Only 1% of chemicals in the universe have been discovered. Here's how scientists are hunting for the rest.

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Only 1% of chemicals in the universe have been discovered. Here's how scientists are hunting for the rest.
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Dr. Addicoat’s research interests lie in computational combinatorial chemistry – that is using computer calculations to search and sort many thousands or even millions of possible chemical compounds, before any of them are synthesised. In particular, Dr.

The universe is flooded with billions of chemicals, each a tiny pinprick of potential. And we've only identified 1% of them. Scientists believe undiscovered chemical compounds could help remove greenhouse gases, or trigger a medical breakthrough much like penicillin did.

Big numbersWe can start by making all the two-atom compounds. There are lots of these: N2 and O2 together make up 99% of our air. It would probably take a chemist about a year to make one compound and there are 6,903 two-atom compounds in theory. So that's a village of chemists working a year just to make every possible two-atom compound.

Even the solitary"noble gases" , which tend to not bind with anything, sometimes form compounds. Argon hydride, ArH+ does not exist naturally on Earth but has been found in space. Scientists have been able to make synthetic versions in laboratories that replicate deep space conditions. So, if you include extreme environments in your calculations, the number of possible compounds increases.

How scientists search for new compoundsOften the answer is to search for compounds that are related to ones that are already known. There are two main ways to do this. One is taking a known compound and changing it a bit — by adding, deleting or swapping some atoms. Another is taking a known chemical reaction and using new starting materials. This is when the method of creation is the same but the products may be quite different. Both of these methods are ways of searching for known unknowns.

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