quimicas

Quimicas is a term used in Spanish and Portuguese to refer to chemical substances, including elements and compounds, as well as to the science of chemistry that studies them. As substances, quimicas have defined compositions and a range of properties, such as melting and boiling points, density, solubility, and reactivity. They can be elements—substances that cannot be decomposed into simpler substances by chemical means—or compounds, formed from two or more elements in fixed ratios.

Quimicas are commonly classified by composition and behavior. The major divisions are elements and compounds; organic chemistry concerns carbon-containing substances, while inorganic chemistry covers all other items. Subcategories include acids, bases, salts, metals, polymers, and minerals. States of matter (solid, liquid, gas) are also used to describe quimicas.

The study of quimicas involves understanding how substances interact and transform. Reactions involve changes in composition and energy, guided by principles of stoichiometry, thermodynamics, and kinetics. Observations of structure at the molecular level explain why substances behave as they do.

In practice, quimicas are produced and used across industry and society. They underpin medicines, fertilizers, fuels, plastics, electronics, cleaning products, and countless materials. Safety, purity, and environmental impact are central concerns, with guidance from safety data sheets, regulatory frameworks, and waste-management practices.

Historically, the term emerges from alchemy and evolves through the development of modern chemistry in the 17th to 19th centuries, leading to standardized methods, the periodic table, and a broad set of subdisciplines that today include analytical, physical, organic, inorganic, and biochemistry.