How many types of chemicals are there?

Answer 1

This is a bit tough to answer, but there a lot and the list keeps expanding. Chemicals, especially in organic chemistry, all differ based on the connectivity of the different atoms and in which order they are connected, this is why some students might have a hard time differentiating ketones, aldehydes, carboxylic acids, esters, acid anhydrides, acyl chlorides, etc. In short as you go through organic chemistry you may learn about 10-20 different types, but in the grand scheme of things its probably over 1000 right now.