20 Examples of Natural and Artificial Substances - encyclopedia

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Other ways to classify substances
Examples of natural substances
Examples of artificial substances

Considering its origin, it is possible to classify all known matter into natural substances Y artificial substances. The term "substance" means that they are "pure" matters whose bodies are made up of atoms or molecules of the same nature (they are not mixtures).

The natural substances are those that are commonly found in nature, whether organic or not, whose obtaining involves only the effort necessary to extract and collect the material, as in the case of minerals in the earth's crust.
The artificial substancesor synthetic They are those created or manufactured by man, in factories, metallurgies or laboratories, whether they are new and non-existent species, or synthetic replicas of natural compounds, such as resins and synthetic fabrics.

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Examples of Pure Substances and Mixtures

Other ways to classify substances

Substances can also be classified into substancessimple and substancescompound: the former cannot be decomposed into constituent substances, that is, they are "pure", while the compound ones can be separated into various simpler substances.

Finally, it is also possible to classify them into organic substances and inorganic substances, according to the atoms around which its composition revolves: all organic substances are based mainly on carbon, while inorganic substances can present any combination of elements, including carbon, but without this constituting its main axis.

Examples of natural substances

Water. The most abundant inorganic substance on the planet, water, is essential for the emergence and maintenance of life. Its simple molecule, of two atoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen, it is the product and by-product of numerous chemical reactions and it is abundant in gaseous form in our atmosphere. It is estimated that 70% of the planet's surface is water between solid and liquid.
Wool. Natural fiber secreted by the animals of the goat family and some camelids, which it serves as shelter and defense against the cold. This fiber is usable for fabrics, so it is sheared and processed.
Rubber. Polymer elastic, waterproof and resistant properties, secreted by the tree with the same name and other tropical trees, from whose trunks it is extracted in the form of a milky liquid. It has been used since ancient times to make pots and other containers, and in modern times for thousands of industrial applications, such as automobile tires. Today, however, it is produced synthetically.
Wood. Composed of cellulose and lignin, wood is found in the trunk of trees, growing year after year through a system of concentric rings. This substance is very usable by man given its characteristics of hardness, elasticity and combustibility, both for the carving of tools and utensils, the construction of buildings and even as biomass for burning in ovens and chimneys.
Iron. Metallic element, resistant, ductile and magnetic, very prone to oxidation, which usually occurs in nature in the form of oxides and mineral compounds. Iron in its pure state is rare, but can be obtained from its natural sources and used in metallurgy to achieve alloys.
Coal. One of the forms of presentation of carbon in nature, along with graphite and diamonds, is carbon. In all three cases they are agglomerations of atoms of this element, but arranged in a very different way, so that some are more resistant than others and have different physical properties.
Sea salt. Also called sodium chloride (NaCl), common salt is an inorganic substance that is produced by the union of a sodium atom and another of chlorine, in solid form of whitish crystals. It can be easily obtained evaporating sea water, since the liquid disappears and the saline crystals remain.
Helium. Like many of the Noble gases (inert), this monatomic gas has a very low reactivity, despite being very common in nature, either as a member of our atmosphere (from where it can be extracted) or as a by-product of hydrogen fusion within stars.
Nacre. This hard, iridescent and white substance is composed of crystallized calcium carbonate, organic matter and water, in a unique combination that many marine mollusks can produce inside their shells, repairing the damage therein and allowing them to preserve their shelter.
Glucose. The sugar present in fruits, honey and in the blood of animals (including man) is a monosaccharide of molecular formula C₆H₁₂OR₆ whose importance in animal metabolism is capital, since it constitutes its main form of energy reserve as well as an important piece in the construction of more complex compounds.

Examples of artificial substances

Aspirin. Acetylsalicylic acid, commonly known as aspirin, is a compound derived from the bark of the white willow tree, which today is completely synthesized in high-purity ranges in laboratories. It is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory and analgesic, considered the most widely used medicine in the world.
Glass. This translucent, hard and brittle substance is obtained by melting a mixture of silica and some bases like potash or soda, and is used to make containers, window coverings, or automobile glass. It is one of the most manufactured items in the world, since its domestic consumption is very high.
Uranium-233. It is one of the least stable isotopes of uranium, a mineral rare of our planet usable in nuclear-type reactions to obtain energy. In fact, the atomic bomb dropped on Japan contained variants of this metal. However, variant 233 does not exist in nature but is produced from natural thorium.
Cement. Initially the product of a mixture of calcined and ground clay and limestone, to which gypsum is added and later gravel and sand, this powder is widely used in construction and civil engineering, since when adding water a uniform paste is formed. malleable and plastic that hardens to form concrete or cement, of stony hardness.
Plastic. Synthetic material obtained by polymerization processes of carbon chains in the organic compounds Petroleum derivatives (hydrocarbons). It is perhaps the most produced synthetic material in the world, with countless applications in the areas of engineering, commerce and even medicine.
Ferrofluid. These substances were synthesized in the second half of the 20th century, and they are fluids that in the presence of a magnetic field proceed to polarize. They have an extreme susceptibility to magnetism ("superparamagnetic"), since they are made of magnetic nanoparticles contained in a liquid that does not allow them to agglomerate. They are the closest approximation that exists to a ferromagnetic liquid as such.
Airgel. Also called "frozen smoke", it is a colloidal material similar to a gel, in which the liquid is exchanged for a gas, thus obtaining a very light and low solid. density, porous, endowed with an enormous capacity of thermal isolation. It was created in 1931 and since then it has been produced from numerous substances, such as graphene.
Carbon nanotubes. It is a state-of-the-art nanomaterial, highly hydrophobic, obtained by artificially modifying the proportions of carbon to achieve allotropic forms (such as diamond or fullerene), this time as a sheet of graphite rolled up on itself. They are tiny and have surprising characteristics, such as being one-dimensional, electricity superconductors and capable of withstanding 100 times more stress than steel.
Perfluorocarbons. If the hydrogen atoms of a hydrocarbon are replaced by fluorine atoms, a perfluorocarbon is obtained, a substance whose properties are controllable from the length of the carbon chains that compose it, and it can be gaseous or liquid. This makes it extremely useful for medicine (as a filler in eye operations) or powerful refrigerant.
Fats trans. Although they can be found in small amounts in the milk or body fat of animals, most of the Trans fat that we consume in many industrially processed foods are the result of the hydrogenation of fats, as in fast food and processed foods or synthetic dairy such as margarine. These fats They are particularly harmful to the body, since they reduce good cholesterol and increase bad.