Seated on the product of the reaction of a polyol with the toluenediisocyanate, lined by a polyester fabric dyed with titanium hydroxide, an ordinary person would hardly notice how close is Chemistry. To imagine that the comfort of the foam of your seat and the beauty of the color of its lining are consequences of chemical processes is something very remote for most people. When we talk about Chemistry, the images that come to mind are those of very high steel towers, laboratories producing strange liquids, difficult names and dangerous substances.

But in the day-to-day routine of an office, for example, Chemistry is present in almost all the objects between the walls. To start with the walls probably coated with latex paint. The paint most used in interior decoration today is formulated with polyvinyl acetate (PVA) and has many other chemical substances, like pigments, which impart the color, and adhesive materials that are used in the set-up of the walls.

Paper, which little by little is losing ground to the computers (incidentally, 80% chemistry and 20% metal – chemically treated), comes from cellulose pulp, gets sodium silicate, is treated with fumaric acid, a product of the maleic anhydride. The pulp is bleached with calcium hypochlorite or sodium chlorate. Toner of the printers and copying machines is carbon black and the ball-point pen is nothing more than organic pigments dressed in a case of polystyrene or polyvinyl chloride (PVC),

The holder of pens and pencils is usually a molded acrylic resin, while the desk is turpentine (used in the varnishes) impregnated wood, or, may be, who knows, melamine veneer. The feet are of metal. But the metal was cast with the help of furan resins, polished with abrasive acids and coated with a protective layer of nickel or chrome applied under the principles of electrochemistry.

Attention! Coffee break – Before you drink that delicious coffee cup, be sure the water was treated with chlorine or ozone and then filtered through activated carbon. The little cups could be expanded polystyrene, polypropylene or another plastic material. While you drink your coffee, you look at the landscape through the windows of glass which had its transparency enhanced by the use of cerium hydroxide. This transparency was maintained by the daily use of detergents bearing fatty acids, chlorine, ammonia and other chemicals. The list is long: clips, fax, paintings, water pipes, air conditioning… It may be impossible to identify a piece of your office that does not use Chemistry. And if you have not the habit of thinking about Chemistry in your work, good luck! It is because Chemistry is always thinking on how to give you a safe, comfortable and productive working environment.

Text: Celso Miranda. Prof. José Atílio Vanin, Chemistry Institute – QSP.1. English version by Joe Vianna (translat@mvpisp.com)