Chemical property

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The phrase "chemical property" is context-dependent, but generally refers to a material's behavior at ambient conditions (i.e. room temperature, atmospheric pressure, oxygen-bearing atmosphere). This property becomes apparent during a chemical reaction, and can only be observed by changing a substance's chemical identity. They can be contrasted with physical properties, which are less variable.

The term is used to encompass

• Electronegativity
• Ionization potential
• Flammability
• pH
• Reactivity with various chemical substances
• Heat of combustion
• Toxicity
• Stability
• Preferred oxidation state(s)
• Coordination number
• Capability to undergo a certain set of transformations e.g. molecular dissociation, chemical combination, redox reactions under certain physical conditions in the presence of another chemical substance
• Preferred types of bonds to form e.g., metallic, ionic, covalent

Chemical properties can be used for building chemical classifications.