Chemical industry, chemical engineering and chemical technology are usually called chemicals. They had different meanings at different times, but could merge together. They interacted on each other and presented new contents as development. Ancient human beings relied much on the direct use of natural materials. Gradually, these materials could not meet people’s needs any more, so different kinds of processing technologies were produced, which could transform those natural materials into new ones with multiple performances and be applied to industrial production.
In a broad sense, changing materials’ composition or structure or synthesizing new materials was a part of chemical production technology, i.e. chemical technology. Products made by above methods were called chemicals or chemical products. Un-mechanized workshops are the initial form of chemicals production, followed by factories and production department (namely chemical industry). As the development of productivity, some production departments, such as metallurgy, oil refining, paper making and tanning industries, have been divided from chemical industry and become individual production departments. After the thriving of large-scale oil refining and petroleum chemicals industries, subject chemical engineering was born and developed rapidly, which was based on chemistry,
physics and mathematics, combined other engineering technologies, researched the common rules in chemical production and solved many engineering problems appeared in the expansion of production scale. Hence, chemistry industry production would be raised to a new level and entered into a new theory and prediction
stage from experienced or semi-experienced state.

In order to survive and develop, human beings endlessly struggled against the nature and gradually deepened the
understanding against the outward so as to develop new abilities in conquering the nature and changing the world. Over the long course of history, human beings made full use of natural conditions and created themselves a abundant material world. Ancient people relied much on the direct use of natural materials or extracted what they needed. Because these materials could not meet people’s needs any more, different kinds of processing technologies were produced, which could transform those natural materials into new ones with multiple performances and be applied to industrial production. Changing materials’ composition or structure or synthesizing new materials is a part of chemical production technology, i.e. chemical technology. Products made by above methods were called chemicals or chemical products. In this way, many materials unknown to nature would be created. Un-mechanized workshops were the initial form of production, followed by factories and production department (namely chemical industry). As the development of productivity, some production departments, such as metallurgy, oil refining, paper making and tanning, have been divided from chemical industry and become individual production departments. After the thriving of large-scale oil refining industry and petroleum chemicals, subject chemical engineering was born and developed rapidly, which was based on chemistry, physics and mathematics, combined other engineering technologies, researched the common rules in chemical production and solved many engineering problems appeared in the expansion of production scale. Hence, it has raised chemistry industry production to a new level and entered into new theory and prediction stage from experienced or semi-experienced state (see chemical engineering history), which created more fortune for human beings and speeded up social development relying on chemical industry’s creativity in larger-scale production.

In modern Chinese, chemical industry, chemical engineering and chemical technology are usually called chemicals. They had different meanings at different times, but could merge together. In the minds of human beings, “chemicals” has become the synonym of chemical products and chemical industry, played very vital role in national economy and engineering technology and attracted thousands of people to dedicate their lives. Following is about chemicals and its contribution in all aspects of social activities: