Classification of Matter! (Classification)

The Chemical Classification of Matter


            Many chemistry textbooks provide a diagram In their introductory sections showing how matter can be classified into mixtures and pure substances, and then to heterogeneous and homogeneous mixtures, elements and compounds:

               Matter, the stuff from which our physical world is formed, presents to us as various types of material. On a first analysis, the possible phases are:

• gaseous, such as air
• liquid, such as water
• solid, such as rock

                However, for classification purposes it is useful to divide materials into:

• mixtures: variable composition
• pure substances: stoichiometric composition

                  Physical techniques, such as: distillation, filtration, crush-&-sort, selective dissolution, chromatography, etc., can be used to separate the individual components of a mixture into chemically pure substances, and physical methods such as turbulent mixing can be used to blend pure substances together into mixtures.