Posted: Jul 10, 2018 2:53 pm
newolder wrote:From wiki on photodissociation:Photodissociation, photolysis, or photodecomposition is a chemical reaction in which a chemical compound is broken down by photons.
There appears to be three processes, dissociation, lysis and decomposition, to which light can be added (photo) to break chemicals. (I'm neither chemist nor wordsmith so:) How do they differ and why the surfeit of terminology here?
All chemical reactions involve exchanges of energy, and the energy is (as we know) quantized. The wiki article has descriptions of when those terms are appropriate, but those do not encompass the scope of all chemical reactions. When somebody burbles that 'decomposition' is the only correct term in the context where I used 'dissociation', it behooves him to trot out his reference material and explain whence he gets all that authority and why he thinks he needs it in an informal discussion. This thread is a bullshit fracas about microbes on Enceladus into which was injected the marvelous sidetrack of panspermia. I'm used to the kind of tactics some of our members use to get a word in edgewise when that's the only thing they have that fits.