How many chemicals exist?

There are a huge number of possible chemicals. Estimates ranges from 10 18 to 10 200

. For comparison, the number of grains of sand on the ground is about 7.5 x 10 18 , the number of particles in space is between 10 72 and 10 87 . Obviously, if there are more chemicals than this, then not everyone in the universe even exists physically. The most abundant compound in the universe is by far the diatomic hydrogen (H 2 ) is the same.

of 117 known elements, only 94 occurs naturally, and seven of them are noble gases that make up only compounds for very unusual conditions, as if they are exposed to electrons bombing. This leaves 87 other elements to form chemical compounds and most of them do not form much, nor are they very abundant. Helium Aneon is noble gases and do not bind anything. Iron is mainly locked in iron oxide (rust). Others - carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen - are known for chon and together with phosphorus and withIt accounts for 99% of all living organisms and more than 99% of all chemical compounds. This is called biological compounds.

Biological compounds can be formed into long chains in a way that inorganic compounds cannot. These compounds may have billions of atoms long, in the case of biopolymers such as DNA. These molecules may have small differences in several atoms, such as the genetic material of identical twins that have mild mutations due to copying or exposure to radiation. This creates an almost unlimited number of variations.

In 2005, the group from the University of Berne in Switzerland tried to determine the total number of stable compounds up to eleven atoms of mere carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and fluorine. Their number was just below 18 billion, but the subsequent analysis found that it ignored many common chemicals, including many that can be easily ordered online and the number could beLow up to three orders. Even looking at only small chemicals there are still a huge number of variations.