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Structure of Substance - Lesson - 2

The document discusses the structure of atoms. It describes the three main subatomic particles - protons, neutrons, and electrons. Protons are positively charged and located in the atomic nucleus. Neutrons are neutral and also located in the nucleus. Electrons are negatively charged and located outside the nucleus. The number of protons determines the element and is called the atomic number. The total number of protons and neutrons is the mass number. Isotopes are atoms of the same element with the same number of protons but different numbers of neutrons. The atomic mass takes into account the relative abundances of isotopes and is the average mass of atoms of an element.

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230 views

Structure of Substance - Lesson - 2

The document discusses the structure of atoms. It describes the three main subatomic particles - protons, neutrons, and electrons. Protons are positively charged and located in the atomic nucleus. Neutrons are neutral and also located in the nucleus. Electrons are negatively charged and located outside the nucleus. The number of protons determines the element and is called the atomic number. The total number of protons and neutrons is the mass number. Isotopes are atoms of the same element with the same number of protons but different numbers of neutrons. The atomic mass takes into account the relative abundances of isotopes and is the average mass of atoms of an element.

Uploaded by

samson
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The Structure of Substance

1
The Structure of the Atom
Relative mass: Atoms are extremely small and their masses cannot be described using ordinary mass
units, such as grams, milligrams or micrograms. A different scale is used to describe the mass of
atomic particles. We use “relative mass” to describe their mass.

 The relative mass of atomic particles is expressed in atomic mass unit (amu). The mass of a
proton is not exactly the same as that of a neutron. But according to the relative mass scale they
are both assigned a relative mass of 1 amu. The mass of an electron is extremely small as compared
to that of the proton and the neutron. Hence, the relative mass of the electron is approximately
zero amu.

2
The Structure of the Atom
Proton
 proton is a tiny positively charged particle found in the nucleus of an atom.
 Protons are too small to see, even with a powerful microscope.
 All elements have the same type of protons. A proton of carbon atom, for example,
is the same as the protons found in oxygen and aluminum atoms.

Electron
 An electron is a tiny negatively charged particle found outside the nucleus of an
atom.
 They are about 2000 times smaller than a proton.
 Since electrons are found outside the nucleus they are always available at the
surface an atom. When you rub materials together, static electricity is observed
because of electrons on the surface of the materials.
 In a given atom, the number of electrons is equal to the number of protons.
For instance,an oxygen atom has 8 protons and 8 electrons an atom of aluminum has 13
protons and 13 electrons.
3
The Structure of the Atom
Neutron
A neutron is a tiny neutral particle located in the nucleus of an atom.
 All neutrons are exactly alike. In many atoms, the number of neutrons is higher than
that of protons.
For example, there are 3 protons and 4 neutrons in lithium atom; similarly, there
are 11 protons and 12 neutrons in sodium atom.

4
Atomic Number and Mass Number
 Atomic number is the number of protons in an atom. It is symbolized by “Z”.

Atomic number (Z) = Number of protons

 Mass number is the sum of protons and neutrons in an atom.


 It is symbolized by “A”.
Sodium, for example, contains 11 protons and 12 neutrons. Thus the atomic number of
sodium is 11 and its mass number is 23.

Mass number (A) = Number of protons + Number of neutrons

Atomic number and mass number are commonly given with the symbol of an element, in
form look the following representation.

5
Class Work
1. The mass number of chlorine is 35 and its atomic number is 17. Give the number of
its protons, electrons and neutrons.

2. Complete the following table.

3. Use a periodic table to tell the atomic number of the following elements.
A) Lithium B) Boron C) Fluorine D) Calcium

6
Isotopes
Atoms of the same element with the same number of protons but different number of
neutrons are called Isotopes.

 Isotopes have the same atomic number but different mass numbers.

For example, there are three isotopes of carbon. The first isotope contains 6 neutrons.
The second contains 7 and the third contains 8 neutrons.
 In the designation of isotopes, the mass number is written with a hyphen after the
name of the element.
 For example, the isotopes of carbon with mass numbers 12, 13 and 14 can
be written as Carbon–12, Carbon–13 and Carbon–14 respectively. Alternately they can
be written as 12C, 13C and 14C.

 The three isotopes of hydrogen have the following common names.


Hydrogen - 1 Protium
Hydrogen - 2 Deutrium
Hydrogen - 3 Tritium 7
Isotopes
 The isotopes of an element are not found in nature in equal distribution. Among the
isotopes of a given element, one of them will be found in greater quantity and others
in smaller quantity.
 Among the three isotopes of carbon, for example, 12C is the most abundant. Among
the three isotopes of hydrogen, protium is the most common.
 Note that since it is the electrons which are responsible for chemical properties,
isotopes of an element have the same chemical properties. However, they differ in
physical properties such as density.

8
Atomic Mass
 isotopes have the same number of protons but different number of neutrons.
Boron for example, has two isotopes, namely, B and 11B. mass of an atom is the total
mass of neutrons and protons.

Hence, 10B has a mass of 10 amu and 11B has a mass of 11 amu.

 Atomic mass is the average mass of the isotopes of a given element. For example
the two isotopes of chlorine exist in nature in different percentages: 75% of the
atoms are 35Cl and 25% are 37Cl. Thus the atomic mass of chlorine is calculated as
the average mass of these two isotopes.

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