Topic 1- Atomic structure and the periodic table Flashcards
What are all substances made of?
All substances are made of atoms.
What is an atom?
An atom is the smallest part of an element that can exist-so it cannot be divided.
What is the radius of an atom?
Atoms have a radius of about 0.1 nanometers
thats 1 x 10-10 m
What do atoms contain?
Atoms contain a NUCLEUS-
1) It’s in the middle of the atom.
2) It contains PROTONS an NEUTRONS.
3) The nucleus has a radius of around 1 x 10-14 m).
4) It has a positive charge because of the protons.
5) Almost the whole mass of the atom is concentrated in the nucleus.
and ELECTRONS-
1) Move around the nucleus in electron SHELLS.
2) They’re negatively charged and tiny, but they cover lot of space.
3) The volume of their orbits determines the size of the tom.
4) Electrons have virtually NO mass.
What is the relative mass and charge of protons, neutrons and electrons?
Particle Relative Mass Charge
Proton 1 +1
Neutron 1 0
Electron Very small -1
What is the overall charge of an atom which contains and equal number of protons and electrons and why?
1) Atoms are NEUTRAL- they have NO CHARGE overall (unlike ions).
2) This is because they have the SAME NUMBER of PROTONS as ELECTRONS.
3) The charge on the electrons is the SAME size as the charge of the PROTONS, but OPPOSITE- so the charges CANCEL OUT.
What is an ion?
An ion is an atom or group of atoms that has lost or gained electrons.
What is the charge of an ion?
In an ion, the number of protons DOESN’T EQUAL the number of electrons. This means it has an OVERALL CHARGE.
For example, an ion with a 2- charge, has two more electrons than protons.
How are atoms represented?
Atoms of each element are represented by a chemical symbol, eg O represents an atom of oxygen, Na represents an atom of sodium.
What can you learn from the chemical symbol?
The chemical (or nuclear) symbol of an atom tells you its ATOMIC (proton) NUMBER and MASS NUMBER.
What does the mass and atomic number tell us?
Tip- the mass number is always larger than the atomic number except from hydrogen.
1) The ATOMIC NUMBER tells you how many PROTONS there are.
2) The MASS NUMBER tells you the TOTAL number of PROTONS AND NEUTRONS in the atom.
3) To get the number of neutrons, just subtract the atomic number from the mass number.
What is an element?
An element is a substance that contains only one type of atom.
So an element is a substance made up of atoms that all have the same number of protons in their nucleus.
N.b - all elements of the same type have the same atomic number i.e. the same number of protons.
How do atoms differ?
Atoms can have different numbers of protons, neutrons and electrons.
It’s the number of PROTONS in the nucleus that decides what type of atom it is.
E.g. an atom with one proton in its nucleus is hydrogen and an atom with two protons is helium.
What must a substance contain the same number of to make it an element?
A substance must only contain atoms with the same number of protons to make it an element.
How many elements are there?
Where are they shown?
There are about 100 different elements.
Elements are shown in the periodic table.
What are isotopes?
1) ISOTOPES are different forms of the same element, which have the SAME NUMBER of PROTONS but a different number of NEUTRONS.
2) So isotopes have the same atomic number but different mass numbers.
N.B- the number of neutrons is just the mass number minus the atomic number.
What is a common example of an isotope?
A very popular example of a pair of isotopes are carbon -12 and carbon-13.
Carbon-12 contains 6 protons
6 neutrons
12 6 electrons
C
6
Whereas Carbon -13 contains 6 protons
6 electrons
7 NEUTRONS 13
C
6
Therefore the IDENTITY of an atom depends on the number of PROTONS in its nucleus.
What is relative atomic mass and what is it used for?
Because many elements can exist as a number of different isotopes, RELATIVE ATOMIC MASS (Ar) is used instead of mass number when referring to the element as a whole.
The relative atomic mass (Ar) of an element is an average value that takes account of the abundance of the isotopes of the element.
In other words, the Ar is an average value for all the isotopes of that element. Numerically it is the same as the mass number.
How can you work out the relative atomic mass of an element?
Example:
Bromine atoms exist as the isotopes 79 and 81- there are 50% of each present in the universe, which is why in the periodic table, an average mass number of 80 is quoted.
Other isotopes are 35 with 37
Cl Cl
In this case, 25% are the 37 isotope, and 75% are the 35 isotope, and that is why the periodic table quotes the relative atomic mass number of Cl as 35.5:
% x mass % x mass
(25 x 37) + (75 x 35)
__________________ = 35.5
100
What is the relative atomic mass (Ar) formula?
relative atomic
mass =
(Ar) (isotope abundance x isotope mass number)
____________________________________
100
What are compounds?
How are they bonded?
Compounds are substances formed from TWO OR MORE elements, the atoms of each element are in fixed proportions throughout the compound and can be represented by formulae using the symbols of the atoms from which they were formed.
The elements are held together by chemical bonds.
How are compounds formed and how are bonds made?
Compounds are formed from elements by chemical reactions. When elements react, atoms combine with other atoms to form compounds.
Making bonds involves atoms giving away, taking or sharing ELECTRONS. Only the ELECTRONS are involved, the nuclei of the atoms aren’t affected at all when a bond is made.
How can compounds be separated?
It’s usually difficult to separate the original elements of a compound out again-compounds can ONLY be separated into elements by CHEMICAL REACTIONS (breaking and making bonds). Compounds cannot be separated using physical processes.
N.b- during a chemical reaction at least one new substance is made. You can usually measure a change in energy such as temperature change.
How can Chemical reactions be represented?
Chemical reactions can be represented by word equations or equations using symbols and formulae.