Can we make anything from the periodic table???

[DevilSolution]

I have a fundamental understanding of chemistry (electronegativity, covalent and ionic bonds, polarisation, acid / base, functional groups etc) but i dont have much hands on experience.

 

I would like to know if its possible given you had infinite amounts of each chemical in the periodic table to synthesise any other chemical following a set of reactions.

 

Furthermore if it is possible can we permute all the possible isomers, reactions and ultimately the chemical results to such a degree that we can predict its physical properties?

 

One final thing, if the first proposition is true, would there not be an infinite amount of resulting chemicals? for example just adding n amount of carbons to a hydrocarbon and attaching it to a some functional group?

 

Regards.

[Sriman Dutta]

Nuclear fusion certainly does this.

[DevilSolution]

Nuclear fusion certainly does this.

 

creates shampoo? i mean if we had infinite chemicals from the periodic table to start from. Nothing else.

[imatfaal]

1. If this is a round about way of asking "is everything we know of and think we know of made of elements from the periodic table?" then the answer is a qualified "no". We postulate in physics at least two things which exist in macro quantities for long periods which are not made from elements; neutron stars have no (or a v tiny ratio of) protons nor electrons - however the material did start as normal elemental stuff; dark matter is thought not to be normal matter at all - but we don'tknow what it actually is other than that

 

2. There is also anti-matter which is flip version of matter with opposing charges all around - the same as our table of elements but -ve for +ve and + ve for -ve

 

3. If this means - can enough chemists with enough resources make everything from bare materials? Not at the moment no they cannot. It is far easier to get new dna by getting two people to bonk themselves silly than by sitting down with a chemistry kit; it will remain so for a very very long time.

 

4. Not sure why whether the number of chemicals is infinite or not matters. The number of potential chemicals is high - but as any sensible enumeration would be in the observable universe then there is a limit to the number of hadrons and thus the total number is computable and just a very big number

[DevilSolution]

1. If this is a round about way of asking "is everything we know of and think we know of made of elements from the periodic table?" then the answer is a qualified "no". We postulate in physics at least two things which exist in macro quantities for long periods which are not made from elements; neutron stars have no (or a v tiny ratio of) protons nor electrons - however the material did start as normal elemental stuff; dark matter is thought not to be normal matter at all - but we don'tknow what it actually is other than that

 

2. There is also anti-matter which is flip version of matter with opposing charges all around - the same as our table of elements but -ve for +ve and + ve for -ve

 

3. If this means - can enough chemists with enough resources make everything from bare materials? Not at the moment no they cannot. It is far easier to get new dna by getting two people to bonk themselves silly than by sitting down with a chemistry kit; it will remain so for a very very long time.

 

4. Not sure why whether the number of chemicals is infinite or not matters. The number of potential chemicals is high - but as any sensible enumeration would be in the observable universe then there is a limit to the number of hadrons and thus the total number is computable and just a very big number

 

Q1) was asking if its possible to use the basic elements in any number of reactions to create any and all chemicals, like synthesising a particular hormone etc etc

 

Q2) was asking if it were possible to simulate the permutations of possible chemicals and all there isomers and give some prediction of its physical properties.

 

Q3) As for the infinite, i suppose this is more philosophical on where to draw the line, given atoms are building blocks i was just curious what you could build upto and if these bigger creations would serve a purpose.

 

Q4) There wasnt one??

[_Rick_]

This is a pretty weird question for chemistry as this idea of "infinite time infinite resources" isn't usually thought about, chemistry as a whole usually tries to focus on the most practical solutions to a problem.

 

For your first question, there are certain limits for what we can create even with infinite time and infinite resources and time due to limits we have discovered, quaternary alcohols for example.

 

As for your second, I personally think that with infinite knowledge (and thus a complete understanding) of the properties of the atoms and how they interact we could in theory predict any molecule and its respective interactions. But who's to say that we'll ever have that knowledge, one day we may think that we're close and we'll suddenly discover a curveball.

 

If there is a limit to chain-length and the size of molecules, it has not yet been discovered.

[DevilSolution]

This is a pretty weird question for chemistry as this idea of "infinite time infinite resources" isn't usually thought about, chemistry as a whole usually tries to focus on the most practical solutions to a problem.

 

For your first question, there are certain limits for what we can create even with infinite time and infinite resources and time due to limits we have discovered, quaternary alcohols for example.

 

As for your second, I personally think that with infinite knowledge (and thus a complete understanding) of the properties of the atoms and how they interact we could in theory predict any molecule and its respective interactions. But who's to say that we'll ever have that knowledge, one day we may think that we're close and we'll suddenly discover a curveball.

 

If there is a limit to chain-length and the size of molecules, it has not yet been discovered.

 

Perhaps to expand slightly, if a machine could find relative catalysts and then use them with other reactions using simulations of the properties currently known, Then we could permute extensively the chain of reactions. I understand what you mean with curveball, any misinterpretation or lack of current understanding could lead to false results, but surely given out current knowledge and computational capabilities we could cover alot of ground? Just in terms of predicting physical properties etc

[_Rick_]

 

Perhaps to expand slightly, if a machine could find relative catalysts and then use them with other reactions using simulations of the properties currently known, Then we could permute extensively the chain of reactions. I understand what you mean with curveball, any misinterpretation or lack of current understanding could lead to false results, but surely given out current knowledge and computational capabilities we could cover alot of ground? Just in terms of predicting physical properties etc

 

Then yeah, if we have a way of adding an alkane group then to our current knowledge we can just carry on doing it indefinitely.

 

Sort of in the same way that we discover new elements, it might become increasingly difficult but if we invent a new machine to just carry on doing it, then yeah probably we can make an indefinite amount of new compounds.

[studiot]

Consider your post#7 quoted.

 

We already do computer reaction simulation like this in pharmacology, albeit at great expense.

 

If you have big drug company money behind you, you can access 'pharmaco libraries' containing details of hundreds of thousands of compounds and functional groups and computer simulate many combinations and the expected resulting products.

This is done to select suitable promising ones for real world tests for a particular application.

[Sensei]

Can we make anything from the.... ???

You can make everything from just protons...

 

Antimatter antiprotons are also created from protons in particle accelerators..

Edited December 18, 2016 by Sensei

[LizW12]

Protons make up everything.