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Airborne Chemicals
Carbon dioxide is the most plentiful airborne chemical on Mars, making up about 95 percent of its atmosphere. This is one of the factors that contributes to the weak greenhouse gas effect (thermal heat trapped in a planet's atmosphere) on Mars and keeps the temperature of the planet cooler than it would normally be at that distance away from the sun. Mars' atmosphere also contains chemicals such as argon, nitrogen, as well as traces of oxygen and water.
Chemicals in Liquid Form
There are very few chemicals on Mars in a liquid form. Scientists classify Mars as one of the driest planets and theorize that there have been very few times when wet chemicals were present on Mars. Channels and other indications of liquid erosion are common on the Martian surface. These channels could have been the result of a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen (water) or carbon dioxide in a liquid form. In the present day, there is only a microscopic amount of liquid H2O on Mars and it is locked in the permanent polar icecaps.
Solid Martian Chemicals
Solid chemicals are the most abundant on Mars, thanks to the extreme cold and arid conditions that dominate the planet. The planet has permanent ice caps at both ends, consisting of frozen carbon dioxide, or dry ice. This dry ice also takes the form of snow during the winter months on Mars. There are also many carbonate rocks on Mars, just like on Earth. The very small amount of H2O present on Mars is also found in the ice caps.
Temperature and Pressure
The temperature on Mars, combined with the planet's atmospheric pressure, make the chemicals on the Martian surface even less hospitable. A full quarter of this atmosphere condenses into snow and ice in the wintertime. The climate on Mars is violent and constantly in flux, changing dramatically and violently in short periods of time, often including toxic clouds spewed by volcanoes and dust storms.