Skip to main content

Basic Concepts in chemistry

For thousands of years people rocks and distal plant uses to materials over the past two centuries chemist have loved more and more about how to get materials from rocks from the air and the sea types of plants they have also found out the right condition to alow these materials to react together to make new substances such as dyes, plastic, medicine.

Basic Concepts in chemistry


When we make a new substance that is important to mix the reactance in the correct proportions to ensure that it is vested in order to do this we need to know about the relative masses of atoms and molecules and how these are used in chemical calculation.

In order to explain how chemical substances behave, first have to understand but the substances themselves were made from.  Over time a model was developed in which all substances were composed of atom of element. Originally it was thought that atom could not themselves be broken up into  smaller parts but now we understand the structure inside the atoms themselves and the role of electrons protons and neutrons we cannot design and make materials and objective almost at the atomic level.                                          

                                                         Matter

Anything and which has mass and occupy space. For example oxygen nitrogen wood and iron

                                                                  Atoms

are the smallest particle of an element which may or may not exist independently and it can enter in a chemical reaction for example atoms of Hydrogen oxygen nitrogen do not exist independently but Helium Neon and  Argon can exist independently.

 Diameter of atom is of the order =   2 x 10-10 meter or .2 nm.

Radius     of atom is of the order = 10-10

                                                                Compound 

A pure substance which is formed by the chemical combination of two or more different elements in a fixed ratio by mass is called compound. Hydrogen and Oxygen in water have a fixed ratio by mass which is 1:8 respectively.

                                                                Molecules 

The smallest particle of an element or compound which exist independently is called molecule  

Classification of Molecules

·         On the basis of type of atoms

1) Home atomic molecules same kind of atoms  H2, O3

2) Heteroatomic molecules different kind of atoms   HCl , H2O

·         On the basis of number of atoms

1) Monatomic    contain only one atom. For Example Helium, Neon, Argon

2) Polyatomic     contain more than one atoms. For example O2 ,CH4 ,NH3

·         On the basis of mass of molecules

1) Micro molecules:    contain molecular mass less than 10000 Dalton. For example glucose

2) Macromolecules:   contain molecular mass about 10000 Dalton. For example: protein

                                                     Atomicity:

Total number of atoms in one molecule is called atomicity for example hemoglobin has 10000 atom

                                                               Ions

The species which carry positive or negative charge. Example Cl- ,O2-

Types of Ions: 

Cations:    The ions which carry positive charge. All cations are smaller in size than their parent        Atoms and energy is required to form cations. For example: Na+, Ca++

Isoelectronic cations are those have same number of electrons in them.For example Na+, Mg++, Al+++

Anions: The ions which carry negative charge. All anions are larger than parent atom andEnergy is released to form anions. For Example: Cl-,SO2-2     

Isoelectronic anions are those have same number of electrons in them. For example Cl-, O--, N---

Molecular Ions: Molecules carry positive or negative charge is called molecular ions.For Example: O2-2, CH4+

                                            Types of Molecular Ions

 Molecular Cations:   molecules carry positive charge

 Molecular Anions:     molecules carry negative charge  

 Note: NH4+ positive is not a molecular ion: 

                                                     Moles: 

Atomic mass of an element expressed in gram is called gram atom or mole 

For example

23 gram of sodium is = 1 mole

 12 gram of carbon is = 1 mole

Molar mass of compound expressed in gram is called gram molecule or mole

 For example

 44 gram of carbon dioxide is = 1 mole

 18 gram of water is = 1 mole

 Formula mass of ionic compound expressed in gram is called gram formula or mole

 For example

 58 8.5 gram of sodium chloride is equal to 1 mole

 Ionic mass of ions expressed in gram is  is called Gram ion or mole 

 For example

 17 gram of OH- is = 1 mole

                                                          Avogadro's number

The number of atoms molecules and ions in 1 mole of substance which is equal to 6.02 x 10 23. It is a constant and denoted by NA

 For example

 One mole of sodium contain 6.02 x 10 23 atoms

 One mole of carbon dioxide contain 6.02 x 10 23 molecules

 One mole of hydroxyl Ion contains 6.02 x 10 23 ions 

                                                 Molar volume 

One mole of any gas at standard temperature and pressure occupies 22.414dm-3.

For example

One mole of H2 contains 6.02 x 10 23 molecules is equal to 22.414 dm3

                                                 STOICHIOMETRY

The branch of chemistry which deals with quantitative relations between reactants and products in a balanced chemical equation

                                     Limitation of Balanced chemical equation

 They do not tell about

·         Conditions

·         Rate of reaction

·         Physical state of reactants and products

·         Mechanism of reaction

                                  Condition for stoichiometry calculation 

·         All reactants must be completely converted into products

·         The side reaction must not occur

·   The law of conservation of mass and law of Definite proportion must be obeyed while doing the calculations

                                             Limiting Reactant

Limiting reactant is a reactant that controls the amount of product formed in a    chemical reaction due to being less than the required amount

               Or

It can also be defined as follows

·         It is a reactant that produce least number of moles of product

·         It is consumed earlier in the reaction

                                   Identification of Limiting Reactant

·         Calculate the number of moles from the given amount of reactants

·         Calculate the number of moles of product formed from the given moles of each reactant

·         Identify the reactant as a limiting reactant which produces least moles of product

                                                        Yield  

The amount of product obtained as a result of chemical reaction is called yield

Types of Yield:

Theoretical yield: The amount of product calculated from the balanced chemical equation is called theoretical yield

Actual yield: The amount of product obtained in a chemical reactions experimentally is called actual yield

 Percentage yield:  it is the ratio between actual yields divided by theoretical yield x 100

 Note: actual yield is always less than theoretical yield

                                                          Isotopes

The atoms of same element having same atomic number but different atomic masses are called isotopes

For example: Hydrogen has three isotopes naming protium, deuterium and tritium respectively Carbon has three isotopes Chlorine has two isotopes Oxygen has three isotopes Nickel has five Calcium has six Palladium has six Cadmium has nine and Tin has 11 isotopes the majority of elements of the periodic table have some number of isotopes 

 Note: those elements which have only one isotopes are called monoisotopic elements

For example: gold, Arsenic, Iodine and Fluorine are mono isotopic elements

 Isobars:    Atoms of element having same atomic message but different atomic number. For example,

Calcium have mass number 40 and atomic number is 20 but argon has mass number 40 but atomic number is 18

Isotones: Atoms of element have same number of neutrons. For Example, Carbon-14, Oxygen-16 and Nitrogen-15 have same number of neutrons.

                                     Relative Abundance of Isotopes:

The percentage of a particular isotope of element which exist naturally is called the relative abundance of isotopes

280 different isotopes are present naturally. They include 40 radioactive isotopes as well. About 300 isotopes are unstable radioactive produced through artificial disintegration of atoms of different element. Out of 280, 240 isotopes are stable. The relative abundance of isotopes can be determined by mass spectrometry  

For example:

The elements like arsenic following iodine and gold have only a single isotope they are called monoisotopic substances.

In general the element of odd atomic number almost never possesses more than two stable isotopes the element of even atomic number usually have much larger number of isotopes. Oxygen magnesium silicon calcium iron farm nearly 50% of the earth crust out of 280 isotopes that occur in nature 154 are of even mass number and even atomic number and 126 has odd Match number and atomic number. Isotopes are separated from each other based upon their properties.

                                                      Mass spectrometry 

 The technique in which atoms or molecules are converted into ions are Separated on the basis of charge to mass ratio

Mass spectrometer: An instrument used to measure the exact mass of different isotopes of an atom of element with their relative abundance is called mass spectrometer

Types of mass spectrometer

·         Aston mass spectrometer

·         Dempster's Mass spectrometer

·         Modern Mass spectrometer

Aston mass spectrometer:  It was designed to identify isotopes of an element on the basis of atomic masses

Dempster’s spectrometer: It was design to identify isotopes of element which are in solid state

                                Parts of modern mass spectrometer

Vaporization chamber: In this chamber the sample of element is vaporized in this chamber the Vapors pressure is reduced to 10 -7 to 10-6 Torr.

Ionization chamber: In this chamber sample of element is ionized either by alpha rays are by Electron beam

Electric field: Electric field is applied to accelerate the positive ions the applied potential Difference is of 500- 2000 volts.

 Magnetic field: On passing through magnetic field deflection of positive ions takes place According to their mass to charge ratio.

Electrometer or ion collector: And collector receive positive ions according to their mass to Charge ratio related to isotopes  

1) The strength of current measured by ions collector gives the relative abundance of isotopes of a definite mass to charge value

2) The same experiment is performed with carbon 12 isotopes and current strength is compared

Other techniques for the separation of isotopes

·         Gas diffusion

·         Thermal diffusion

·         Distillation

·         Ultracentrifugation

·         Electromagnetic separation

·         Laser separation 

The mass spectrometer tells us

·         The number of isotopes   the number of peaks represents the number of isotopes of an atom of an element

·         The abundance of isotopes   the relative height of peaks give the direct measure of the relative abundance of isotopes

                                                             Fractional atomic mass

Atomic mass of elements depends upon the number of isotopes of an element and their natural abundance.

                                                    Combustion analysis

Those compounds which simply consists of carbon hydrogen and oxygen can be analyzed by very easily by combustion analysis. The product of combustion is H2O and CO2.these two products are collected separately and weighed.

The carbon and hydrogen present in the compound reacts with oxygen in the presence of cupric oxide and change into carbon dioxide and water respectively. These gases are passed first through water absorber containing magnesium dichlorate and then through carbon dioxide absorber which contains 50% potassium hydroxide solution.

The increase in mass of these absorbers corresponds to the main source of water and carbon dioxide produce in an organic compound. The percentage to Carbon and Hydrogen from the mass of carbon dioxide and water can be determined directly and mass of Oxygen which is in excess cannot be determined directly

Note: there are two methods through which nitrogen from organic compound can be estimated and following methods are

     a) Dumas method 

      b) Kjeldahl method

                                                            Empirical Formula

The simplest whole number ratio of atoms of different elements in a compound is called   empirical formula. For example, empirical formula of glucose C6 H12 O6 is CH2 O, empirical formula of hydrogen peroxide H2O2 is HO

The empirical and molecular formula of CH4, NH3, H2O and C12 H22 O11 are the same because they cannot be simplified. Ionic compounds have empirical formula but no molecular formula.

                                                 Molecular Formula

Actual number of atoms of different elements present in a molecule is called molecular formula.

For example benzene C6 H6, ethane C2 H6, Sodium Peroxide and Na2 O2, mercuric chloride and glucose have molecular formulas. In all these compounds the molecular formulas are simple multiple of empirical formulas, Hence.

                                 Molecular formula= n x Empirical Formula

(Where n is the simple integer. those compounds whose empirical and Molecular formulas are same or numerous for example sodium chloride water carbon dioxide ammonia and sucrose have same empirical and Molecular formulas  

  Note: Empirical Formula of hemoglobin is C759 H1208 N 210 S2 O204 Fe