Chemistry in Our Everyday Life: Our life is completely dependent on chemistry. Right in the morning when we wake up, we need toothpaste and a toothbrush to clean our teeth; they are made up of certain chemicals. When we eat food, as soon as we swallow the first bite, the chemical reactions start in our body immediately. We know that all matter is made up of atoms, so chemistry is the study of everything around us. Chemistry plays a vital role in our daily life, starting from the kitchen where food preparation is a chemical reaction, cleansing agents to clean our house, clothes, etc., are also composed of chemicals.

In this article, we have provided Chemistry in our everyday life notes. Students can find the importance of chemistry in everyday life, food preservatives, The Cleansing Action of soap and detergents etc. Continue reading this article and learn the Chapter “Chemistry in Our Everyday Life”.

The pills and medicines we use to treat our illness are all made of chemicals. So, there are chemicals all around us. But some chemicals are also harmful to us, like toxic gases released into the atmosphere by factories. Chemistry is used to create sustainable development to prevent environmental issues. Thus, every day we use chemistry right from cooking food to cleaning ourselves by choosing the chemicals we need. By doing further research in chemistry, we can develop better products to use that are good for our environment too and can change the world! In this article, we will discuss the tremendous significance of chemistry in our everyday life.

Importance of Chemistry in Everyday Life

Scientists defined science as a blessing to humans that enriches human health and welfare with new products and methods that make our life easier. For ages, chemistry has been used for the benefit and development of mankind. The various fields in which chemistry is useful in our everyday life are:

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1. Use of Chemistry in Medicines
Medicines or drugs are chemical substances that alter either the physical or psychological functions of the body. They interact with macromolecule targets in our body and produce suitable biological responses and treat us when we fall ill or get injured.
2. Chemistry in Cleansing Agents
Soaps and detergents are cleaning agents that we use to clean our clothes, houses, etc. They are all made up of chemicals. Soaps are a mixture of oil like animal oil, coconut, olive, and cottonseed oil with sodium hydroxide.

3. Importance of Chemistry in Clothing
We wear clothes obtained from natural fibres like cotton, silk, wool, etc. But with advancements in chemistry, many synthetic fibres are made that are used to make clothes like nylon, rayon, etc. These polymers undergo many chemical processes to make clothes from them.
4. Apart from the above-mentioned uses, there are enormous uses of chemistry in our daily lives like we use cosmetic products, batteries, petrol, natural gas, fertilisers, explosives, crackers, rockets, etc., all are made up of chemicals and play a significant role in our life.

Chemicals of Food in Everyday Life

Different chemicals are added to food for various purposes such as preservation of food, enhancing its appearance, adding nutritive value in food, etc.
These chemicals as food additives are mainly categorised as follows:
1. Food colours
2. Food flavours and sweeteners.
3. Fat emulsifiers and food stabilising agents
4. Bleaches and antioxidants
5. Food preservatives
6. Food supplements as nutritional agents like proteins, vitamins, etc., in food.
All these food additives are made up of chemicals, and except for food supplements that have some nutritional value, others do not provide any nutrition to us. In this context, we will study artificial sweeteners in detail:

Artificial Sweeteners

To avoid the intake of too many calories present in natural sweeteners like sucrose through diet, nowadays, people prefer artificial sweeteners as a substitute for natural sweeteners. These artificial sweeteners are nothing else but chemicals.

1. Saccharin – Ortho-sulphobenzimide, commonly known as saccharin, is the first popular artificial sweetening agent and has been used as a sweetening agent since \(1879.\) It is nearly \(550\) times sweeter than cane sugar. It works as entirely inert and harmless when consumed as it is excreted unchanged from the body in the urine. It is of great use for diabetic persons.

2. Aspartame is one of the most successful and widely used artificial sweeteners. It is around \(100\) times sweeter than cane sugar. Chemically, it is the methyl ester of a dipeptide formed from aspartic acid and phenylalanine. Since Aspartame is unstable at cooking temperature, it is mostly used in cold drinks and cold foods.

3. Alitame is another high potency artificial sweetener. It is an aspartic acid-containing dipeptide sweetener that is \(2000\) times sweeter than cane sugar.
4. Sucralose is a trichloro derivative of sucrose, and it appears and tastes like sugar. It is quite stable at high or cooking temperatures.

Food Preservatives

Food preservatives prevent microbial growth in food and thus prevent it from getting spoiled. Some of the commonly used food preservatives include:
1. Table salt
2. Sugar
3. Vegetable oils
4. Sodium benzoate

Soaps and Detergents as Cleansing Agents

We bathe and wash our clothes daily by using different types of body wash, soaps, detergents, and many other types of cleansing agents. But the basic chemical property of all cleansing agents is their ability to extract grease and dirt and clean the surface of the substance on which they are applied. Basically, we use soaps and detergents for cleansing purposes in our everyday lives, which are chemicals.

Soaps

Soaps are sodium or potassium salts of long-chain fatty acids like stearic acids, oleic acids and palmitic acids.
Soaps are formed by saponification reaction, where sodium salts are formed by heating fatty acid with an aqueous sodium hydroxide solution. In this reaction, esters of fatty acids are hydrolysed, and the soap obtained remains in colloidal form. It is further precipitated from the solution by adding sodium chloride. Only sodium and potassium soaps are water-soluble and are used for cleansing purposes.

Types of Soaps

1. Bathing soaps are prepared by using good quality fats and oils, and excess alkali is removed carefully so that it is good for the skin. To make the soaps look attractive, colour and perfumes are added.
2. Many soaps are quite light and float in water. They are made by beating tiny air bubbles before hardening them. 
3. Some soaps are transparent and are made by dissolving them in ethanol and then evaporating the excess solvent.
4. Medicated soaps contain substances of medicinal value. 
5. Shaving soaps contain glycerol that prevents rapid drying of the skin. Rosin is a gum that is added while making them, and it forms sodium rosinate, which lathers well. 
6. Laundry soaps contain fillers like borax, sodium rosinate, sodium silicate, and sodium carbonate.

The Cleansing Action of Soap

A soap molecule contains two ends; both ends have different properties.
1. Hydrophilic end
2. Hydrophobic end
The molecule of soap is sodium or potassium salts of a long chain of carboxylic acids. In the case of soaps, the carbon chain is soluble in oil, and the ionic end is soluble in water. When a soap molecule meets dirt or grease, it’s one end (non-polar) is towards the oil droplet, and the other end, which is the ionic part, faces outside. In this manner, it traps the oil or grease forming a structure known as ‘micelle’. Therefore, an emulsion is formed in water and helps in dissolving the dirt when we wash our clothes. 

Detergents

Synthetic detergents are cleansing agents that have all the properties of soaps, but they do not contain any soap. The benefit of using detergents is that they can be used both in soft and hard water as they form lather in hard water also.

Types of Detergents

Detergents are majorly classified into three categories: 
1. Anionic detergents: They are sodium salts of sulfonated long-chain alcohols or hydrocarbons. By treating long-chain alcohols with concentrated sulphuric acid, alkyl hydrogen sulphates are formed and neutralised with alkali to form anionic detergents. In anionic detergents, the anionic part of the molecule is involved in the cleansing action. For example, sodium salts of alkyl benzene sulphonates form an important class of anionic detergents. They are mostly present in toothpaste.

2. Cationic detergents include quaternary ammonium salts of amines with anions like acetates, chlorides, or bromides. The cationic part of this detergent possesses a long hydrocarbon chain and a positive charge on the nitrogen atom. A famous cationic detergent, Cetyltrimethylammonium bromide, is used in hair conditioners.
3. Non-ionic detergents do not contain any ions at all. One such detergent is formed on the reaction between stearic acid with polyethylene glycol. For example, liquid dishwashing detergents are of non-ionic type. The cleansing action of non-ionic detergents is the same as that of soaps. 

Summary

Conclusively, chemistry is a special branch of science that is essential for the study of materials or their development for the betterment of humanity. A drug or medicine is a chemical agent that is the most useful boon of chemistry for mankind as it provides a cure for the ailment. Drug chemistry revolves around arresting pathogens and preventing the body from various infectious diseases. Chemicals used in the food industry in the form of food additives such as preservatives, sweetening agents, flavouring agents, antioxidants, edible food colours and nutritional supplements are very useful in making food tastier, palatable, attractive, and nutritional.

Food preservatives are added to the food to prevent its spoilage due to the growth of microbes. Some artificial sweeteners are used by those persons who need to control their calorie intake or are diabetic. One of the major uses of chemistry in our everyday life is the use of cleansing agents like soaps and detergents. These days, detergents are preferred over soaps because they work well even in hard water. Synthetic detergents are divided into three main categories: anionic, cationic, and non-ionic, based on the charge. We prefer using detergents with a straight chain of hydrocarbons over a branched chain as branched-chain detergents are non-biodegradable and consequently cause environmental pollution.

FAQs on Chemistry in Our Everyday Life

Q.1: How do we use chemistry in our everyday life?
Ans: Chemistry plays a very vital role in our daily life, starting from the kitchen where food preparation is itself a chemical reaction, cleansing agents to clean our house, clothes, etc., are also composed of chemicals. The pills and medicines we use to treat our illness are all made of chemicals.

Q.2: What is chemistry in everyday life? Give examples.
Ans: Some examples of chemistry in everyday life include respiration, digestion, photosynthesis, cooking food, burning of fuel like coal and petroleum, cleaning clothes and utensils, and many more. All these activities are performed by us in our daily life, and they undergo some chemical reactions.

Q.3: Does chemistry improve your life?
Ans: Yes, chemistry has improved our quality of life to a great extent. Due to numerous discoveries of chemistry like LPG in the kitchen, fuel in vehicles, rockets, aeroplanes, medicines, clothes, etc., our life has become very easy and comfortable.

Q.4: What is chemistry?
Ans: Chemistry is the branch of science that deals with the study of matter, its properties, chemical reactions, and how different substances interact with energy. Chemistry plays an important part in all parts of our life, right from cooking and eating food, wearing clothes, travelling through vehicles, taking medicines to cure diseases, and many more.

Q.5. Why is chemistry important in our daily life?
Ans: Chemistry is very important to our life as our body is made of chemicals. The processes happening in our body, like respiration, digestion, eating, performing physical activities, etc., are accompanied by chemical reactions.