These chemical properties are, overall, dependent on one hugely important factor: the number of electrons that a single atom of a single element is made up of. Amazingly enough, for example, the sole basic difference between elemental oxygen and elemental carbon is that an atom of oxygen has eight electrons, while an atom of carbon has six. This basic difference means that each element has entirely different physical and chemical properties.
This might seem like a rather long-winded explanation, but it's important for understanding how a chemist can design various types of specialty chemicals, because the ways in which various different elements react is also determined largely by the number of electrons an atom of each element contains.
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