metachemistry

English

Etymology

meta- +‎ chemistry

Noun

metachemistry (uncountable)

1. An extension of the ideas or methods of chemistry into other areas of inquiry.
   • 1968, Gaston Bachelard, The Philosophy of No: A Philosophy of the New Scientific Mind, page 49:

     It is none the less true that a metachemistry came into being with the Mendeleeff table and that the ordering and rationalizing tendency led to ever more numerous, ever more profound successes.

   • 1988, William J. Danaher, Insight in chemistry, page 141:

     Metachemistry includes orthodox chemistry. In orthodox chemistry, the chemist is concerned principally with the contents of acts of chemical understanding. In metachemistry, both the contents of the chemist's acts of chemical understanding, as well as the acts themselves, are of interest.

   • 2012, Dov M. Gabbay, Paul Thagard, Andrea Woody, Philosophy of Chemistry, →ISBN, page 145:

     By contrast, 'metachemistry' pays attention to the variety of states of matter, to the plurality of materials.

2. The study of substances that can release large amounts of energy relative to their mass, such as molecules in metastable excited states.
   • 1949, Journal of the American Rocket Society - Issues 76-85, pages 180–181:

     Metachemistry would concern itself with the release of energy of the sun's radiation which impinges on the highest strata of the atmosphere and is stored in the atoms and molecules which it excites and ionizes.

   • 1959, Otis E. Lancaster, High Speed Aerodynamics and Jet Propulsion:

     The two main problems of metachemistry as related to the field of propellants are the stabilization of metastable states in macroscopic bulk and the exploitation of the freely available excited particles in the upper atmosphere for the generation of HAL discharges especially blue starters, blue jets and red sprites is calculated.

   • 1962, Fritz Zwicky, Morphology of propulsive power, page 208:

     In addition to the importance of metachemistry for propulsion, there exist intimate relations between metachemistry and the problem of directly exploiting the radiation from the sun as well as the problem of storing energy for varying periods.