Chapter 1: Fundamentals of Chemistry: Lesson 2: Atoms and Molecules

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CHAPTER 1: FUNDAMENTALS OF CHEMISTRY
Lesson 2: Atoms and Molecules

This lesson will introduce you to the following topics:
 Definition of Atoms and Molecules

 Components of the Atom
 Dalton’s Atomic Theory
 Isotopes
 Chemical Bonding
• Most of the Universe consists of matter and energy.

• Energy is the capacity to do work.
• Matter has mass and occupies space.
• All matter is composed of basic elements that cannot be broken down to substances
with different chemical or physical properties.
• Elements are substances consisting of one type of atom
• Pure (24K) gold is composed of only one type of atom, gold atoms.
Atom – the basic building blocks from which everything around us are made of
• Atoms are the smallest particle into which an element can be divided.
Figure 1. Atom Structure
Early Greek Theories
• In 400 B.C., Democritus thought matter could not be divided indefinitely which led to
the idea of atoms in a void.
• In 350 B.C, Aristotle modified an earlier theory that matter was made of four elements:
earth, fire, water, air. Aristotle was wrong. However, his theory persisted for 2000
years.
• 17th century – The start of experimentation as the basis of science
• Since the work of Enrico Fermi and his colleagues, we now know that the
atom is divisible, often releasing tremendous energies as in nuclear explosions or (in a
controlled fashion in) thermonuclear power plants.
LEARNING MODULE FOR CHEM 1 (CHEMISTRY FOR ENGINEERS) Page 1 of 9

Chapter 1: Fundamentals of Chemistry
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Dalton’s Atomic Theory of Matter
• All matter is composed of indivisible atoms.

• An element is composed of only one type of atom.
• Two or more elements combine to form compounds
 All atoms of one type of element always behave the same way.
 Atoms of different elements do not behave the same way.
 Law of Constant composition
• A compound always has the same elements in the same proportion by mass.
• Two elements can combine to form compounds (Example: C and O can combine to
form CO and CO2) and the masses of each element for each compound are always in a
fixed ratio
 Law of Multiple Proportions
• Law of Conservation of Mass

• A chemical reaction involves only the separation, combination, or rearrangement of
atoms – Never their creation or destruction.
Sample Problem:
If 2.50 g of iron powder react with 1.44 g of yellow sulfur powder, what is the mass of the
iron sulfide?
Solution: iron + sulfur  iron sulfide

2.50 g + 1.44 g = 3.94 g
Components of the Atom
• Subatomic particles were discovered during the 1800s. For our purposes we will
concentrate only on three of them, summarized in Table below:
Remember that:
 Atoms can be identified by the number of protons and neutrons they contain.
 Atoms are electrically neutral; The number of protons is equal to the number of electrons.
 All chemical reactions involve either the loss and gain of electrons or the sharing of
electrons.
 The mass of a proton is 1840 times the mass of an electron.
3 particles from which atoms are made of:
• Proton is located in the center (or nucleus) of an atom,

• each atom has at least one proton.
• Protons have a charge of +1, and a mass of approximately 1 atomic mass unit
(amu).

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• Elements differ from each other in the number of protons they have, e.g.
Hydrogen has 1 proton; Helium has 2.
• Neutron also is located in the atomic nucleus (except in Hydrogen).

• The neutron has no charge, and a mass of slightly over 1 amu.
• Some scientists propose the neutron is made up of a proton and electron-like
particle.
• Electron is a very small particle located outside the nucleus.

• Because they move at speeds near the speed of light the precise location of
electrons is hard to pin down.
• Electrons occupy orbitals, or areas where they have a high statistical
probability of occurring. The charge on an electron is -1.
• Its mass is negligible (approximately 1800 electrons are needed to equal the
mass of one proton).
Figure 2. Particles from which atoms are made of
*Protons and neutrons are called nucleons
Atomic number and atomic mass
• The atomic number is the number of protons an atom has. It is characteristic and
unique for each element.
• The atomic mass (also referred to as the atomic weight) is the number of protons and
neutrons in an atom.
Isotopes
• Two atoms of the same type that have different numbers of neutrons are called
isotopes.
• Isotopes have equal number of protons, but different number of neutrons.
• Have the same chemical identity, similar reactivities but different nuclear properties
and masses; Example Carbon exists as carbon-12, carbon-13, and carbon-14 where
each carbon atom has 6 protons but 6,7, or 8 neutrons
• Isotopes are identified with an element name followed by the mass number; Example:
cobalt-60 (Co-60)
Electrons and energy
• Electrons, because they move so fast (approximately at the speed of light), seem to
straddle the fence separating energy from matter.
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• Albert Einstein developed his famous E=mc2 equation relating matter and energy over
a century ago. Because of his (and others) work, we think of electrons both as particles
of matter (having mass is a property of matter) and as units (or quanta) of energy.
When subjected to energy, electrons will acquire some of that energy.
Figure 3 below illustrates the Excitation of an electron by energy, causing the electron to “jump”
to another electron (energy) level known as the excited state. Image from Purves et al., Life:
The Science of Biology, 4th Edition, by Sinauer Associates (www.sinauer.com) and WH Freeman
(www.whfreeman.com), used with permission.
Figure 3. Excitation of an electron by energy
Energy levels or electron shells/orbits
Figure 4. Energy Levels
• Electrons are distributed in a defined path around the nucleus in the shells/orbits
• Each electron revolves around the nucleus in it’s own shell/orbit
• The maximum number of electron present in a shell is given by the formula:

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Figure 5. Calculation of Energy Levels
Calculation of energy levels:
K (shell) = 2 x 1^2 = 2
L (shell) = 2 x 2^2 = 8
M (shell) = 2 x 3^2 = 18
• The answer is the maximum number of electrons a shell/orbit can hold
Chemical Bonding
• During the nineteenth century, chemists arranged the then-known elements according
to chemical bonding, recognizing that one group (the furthermost right column on the
Periodic Table, referred to as the Inert Gases or Noble Gases) tended to occur in
elemental form (in other words, not in a molecule with other elements).
• It was later determined that this group had outer electron shells containing two (as in
the case of Helium) or eight (Neon, Xenon, Radon, Krypton, etc.) electrons.
• As a general rule, for the atoms we are likely to encounter in biological systems, atoms
tend to gain or lose their outer electrons to achieve a Noble Gas outer electron shell
configuration of two or eight electrons.
• The number of electrons that are gained or lost is characteristic for each element, and
ultimately determines the number and types of chemical bonds atoms of that element
can form.
• Atomic diagrams for several atoms are shown in Figure 6.

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Figure 6. Atomic Diagram for Several Atoms
Figure 6. Atomic diagrams illustrating the filling of the outer electron shells. Images from
Purves et al., Life: The Science of Biology, 4th Edition, by Sinauer Associates
(www.sinauer.com) and WH Freeman (www.whfreeman.com), used with permission.

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Figure 7. Atomic Diagram for Several Atoms
• Ionic bonds are formed when atoms become ions by gaining or losing electrons.
• Chlorine is in a group of elements having seven electrons in their outer shells
(see Figure 7).
• Members of this group tend to gain one electron, acquiring a charge of -1.
• Sodium is in another group with elements having one electron in their outer
shells. Members of this group tend to lose that outer electron, acquiring a
charge of +1.
• Oppositely charged ions are attracted to each other, thus Cl- (the symbolic
representation of the chloride ion) and Na+ (the symbol for the sodium ion,
using the Greek word natrium) form an ionic bond, becoming the molecule
sodium chloride, shown in Figure 8.
• Ionic bonds generally form between elements in Group I (having one electron in their
outer shell) and Group VIIa (having seven electrons in their outer shell). Such bonds
are relatively weak, and tend to disassociate in water, producing solutions that have
both Na and Cl ions.
Figure 8. Sodium Chloride
• Covalent bonds form when atoms share electrons.

• Since electrons move very fast they can be shared, effectively filling or emptying the
outer shells of the atoms involved in the bond.
• Such bonds are referred to as electron-sharing bonds. An analogy can be made to child
custody: the children are like electrons, and tend to spend some time with one parent
and the rest of their time with the other parent. In a covalent bond, the electron clouds
surrounding the atomic nuclei overlap, as shown in Figure 9.

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Figure 9. Electron Sharing Bonds
Carbon (C) is in Group IVa, meaning it has four electrons in its outer shell. Thus, to become a
"happy atom", Carbon can either gain or lose four electrons. By sharing the electrons with
other atoms, Carbon can become a happy atom, alternately filling and emptying its outer shell,
as with the four hydrogens shown in Figure 9.
Figure 10. Formation of covalent bonds in methane. Carbon needs to share four
electrons, in effect it has four slots. Each hydrogen provides an electron to each of
these slots. At the same time each hydrogen needs to fill one slot, which is done by
sharing an electron with the carbon.
The molecule methane (chemical formula CH4) has four covalent bonds, one between Carbon
and each of the four Hydrogens. Carbon contributes an electron, and Hydrogen contributes an
electron.
Molecules – group of a 2 or more atoms that are chemically bonded together.

• Atoms can be combined chemically by external factors such as heat and light
• When atoms combined they either lose or gain valence electrons
• If two atoms combined are made up of same element it is called Homo Atomic
Molecules
• If two atoms combined are mixed up of a different elements such as H2O(water) it is
called Hetero Atomic Molecule

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References:
Purves et al., Life: The Science of Biology, 4th Edition, Retrieved from (www.sinauer.com)
(www.whfreeman.com)
Napay. M.A. 2020.Chemistry Lecture Notes
Pequeña, D.B. 2020. Chemistry Lecture Notes
Prepared by:
Mary Angeline O. Napay, MSAEn Debbie Butch R. Pequeña, MSAEn

Instructor I Part-time Faculty


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College of Agriculture and Forestry

ISO 9001:2015 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURAL AND BIOSYSTEMS ENGINEERING