many identical molecules (or molecular entities) containing atoms from more than one chemical element held together by chemical bonds. A molecule consisting of atoms of only one element ...

s in terms of

atom Atoms are the basic particles of the chemical elements. An atom consists of a atomic nucleus, nucleus of protons and generally neutrons, surrounded by an electromagnetically bound swarm of electrons. The chemical elements are distinguished fr ...

s making up

molecule A molecule is a group of two or more atoms that are held together by Force, attractive forces known as chemical bonds; depending on context, the term may or may not include ions that satisfy this criterion. In quantum physics, organic chemi ...

s, the arrangement of atoms within molecules and the

electron The electron (, or in nuclear reactions) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary charge, elementary electric charge. It is a fundamental particle that comprises the ordinary matter that makes up the universe, along with up qua ...

s that hold them together. According to structural theory, from the structural formula of a molecule it is possible to derive physical and spectroscopic data and to predict chemical reactivity. Beginning from about 1858, many scientists from several countries took part in the early development of structural theory, including August Kekule, Archibald Scott Couper, and Aleksandr Mikhailovich Butlerov. It was Butlerov who coined the phrase "chemical structure" in the following quotation from an article published in 1861:

…the chemical nature of a compound molecule depends on the nature and quantity of its elementary constituents and its chemical structure.

References

{{Reflist History of chemistry