Inert

As a chemically inert ( Latin for " idle, indifferent, sluggish " ) refers to substances that do not react or under the respective conditions given with potential reaction partners (eg air, water, reactants and products of a reaction) only in vanishingly small extent. The term is often not clearly used in the chemical literature. In connection with the reaction kinetics are inert to used to the contrary labile, so as in the chemical thermodynamics often distinguish between stable and unstable. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, however, defines the term as a stable and unreactive under given conditions.

In a simplified example: If we boil in a pot, so is this inert, because it does not dissolve in spite of the vegetable cooking processes occurring vegetables. And the cooking water, therefore, the reaction medium of the reaction is virtually inert, because it is not affected by the boiling. In vegetables pass through the cooking but changes, it is not inert under the cooking conditions.

Chemically inert are inert gases such as the noble gases, many precious metals under normal conditions or often the solvent and carrier gases used in reactions. Inert is not an absolute concept: Under certain conditions, inert substances may also otherwise chemical reactions ( nitrogen reacts to form nitrogen oxides in combustion engines, platinum reacts in aqua regia ). For many years, the noble gases, so elemental gases such as helium and xenon were considered completely inert, in 1962, however, showed the British chemist Neil Bartlett, that noble gases under drastic reaction conditions may well undergo chemical reactions.

Inert dusts are particles of a substance at which no harmful effects on the human body is known. These include starch and cellulose.