Soft chemistry (also known as chimie douce) is a type of

chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

that uses reactions at ambient temperature in open reaction vessels with reactions similar to those occurring in biological systems.

Aims

The aim of the soft chemistry is to synthesize

materials Material is a substance or mixture of substances that constitutes an object. Materials can be pure or impure, living or non-living matter. Materials can be classified on the basis of their physical and chemical properties, or on their geologic ...

, drawing capacity of living beings - more or less basic - such as

diatoms A diatom (New Latin, Neo-Latin ''diatoma''), "a cutting through, a severance", from el, διάτομος, diátomos, "cut in half, divided equally" from el, διατέμνω, diatémno, "to cut in twain". is any member of a large group com ...

capable of producing glass from

silicate In chemistry, a silicate is any member of a family of polyatomic anions consisting of silicon and oxygen, usually with the general formula , where . The family includes orthosilicate (), metasilicate (), and pyrosilicate (, ). The name is al ...

s dissolved. It is a new branch of materials science that differs from conventional solid-state chemistry and its application to the intense energy to explore the chemical inventiveness of the living world. This specialty emerged in the 1980s around the label of "chimie douce", which was first published by the French chemist, Jacques Livage in ''Le Monde'', 26 October 1977.J. Livage, "Vers une chimie écologique. Quand l’air et l’eau remplacent le pétrole", Le Monde (1977) October 26th French hits, the term ''soft chemistry'' is employed as such in the early twenty-first century in

scientific publications : ''For a broader class of literature, see Academic publishing.'' Scientific literature comprises scholarly publications that report original empirical and theoretical work in the natural and social sciences. Within an academic field, scient ...

, English and others. His mode of synthesis is similar generally for reactions involved in the

polymerization In polymer chemistry, polymerization (American English), or polymerisation (British English), is a process of reacting monomer, monomer molecules together in a chemical reaction to form polymer chains or three-dimensional networks. There are ...

s based on organic and the establishment of

solution Solution may refer to: * Solution (chemistry), a mixture where one substance is dissolved in another * Solution (equation), in mathematics ** Numerical solution, in numerical analysis, approximate solutions within specified error bounds * Soluti ...

s reactive energy intake without essential

polycondensation In polymer chemistry, condensation polymers are any kind of polymers whose process of polymerization involves a condensation reaction (i.e. a small molecule, such as water or methanol, is produced as a byproduct). Condensation polymers are form ...

. The fundamental interest of this kind of polymerization mineral obtained at room temperature is to preserve organic molecules or microorganisms that wishes to fit. The products obtained by means of the so-called'' soft chemistry'' sol-gel can be stored in several types: * mineral structures of various qualities (smoothness, uniformity, etc.) * mixed structures combining inorganic and organic molecules on mineral structures * wrapper complex molecules and even

microorganisms A microorganism, or microbe,, ''mikros'', "small") and ''organism'' from the el, ὀργανισμός, ''organismós'', "organism"). It is usually written as a single word but is sometimes hyphenated (''micro-organism''), especially in olde ...

maintaining or optimizing their beneficial characteristics. The early results have included the creation of glasses and

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...

with new properties. These different structures are more or less composite mobilized a wide range of applications ranging from health to the needs of the conquest of space. Beyond its mode of synthesis, a compound with the label ''soft chemistry'' combines the advantages of the mineral (resistance, transparency, repetition patterns, etc.) and now exploring the potential of the

biochemistry Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...

and

organic chemistry Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain carbon atoms.Clayden, J.; ...

(interface with the organic world, reactivity, synthesis capability, etc.). According to its practitioners, the "soft chemistry "is only in its early success and opens up vast prospects.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Soft Chemistry Chemistry Biochemistry Chemical synthesis Biomimetics