• Question: What is your favourite chemical reaction

    Asked by anon-199715 to Sylvia, Sumit, Martin, Kate, Bryony, Aryanne on 11 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Sumit Konar

      Sumit Konar answered on 11 Mar 2019:

      3H2 + N2 → 2NH3
      This is a chemical reaction that changed the world.

    • Photo: Martin McCoustra

      Martin McCoustra answered on 12 Mar 2019:

      I don’t really have a favourite reaction… But I consider the reaction H + H -> H2 that occurs on dust grains in space as the one that changed the Universe! Without it, we basically wouldn’t exist!

    • Photo: Sylvia Soldatou

      Sylvia Soldatou answered on 12 Mar 2019:

      The overall photosynthesis reaction
      6CO2 + 6H2O ———–> C6H12O6 + 6O2
      sunlight

      The ability of organisms to convert light energy into chemical energy and produce oxygen is fascinating!

    • Photo: Kate McGonagle

      Kate McGonagle answered on 12 Mar 2019:

      Ohhhh, good question! Probably an amide/peptide bond formation – another super important bond as it’s fundamental in building proteins. An amide bond is formed by reacting a carboxylic acid with an amine. I make these bonds a lot in the lab using a particular amide coupling reagent known by the chemists as T3P (formal name Propylphosphonic anhydride) – I love it, it works for me everytime!

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