In
chemistry, 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 elemen ...
s in terms of
atoms making up
molecule
A molecule is a group of two or more atoms held together by attractive forces known as chemical bonds; depending on context, the term may or may not include ions which satisfy this criterion. In quantum physics, organic chemistry, and bioch ...
s, the arrangement of atoms within molecules and the
electron
The electron ( or ) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary electric charge. Electrons belong to the first generation of the lepton particle family,
and are generally thought to be elementary particles because they have no kno ...
s that hold them together. According to structural theory, from the
structural formula
The structural formula of a chemical compound is a graphic representation of the molecular structure (determined by structural chemistry methods), showing how the atoms are possibly arranged in the real three-dimensional space. The chemical bond ...
of a molecule it is possible to derive physical and spectroscopic data and to predict
chemical reactivity
In chemistry, reactivity is the impulse for which a chemical substance undergoes a chemical reaction, either by itself or with other materials, with an overall release of energy.
''Reactivity'' refers to:
* the chemical reactions of a single ...
.
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