Chapter -3

ATOMS AND ELEMENTS

Atoms
Atoms are the smallest particles of matter, that we cannot break down further by chemical
means.
For example
Sodium is made of tiny particles called sodium atoms.
Diamond is made of carbon atoms different from sodium atoms.
Single atoms are far too small to see. Perhaps a million sodium atoms In fact atoms are mostly
empty space.
Each consists of a nucleus and a cloud of particles called electrons that whizz around it. If a
sodium atom is magnified many millions of timescould fit in a line across this full stop
The elements
Sodium is made of sodium atoms only, so it is an element.
An element contains only one kind of atom.
Around 90 elements have been found in the Earth and atmosphere.
Scientists have made nearly 30 others in the lab.
Many of the ‘artificial’ elements are very unstable, and last just a few seconds before
breaking
down into other elements. (That is why they are not found in nature.)

Symbols for the elements

To make life easy, each element has a symbol.
example the symbol for carbon is C. The symbol for potassium is K, from its Latin name
kalium.
Some elements are named after the people who discover
The table above is called the Periodic Table.
It gives the names and symbols for the elements.
The column and row an element is in gives us lots of clues about it.
For example, look at the columns numbered I, II, III …
The elements in these form families or groups, with similar properties.
So if you know how one element in Group I behaves, for example, you
can make a good guess about the others.
The rows are called periods.
Look at the zig-zag line. It separates metals from non-metals, with thenon-metals on the right
of the line, except for hydrogen.
So there is a change from metal to non-metal, as you go across a period.
Now look at the small numbers beside each symbol.
These tell us a lot about the atoms of the element, as you will soon see.
What is: a an atom? b an element?
2 If you could look inside an atom, what would you see?
3 The symbols for some elements come from their
Latin names. See if you can identify the element whose
Latin name is:
a natrium b ferrum c plumbum d argentum
4 Which element has this symbol? a Ca b Mg c N
5 See if you can pick out an element named after the
famous scientist Albert Einstein.
6 From the Periodic Table, name
a three metals a three non-metals
that you expect to behave in a similar way.
Protons, neutrons, and electrons
Atoms consist of a nucleus and a cloud of electrons that move around
the nucleus.
The nucleus is itself a cluster of two kinds of particles,
protons and neutrons.
All the particles in an atom are very light.
So their mass is measured inatomic mass units, rather than grams. Protons
and electrons also have
an electric charge:

Particle in atom Mass Charge

Electron 1/1836 parts of proton -1
Proton 1 +1
Neutron 1 0
Proton number
A sodium atom has 11 protons. This can be used to identify it, since only
a sodium atom has 11 protons.
Every other atom has a different number.
You can identify an atom by the number of protons in it.
The number of protons in an atom is called its proton number.
The proton number of sodium is 11.
How many electrons?
The sodium atom also has 11 electrons. So it has an equal number of
protons and electrons.
The same is true for every sort of atom:
Every atom has an equal number of protons and electrons.
So atoms have no overall charge.
Look at the box on the right. It shows that the positive and negative
charges cancel each other, for the sodium atom
The charge on a sodium atom:
11 protons
Each has a charge of 1+
Total charge 11
11 electrons
Each has a charge of 1-
Total charge 11-
Adding the charges: 0
The answer is zero.
The atom has no overall charge.
Nucleon number
Protons and neutrons form the nucleus, so are called nucleons.
The total number of protons and neutrons in an atom is called its
nucleon number.
The nucleon number for the sodium atom is 23.
So sodium can be described in a short way like this: 2 3 11Na.
The lower number is always the proton number.
The other number is the nucleon number.
So you can tell straight away that sodium atoms have
12 neutrons. (23 -11 =12)

nucleon number
symbol
proton number
For example:
16
Name the particles that make up the atom.
2 Which particle has:
a a positive charge? b no charge? c almost no mass?
3 An atom has 9 protons. Which element is it?
4 Why do atoms have no overall charge?
5 What does this term mean?
a proton number b nucleon number
6 Name each of these atoms, and say how many protons,
electrons, and neutrons it has:
1 2 6 C 16

8 O 2 4 12 Mg 2 7 13 Al 64

29 Cu
Isotopes and radioactivity
All carbon atoms have 6 protons. But not all carbon atoms are identical.
Some have more neutrons than others
Most carbon atoms are like this with 6 neutrons.
That makes 12 nucleons (protons 1 neutrons) intotal, so it is called carbon-12.
But about one in every hundred carbon atoms is like this, with 7 neutrons. It has 13 nucleons in total,
so is called carbon-13.
And a very tiny number of carbon atoms are like this, with 8 neutrons.
It has 14 nucleons in total, so is called carbon-14.

The three atoms above are called isotopes of carbon.

Isotopes are atoms of the same element, with different numbers
of neutrons.
Some isotopes are radioactive
A carbon-14 atom behaves in a strange way. It is radioactive. That means its nucleus is unstable.
Sooner or later the atom breaks down naturally or decays, giving out radiation in the form of rays and
particles, plus a large amount of energy.
Like carbon, a number of other elements have radioactive isotopes – or radioisotopes – that occur
naturally, and eventually decay.
But the other two isotopes of carbon (like most natural isotopes) are non-radioactive.
Radiation may contain …
alpha particles – made up of 2 protons and 2 electrons
beta particles – electrons moving at high speed neutrons
gamma rays – high energy rays
Isotopes of chlorine
Two isotopes of chlorine are Cl-35,Cl-37
Electron shells
Electrons are arranged in shells around the nucleus.
The first shell, closest to the nucleus, is the lowest energy level.
The further a shell is from the nucleus, the higher the energy level.
Each shell can hold only a certain number of electrons. These are the rules:
The first shell can hold only 2 electrons. It fills first.
The second shell can hold 8 electrons. It fills next.
The third shell can hold 18 electrons. But it fills upto 8.
The next 2 go into the fourth shell (notshown). Then the rest of the third shell fills.
The distribution of electrons in the atom above is written in a short waybas 288. (Or
sometimes as 2,8,8 or 2.8.8.)
The electron shells for the first 20 elements
Patterns in the Periodic Table
The period number tells you how many shells there are.
All the elements in a group have the same number of electrons in theirouter shells. So Group I elements
have 1, Group II have 2, and so on.
These outer-shell electrons are also called the valency electrons.
The group number is the same as the number of outer-shell electrons,except for Group 0.
The valency electrons dictate how an element reacts. So the elements in Group I all have similar
reactions, for example. Sodium reacts with water to given alkaline solution. The other Group I metals react
in a similar way – because their atoms all have one outer electron
How sodium atoms gain a stable outer shell
A sodium atom has just 1 electron in its outer shell. To obtain a stable
outer shell of 8 electrons, it loses this electron to another atom. It becomes
a sodium ion:
The sodium ion has 11 protons but only 10 electrons, so it has a charge of 11
The symbol for sodium is Na,
so the symbol for the sodium ion is Na+1.
The 1 means 1 positive charge. Na+1 is a positive ion.
How chlorine atoms gain a stable outer shell
A chlorine atom has 7 electrons in its outer shell.
It can reach 8 electrons by accepting 1 electron from another atom.
It becomes a chloride ion
The chloride ion has a charge of 1-, (Cl-1 )
so it is a negative ion. Its symbol is Cl-1 .
Ions
An atom becomes an ion when it loses or gains electrons.
An ion is a charged particle.
It is charged because it has an unequal number of protons and electrons.
Why are the atoms of the Group 0 elements unreactive?
2 Explain why all other atoms are reactive.
3 Draw a diagram to show how this atom gains a stable
outer
shell of 8 electrons:
a a sodium atom b a chlorine atom
4 Explain why
a a sodium ion has a charge of 1+
b a chloride ion has a charge of 1-
5 Explain what an ion is, in your own words.
6 Atoms of Group 0 elements do not form ions. Why not?
sodium atom must lose one electron, and a chlorine atom must gain one, to obtain stable outer
shells of 8 electrons.
So when a sodium atom and a chlorine atom react together, the sodium atom loses its electron to
the chlorine atom, and two ions are formed.
Here, sodium electrons are shown as and chlorine electrons as :x
The two ions have opposite charges, so they attract each other. The force of attraction between
them is strong. It is called an ionic bond.
The ionic bond is the bond that forms between ions of opposite charge
Covalent compounds
In the last unit you saw that many non-metal elements exist as molecules.
A huge number of compounds also exist as molecules.
In a molecular compound, atoms of different elements share electrons.
The compounds are called covalent compounds.
Molecules
The two bonded hydrogen atoms above form a molecule.
A molecule is a group of atoms held together by covalent bonds.
Since it is made up of molecules, hydrogen is a molecular element.
Its formula is H2. The 2 tells you there are 2 hydrogen atoms in each
molecule.
Many other non-metals are also molecular. For example:
iodine, I2 oxygen, O2 nitrogen, N2,chlorine, Cl2 sulfur, S2 phosphorus, P4
Elements made up of molecules containing two atoms are called diatomic.
So iodine and oxygen are diatomic
Bonding diagrams
To show the bonding clearly: use dots and crosses (o, •, and ×)
for electrons from atoms of different elements
write the symbol for the element in the centre of each atom.
Covalent compounds
In the last unit you saw that many non-metal elements exist as molecules.
A huge number of compounds also exist as molecules.
In a molecular compound, atoms of different elements share electrons.The compounds are
called covalent compounds.
The shapes of the molecules
Look at the models of the methane molecule, above and on the right.
The molecule is tetrahedral in shape, because the four pairs of electrons around carbon repel each
other, and move as far apart as possible.
Now look at the model of the water molecule above.
The hydrogen atoms are closer together than in methane. This is because the two non-bonding
pairs of atoms repel more strongly than the bonding pairs. So they push these closer together.
The angle between the hydrogen atoms in water is 104.5°.
The shape of CO2 IS Linear and the angle is 1800
NH3 molecule is shaped like a pyramid
a What is a covalent compound?
Ans. Non-metals atoms of different elements share electrons react together to form
covalent compounds
b Give five examples, with their formulae.
Ans. CO2, NH3, CH4, H2O, HCl
2 Draw a diagram to show the bonding in a molecule of:
a methane b water
3 How do the atoms gain stable outer shells, in ammonia?
Each nitrogen atom shares electrons with three hydrogen atoms. So all three atoms now
have a stable arrangement of electrons in their outer shells: 2 for hydrogen and 8 for
nitrogen.
The molecule is shaped like a pyramid.
4 Draw a diagram to show the bonding in carbon dioxide.
5 Why is the carbon dioxide molecule straight, and not bent like the water molecule?.
Due to absence of lone pair of electrons on carbon atom
Properties Ionic compounds Covalent compounds

Formation Metals and non-metals react together to Non-metals share electrons to form
form ionic compounds covalent compounds.
Constituents In ionic solids the particles (ions) are In molecular covalent solids the
charged, and the forces between particles (molecules) are not
them are strong charged,
and the forces between them are
weak.
Melting point Ionic compounds have high melting and Molecular covalent compounds
and Boiling boiling points because the ionic bonds are have low melting and boiling points
point very strong and takes a lot of heat This is because the attraction
energy to break up the lattice. between the molecules is low. So it
does not take much energy to
break up the lattice
solubility Ionic compounds are usually soluble in Covalent compounds tend to be
water. The water molecules are able to insoluble in water.But they do
separate the ions from each other. dissolve in some solvents, for
example tetrachloromethane
conductivity Ionic compounds conduct electricity, Covalent compounds do not
when melted or dissolved in water conduct electricity.
There are no charged particles, so
they cannot conduct
1.The particles in solids usually form a regular lattice. Explain what that means, in your own words.

2 Which type of particles make up the lattice, in: a ionic compounds? b molecular compounds?

3 Solid sodium chloride will not conduct electricity, but a solution of sodium chloride will conduct. Explain
this.
a solution of sodium chloride contains sodium and chloride ions .since these are charged particles hence
conduct electricity
4 A compound melts at 20 0C. a What kind of structure do you think it has?
Covalent structure
Why do you think so?
Due to low melting point
b Will it conduct electricity at 25 0C? Give a reason.
No covalent solids are bad conductor of electricity in its fused state also
5 Describe the arrangement of the molecules in ice. How will the arrangement change as the ice warms