Kissimmee Homeschooling

Charge It!

 

Electrons are the negatively chargedparticles of atom. Together, all of the electrons of an atom create a negativecharge that balances the positive charge of the protons in the atomic nucleus. Electrons are extremely small compared to all of the other parts of the atom. The mass of an electron is almost 1,000 times smaller than the mass of a proton. 

 

Shells and Shapes

 

Electrons are found in clouds that surround the nucleus of an atom. Those clouds are specific distances away from the nucleus and are generally organized into shells. Because electrons move so quickly, it is impossible to see where they are at a specific moment in time. After years of experimentation, scientists discovered specific areas where electrons are likely to be found. The overall shape of the shells changes depending on how many electrons an element has. The higher the atomic number, the more shells and electrons an atom will have. The overall shell shape will also be more complex (because of the suborbitals) as you have more electrons. 

 

Creating Bonds

 

Electrons play a major role in all chemicalbonds. There is one type of bonding called electrovalent bonding (ionic), where an electron from one atom is transferred to another atom. You wind up creating two ions as one atom loses an electron and one gains one. The second type of bonding is called covalentbonding, where electrons are actually shared between two or more atoms in a cloud. Both types of bonds have specific advantages and weaknesses. 

 

Power Up!

 

Electrons are very important in the world of electronics. The very small particles can stream through wires and circuits, creating currents ofelectricity. The electrons move from negatively charged parts to positively charged ones. The negatively charged pieces of any circuit have extra electrons, while the positively charged pieces want more electrons. The electrons then jump from one area to another. When the electrons move, the current can flow through the system.

 

Looking at Ions

 

We've talked about ions before. Now it's time to get down to basics. The atomic number of an element, also called a proton number, tells you the number of protons or positive particles in an atom. A normal atom has a neutral charge with equal numbers of positive and negative particles. That means an atom with a neutral charge is one where the number of electrons is equal to the atomic number. Ions are atoms with extra electrons or missing electrons. When you are missing an electron or two, you have a positive charge. When you have an extra electron or two, you have a negative charge. 

What do you do if you are a sodium (Na) atom? You have eleven electrons — one too many to have an entire shell filled. You need to find another element that will take that electron away from you. When you lose that electron, you will you’ll have full shells. Whenever an atom has full shells, we say it is "happy." Let's look at chlorine (Cl). Chlorine has seventeen electrons and only needs one more to fill its third shell and be "happy." Chlorine will take your extra sodium electron and leave you with 10 electrons inside of two filled shells. You are now a happy atom too. You are also an ion and missing one electron. That missing electron gives you a positive charge. You are still the element sodium, but you are now a sodium ion (Na+). You have one less electron than your atomic number. 

 

Ion Characteristics

 

So now you've become a sodium ion. You have ten electrons. That's the same number of electrons as neon (Ne). But you aren't neon. Since you're missing an electron, you aren't really a complete sodium atom either. As an ion you are now something completely new. Your whole goal as an atom was to become a "happy atom" with completely filled electron shells. Now you have those filled shells. You have a lower energy. You lost an electron and you are "happy." So what makes you interesting to other atoms? Now that you have given up the electron, you are quite electrically attractive. Other electrically charged atoms (ions) of the opposite charge (negative) are now looking at you and seeing a good partner to bond with. That's where the chlorine comes in. It's not only chlorine. Almost any ion with a negative charge will be interested in bonding with you. 

 

Electrovalence

 

Don't get worried about the big word. Electrovalence is just another word for something that has given up or taken electrons and become an ion. If you look at the periodic table, you might notice that elements on the left side usually become positively charged ions (cations) and elements on the right side get a negative charge (anions). That trend means that the left side has a positive valence and the right side has a negative valence. Valence is a measure of how much an atom wants to bond with other atoms. It is also a measure of how many electrons are excited about bonding with other atoms. 


There are two main types of bonding, covalent and electrovalent. You may have heard of the term "ionic bonds." Ionic bonds are electrovalent bonds. They are just groups of charged ions held together by electric forces. Scientists call these groups "ionic agglomerates." When in the presence of other ions, the electrovalent bonds are weaker because of outside electrical forces and attractions. Sodium and chlorine ions alone have a very strong bond, but as soon as you put those ions in a solution with H+, OH-, F- or Mg++ ions, there are charged distractions that break the Na-Cl bond. 


Look at sodium chloride (NaCl) one more time. Salt is a very strong bond when it is sitting on your table. It would be nearly impossible to break those ionic/electrovalent bonds. However, if you put that salt into some water (H2O), the bonds break very quickly. It happens easily because of the electrical attraction of the water. Now you have sodium (Na+) and chlorine (Cl-) ions floating around the solution. You should remember that ionic bonds are normally strong, but they are very weak in water. 

 

Neither Here nor There

 

Neutrons are the particles in an atom that have a neutral charge. They aren't positive like protons. They aren't negative like electrons. But don't start thinking that they aren't important. Every piece of an atom has huge importance to the way the atom acts and behaves. Neutrons are no exception. 

So, if an atom has equal numbers of electrons and protons, the charges cancel each other out and the atom has a neutral charge. You could add a thousand neutrons into the mix and the charge would not change. However, if you add a thousand neutrons, you will be creating one super-radioactive atom. Neutrons play a major role in the mass and radioactive properties of atoms. You may have read the page on isotopes. Isotopes are created when you change the normal number of neutrons in an atom. 

 

Inside the Nucleus

 

You know that neutrons are found in the nucleus of an atom. Under normal conditions, protons and neutrons stick together in the nucleus. During radioactive decay, they may be knocked out of there. Neutron numbers are able to change the mass of atoms, because they weigh about as much as a proton and electron together. If there are many atoms of an element that are isotopes, the average atomic mass for that element will change. We have spoken about carbon (C) having an average mass of 12.01. It's not much different than you would expect from an atom with 6 protons and 6 neutrons. The number of carbon isotopes doesn't change the atomic mass very much. As you move higher in the periodic table, you will find elements with many more isotopes. 

 

One Special Element

 

Did we say that all atoms have neutrons? Oops. All elements have atoms with neutrons except for one. A normal hydrogen (H) atom does not have any neutrons in its tiny nucleus. That tiny little atom (the tiniest of all) has only one electron and one proton. You can take away the electron and make an ion, but you can't take away any neutrons. Hydrogen's special structure becomes very important when you learn how hydrogen interacts with other elements in the periodic table. If you learn about nuclear fusion you will learn about deuterium and tritium. Deuterium is a hydrogen atom with an extra neutron and tritium has two extra. You won't find much deuterium in your backyard. It's mainly in oceans. Don't worry if you do find it, it's not radioactive. It's a stable isotope. 

 

Neutron Madness

 

We have already learned that ions areatoms that are either missing or have extra electrons. Let's say an atom is missing a neutron or has an extra neutron. That type of atom is called anisotope. An atom is still the same element if it is missing an electron. The same goes for isotopes. They are still the same element. They are just a little different from every other atom of the same element. 

For example, there are a lot of carbon (C) atoms in the Universe. The normal ones are carbon-12. Those atoms have 6 neutrons. There are a few straggler atoms that don't have 6. Those odd ones may have 7 or even 8 neutrons. As you learn more about chemistry, you will probably hear about carbon-14. Carbon-14 actually has 8 neutrons (2 extra). C-14 is considered an isotope of the element carbon. 

 

Messing with the Mass

 

If you have looked at a periodic table, you may have noticed that theatomic mass of an element is rarely an even number. That happens because of the isotopes. If you are an atom with an extra electron, it's no big deal. Electrons don't have much of a mass when compared to a neutron or proton. 

Atomic masses are calculated by figuring out the amounts of each type of atom and isotope there are in the Universe. For carbon, there are a lot of C-12, a couple of C-13, and a few C-14 atoms. When you average out all of the masses, you get a number that is a little bit higher than 12 (the weight of a C-12 atom). The average atomic mass for the element is actually 12.011. Since you never really know which carbon atom you are using in calculations, you should use the average mass of an atom. 

Bromine (Br), at atomic number 35, has a greater variety of isotopes. The atomic mass of bromine (Br) is 79.90. There are two main isotopes at 79 and 81, which average out to the 79.90amu value. The 79 has 44 neutrons and the 81 has 46 neutrons. While it won't change the average atomic mass, scientists have made bromine isotopes with masses from 68 to 97. It's all about the number of neutrons. As you move to higher atomic numbers in the periodic table, you will probably find even more isotopes for each element. 

 

Returning to Normal

 

If we look at the C-14 atom one more time, we find that C-14 does not last forever. There is a time when it loses its extra neutrons and becomes C-12. The loss of those neutrons is called radioactive decay. That decay happens regularly like a clock. For carbon, the decay happens in a few thousand years (5,730 years). Some elements take longer, and others have a decay that happens over a period of minutes. Archeologists are able to use their knowledge of radioactive decay when they need to know the date of an object they dug up. C-14 locked in an object from several thousand years ago will decay at a certain rate. With their knowledge of chemistry, archeologists can measure how many thousands of years old an object is. This process is called carbon dating. 

 

Bonding Basics

 

You must first learn why atoms bond together. We use a concept called "Happy Atoms." We figure that most atoms want to be happy, just like you. The idea behind Happy Atoms is that atomic shells like to be full. That's it. If you are an atom and you have a shell, you want your shell to be full. Some atoms have too many electrons (one or two extra). These atoms like to give up their electrons. Some atoms are really close to having a full shell. Those atoms go around looking for other atoms who want to give up an electron. 

We should start with the atoms that have atomic numbers between 1 and 18. There is a 2-8-8 rule for these elements. The first shell is filled with 2 electrons, the second is filled with 8 electrons, and the third is filled with 8. You can see that sodium (Na) and magnesium (Mg) have a couple of extra electrons. They, like all atoms, want to be happy. They have two possibilities: they can try to get to eight electrons to fill up their third shell, or they can give up a few electrons and have a filled second shell. It is always easier to give away one or two electrons than it is to go out and find six or seven to fill your shells. 

Oxygen (O) and fluorine (F) are two good examples. Each of those elements is looking for a couple of electrons to make a filled shell. They each have one filled shell with two electrons, but their second shells want to have eight. There are a couple of ways they can get the electrons. They can share electrons, making a covalent bond, or they can just borrow them, and make an ionic bond (also called electrovalent bond). 

When they work together, they can both wind up happy! Sodium gives up its extra electron. The sodium then has a full second shell and the fluorine (F) also has a full second shell. Two happy atoms! When an atom gives up an electron, it becomes positive like the sodium ion (Na+). When an atom gets an extra electron, it becomes negatively charged like the fluorine ion (F-). The positive and negative charges continue to attract each other like magnets. The attraction of opposite charges is the way they form and maintain the bond. Any atoms in an ionic/electrovalent bond can get or give up electrons.

 

Compound Basics

 

Molecule is the general term used to describe any atoms that are connected by chemical bonds. Every combination of atoms is a molecule. A compound is a molecule made of atoms from different elements. All compounds are molecules, but not all molecules are compounds. Hydrogen gas (H2) is a molecule, but not a compound because it is made of only one element. Water (H2O) can be called a molecule or a compound because it is made of hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O) atoms. 

There are two main types of chemical bonds that hold atoms together: covalent and ionic/electrovalent bonds. Atoms that share electrons in a chemical bond have covalent bonds. An oxygen molecule (O2) is a good example of a molecule with a covalent bond. Ionic bonds occur when electrons are donated from one atom to another. Table salt (NaCl) is a common example of a compound with an ionic bond. 

Physical and Chemical Traits of Compounds

 

When we discuss phase changes inmatter, we are looking at physicalchanges. Physical forces alone (unless you're inside of the Sun or something extreme) rarely break down compounds completely. You can apply heat to melt an ice cube, but there will be no change in the water molecules. You can also place a cup of water in a container and decrease the pressure. The water will eventually boil, but the molecules will not change. 

Chemical changes in compounds happen when chemical bonds are created or destroyed. Forces act on the bonds between atoms, changing the molecular structure of a substance. You can pour liquid acid on a solid and watch the solid dissolve. That process is a chemical change because molecular bonds are being created and destroyed. Geologists pour acids on rocks to test for certain compounds. 

There are millions of different compounds around you. Probably everything you can see is one type of compound or another. When elements join and become compounds, they lose many of their individual traits. Sodium (Na) alone is very reactive. But when sodium and chlorine (Cl) combine, they form a non-reactive substance called sodium chloride (table salt, NaCl). New compounds have few or none of the physical or chemical traits of the original elements. They have a new life of their own. 

 

Different Bonds Abound

 

If you look at sodium chloride, it is held together by one ionic/electrovalent bond. What about magnesium chloride (MgCl2)? It contains onemagnesium (Mg) and two chlorine (Cl) atoms. There are two ionic bonds. Methane (CH4) is made up of one carbon (C) and four hydrogen (H) atoms. There are four bonds and they are all covalent. 

You can see the sodium (Na) part on the left and the hydroxide (-OH) part on the right. The bond that binds the hydrogen (H) to the oxygen (O) is covalent. The sodium is bonded to the hydroxide part of the compound with an ionic bond. This is a good example of how there can be different types of bonds within one compound. 

 

Whole Lotta Rules Going On

 

The process of naming compounds is just a set of rules. We're going to show you some of the basics. There are some advanced ways of naming things that we're going to skip right now. 

When you have two different elements, there are usually only two words in the compound name. The first word is the name of the first element. The second word tells you the second element and how many atoms there are in the compound. The second word usually ends in IDE. That's the suffix. When you are working with non-metals like oxygen (O) and chlorine (Cl), the prefix (section at the beginning of the word) of the second element changes based on how many atoms there are in the compound. It's like this... 

Do you notice anything about the chalkboard? You can see that the prefixes are very similar to the prefixes of geometric shapes. You know what atriangle is. Right? Well the prefix tri- means three. So when you have three chlorine atoms, you would name it trichloride. 

Look at the other names too. You may know about a pentagon, a hexagon, or an octagon. The naming system in chemistry works the same way! 

Let's put these ideas together! Remember, we're only talking about simple compounds with no metal elements. Most simple compounds only have two words in their names. Let's start with carbon monoxide (CO). That name tells you that you have one carbon(C) atom and one oxygen (O) atom (you can also use the prefix MONO to say one atom). Remember that the second word ends in -ide. So... 

(1) Carbon + (1) Oxygen = Carbon monoxide (CO)

Now we'll build on that example. What if you have one carbon (C) and two oxygen (O) atoms? 

(1) Carbon + (2) Oxygen = Carbon dioxide (CO2)

One last example and we'll call it quits. Now you have one carbon (C) and four chlorine (Cl) atoms. 

(1) Carbon + (4) Chlorine = Carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)

You should be getting the idea now. The compound name can tell you how many atoms are inside. Take a look at some of the examples and see if you understand what is happening in the name.