Emergent Properties in Chemistry - Relating Molecular Properties to Bulk Behavior
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Date
2024-05-02Type
- Review Article
ETH Bibliography
yes
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Abstract
Certain properties of an object only emerge when a sufficient number of those objects are present in a definite arrangement. For example, one or two water molecules cannot said to be in a liquid state, but a drop of water can be. This concept of emergence has been studied extensively, but only occasionally discussed explicitly in the context of chemistry. In this paper, we aim to show the fruitfulness of the concept of emergence for chemical inquiry by considering four case studies of emergent chemical properties, i. e., the liquidity and freezing of water, structural properties of crystals, thermodynamical phase transitions and quantum mechanical phenomena. We show that some of these properties emerge gradually, some at discrete points, and some should be taken to emerge only when the number of constituents tends to infinity. We argue that studying the way in which chemical properties emerge presents a useful avenue for research that promises greater insight into the nature of those properties. Show more
Permanent link
https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000667781Publication status
publishedExternal links
Journal / series
Chemistry - A European JournalVolume
Pages / Article No.
Publisher
Wiley-VCHSubject
Cluster compounds; Emergence; Phase transitions; Philosophy of chemistry; Water chemistryMore
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ETH Bibliography
yes
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