The Nature of Matter

All matter is made of ATOMS (the atom is the basic unit of matter) composed of protons, neutrons, and electrons. The center, or nucleus, of the atom is composed of positively charge PROTONS and neutral NEUTRONS. The outside of the atom has negatively charged ELECTRONS in various orbits. This is shown schematically in the picture to the right where the electrons are shown orbiting the center, or nucleus, of the atom in much the same way that the planets orbit the sun in our solar system. All atoms have the same number of protons (positively charged) and electrons (negatively charged). Therefore all atoms have a neutral charge (the positive and negative charges cancel each other). Most atoms have approximately the same number of neutrons as they do protons or electrons, although this is not necessary, and the number of neutrons does not affect the identity of the element. The number of protons (atomic number) in an atom determines which kind of atom we have, and the atomic mass (weight) of the atom is determined by the number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus (the electrons are so small as to be almost weightless).

A SUMMARY OF THE SUBATOMIC PARTICLES OF AN ATOM

Chemical Bonds
Development of the Modern Theory of Bonding
The discovery of the electron by J. J. Thomson in 1897 was, in the long run, the key needed to solve the problem of bonding. In the short run, however, it was a serious hindrance to resolving that issue. The question that troubled many chemists at first was how two particles with the same electrical charge (as atoms then seemed to be) could combine with each other. An answer to that dilemma slowly began to evolve, beginning with the work of the young German chemist Richard Abegg. In the early 1900s, Abegg came to the conclusion that inert gases are stable elements because their outermost shells of electrons always contain eight electrons. Perhaps atoms combine with each other, Abegg said, when they exchange electrons in such as way that they all end up with eight electrons in their outer orbit. In a simplistic way, Abegg had laid out the principle of ionic bonding. Ionic bonds are formed when one atom completely gives up one or more electrons, and a second atom takes on those electrons. Since Abegg was killed in 1910 at the age of 41 in a balloon accident, he was prevented from improving upon his original hypothesis. That work was taken up in the 1910s, however, by a number of other scientists, most prominently the German chemist Walther Kossel and the American chemists Irving Langmuir and Gilbert Newton Lewis. Working independently, these researchers came up with a second method by which atoms might bond to each other. Rather than completely losing or gaining electrons, they hypothesized, perhaps atoms can share electrons with each other. One might imagine, for example, that in a molecule of methane (CH4), each of the four valence electrons in carbon is shared with the single electron available from each of the four hydrogen atoms. Such an arrangement could provide carbon with a full outer shell of eight electrons and each hydrogen atom with a full outer shell of two. Chemical bonds in which two atoms share pairs of electrons with each other are known as covalent bonds. In trying to illustrate this concept, Lewis developed another system for representing chemical bonds. In the Lewis system (also known as the electron-dot system), each atom is represented by its chemical symbol with the number of electrons in its outermost orbit, its bonding or valence electrons. The formula of a compound, then, is to be represented by showing how two or more atoms share electrons with each other.

Chemical Bonds
 Atoms will gain, lose, or share electrons to fill their outer energy levels and become stable. The whole point in the chemical bonding formation is for an atom to stabilize itself. So if you remember the outer energy level are filled of what we call valence electron. VALENCE ELECTRON- electrons in the outermost energy level and these are the ones that will interact with another atoms electron. The interaction of electrons between atoms creates an attraction which holds atoms together in a chemical bonding.

All atoms would like to attain electron configurations like noble gases, i.e., have completed outer shells. Atoms can form stable electron configurations like noble gases by losing electrons, gaining electrons and sharing electrons. For a stable configuration each atom must fill its outer energy level. In the case of noble gases there will be eight electrons in the valence (outer most) shell (with the exception of He which has two electrons). Atoms that have 1, 2 or 3 electrons in their outer levels will tend to lose them in interactions with atoms that have 5, 6 or 7 electrons in their outer levels. Atoms that have 5, 6 or 7 electrons in their outer levels will tend to gain electrons from atoms with 1, 2 or 3 electrons in their outer levels. Atoms that have 4 electrons in the outer most energy level will tend neither to totally lose nor totally gain electrons during interactions and thus they tend to share electrons.

A stable electron configuration refers to an atom in which the outer electron shell is full. Outermost electron shells hold a maximum of 2, 8, 8, 18,...(etc.) electrons. With an outer shell of 2 electrons, the periodic table shows that helium has a stable electron configuration. The next stable configuration of an element has 10 (2 + 8) electrons. This is neon. Neon is followed by argon, with 18 (2 + 8 + 8) electrons. Krypton, with 36 (2 + 8 + 8 + 18) electrons is next. The remaining stable configurations follow a similar pattern, based on the maximum number of electrons able to fit into the outermost ring. These elements are extremely stable and rarely react with other elements. They are referred to as the noble gases or inert elements. Atoms of other elements may bond with each other or different elements to form molecules having full outermost shells of electrons.