Talk:2943: Unsolved Chemistry Problems

P stands for poncentration, SMH my head 😒 --172.70.162.211 21:22, 7 June 2024 (UTC)

You may find this helpful: RAS syndrome Trogdor147 (talk) 22:25, 8 June 2024 (UTC)

Is 'depolymerization' in this context referring to means of chemically recycling plastics? As I understand it, we basically just do recycling of thermoplastics at the moment by physically melting them, whereas being able to split a plastic apart into its component monomers would in principle enable a completely closed loop lifecycle for plastics, easing the strain on dwindling oil reserves and landfills and whatnot. Since these are supposed to be important unsolved problems, I feel like it probably is a reference to this, but I'm not a chemist and there may be something else which makes more sense. 162.158.33.134 22:37, 7 June 2024 (UTC)

In a chemistry context, depolymerization is simply the process of breaking down polymers into monomers. Plastic recycling is one potential application. Another is production of biofuels. It's a well understood process (usually just heat it up enough and/or apply the proper chemical treatment). Getting the desired outputs in an efficient manner is, in some cases, an unsolved problem. 172.69.246.150 16:05, 8 June 2024 (UTC)

i've always been taught that the p stood for "parts". youtu.be/miLcaqq2Zpk 04:01, 8 June 2024 (UTC)

In chemistry, I was taught that it was "potential". I didn't even know this was in dispute. L-Space Traveler (talk) 04:54, 8 June 2024 (UTC)

P does not stand for anything. Originally, it was contrasted with q. Sørensen was performing electrochemical experiments and contrasted the reference electrode q with the hydrogen electrode p. Using p and q like this is common, like using x and y, u and v, or m and n. It's not an abbreviation, just a variable name. He recommended normalizing the concentration of hydrogen ions (i.e. dividing it by 1 mol/l) and calling the result Cₚ or C_q (depending on the electrode). Then each of these tends to be a small number, which we could write as 10^(-p) or 10^(-q). The number p⁺_H then represented the negative log of the normalized concentration of hydrogen cations at the hydrogen electrode. You can read about it in "The origin and the meaning of the little p in pH" by Jens G. Nørby, published in Cell. The associations with words like "power" and "potential" are now widely considered urban legends. 172.70.134.39 04:55, 8 June 2024 (UTC)

My chemistry teacher at school taught us that pH stands for Latin "pondus hydrogenii", meaning "weight of hydrogen". I never questionned this, until today. 162.158.111.178 19:20, 8 June 2024 (UTC)

Added some stuff concerning the biochem part, since that's my field of expertise. I recently personally felt the problem of the protein folding problem trying to get supercomputer time to simulate a protein I was studying! Also, given that antibody-antigen generation is still extremely faulty I highly highly doubt arbitrary enzyme design will be solved anytime soon, even though great leaps in protein folding have been made. 172.70.39.40 02:13, 9 June 2024 (UTC) caffeinated biochemist