In this chapter, you will learn how to deduce and write chemical formulas and how to use the information incorporated into chemical formulas. The chapter ends with an overview of the relationship between names and formulas—chemical nomenclature.
A scanning tunneling microscope image of 48 iron atoms adsorbed onto a surface of copper atoms. The iron atoms were moved into position with the tip of the scanning tunneling microscope in order to create a barrier that forced some electrons of the copper atoms into a quantum state seen here as circular rings of electron density. The colors are from the computer rendering of the image. In this chapter we discuss the periodic table and the properties of atoms and ions.
In this chapter, we will use the table as a backdrop for a discussion of some properties of elements, including atomic radii, ionization energies, and electron affinities. These atomic properties also arise in the discussion of chemical bonding in the following two chapters, and the periodic table itself will be our indispensable guide throughout much of the remainder of the text.
Lewis’s contribution to the study of chemical bonding is evident throughout this text. Equally important, however, was his pioneering introduction of thermodynamics into chemistry.
Note double headed arrow for two electron movement
The H atom of HCl leaves its electron with the Cl atom and, as H+ attaches itself to the
NH3 molecule through the lone-pair electrons on the
N atom. The ions NH4+ and Cl- are formed.
The electrostatic potential at any point on the charge density surface of a molecule is defined as the change in energy that occurs when a unit positive charge is brought to this point, starting from another point that is infinitely far removed from the molecule. The surface encompassing the ammonia molecule is analogous to the 95% surface of electron charge density for atomic orbitals discussed in Chapter 8. The electrostatic potential map gives information about the distribution of electron charge within this surface.
The dark red and dark blue on the electrostatic potential map correspond to the extremes of the electrostatic potential, negative to positive, for the particular molecule for which the map is calculated. To get a reliable comparison of different molecules, the values of the extremes in electrostatic potential (in KJ mol-1) must be the same for all of the molecules compared. In the maps shown here the range is -250 to 750 kJ mol-1.
As a general rule, electronegativities decrease from top to bottom in a group and increase from left to right in a period of elements. The values are from L. Pauling, The Nature of the Chemical Bond, 3rd ed., Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 1960, page 93. Values may be somewhat different when based on other electronegativity scales.
H can only accommodate two electrons
H and O are common exceptions to rule 2
Organic compounds are not compact nor symmetrical.
The formal charge on an atom in a Lewis structure is the number of valence e- in the free atom minus the number of e- assigned to that atom in the Lewis structure.
This is essentially Example 10-7
Many Lewis structures may be written for a given structure..
Ozone has two good possibilities, but neither gives the correct structure that has two equivalent O-O bonds.
All the atoms in an ozone molecule have the same electronegativity and yet the distribution of electron density is nonuniform. The reason will become apparent when we describe in a more sophisticated way the bonding in this molecule.
H
It is not clear which is the more correct representation.
To establish the shape of the triatomic H2O molecule shown here, we need to determine the distances between the nuclei of the bonded atoms and the angle between adjacent bonds. In H2O the bond lengths d1= d2 = 95.8 pm and the bond angle is α= 104.45°.
When two elongated balloons are twisted together, they separate into four lobes. To minimize interferences, the lobes spread out into a
tetrahedral pattern. (A regular tetrahedron has four faces, each an equilateral triangle.) The lobes are analogous to valence-shell electron pairs.
The electron-group geometries pictured are trigonal-planar (orange), tetrahedral (gray), trigonal bipyramidal (pink), and octahedral (yellow). The atoms at the ends of the balloons are not shown and are not important in this model.
In a multiple covalent bond, all electrons in the bond are confined to the region between the bonded atoms, and together constitute one group of electrons. Let us test this idea by predicting the molecular geometry of sulfur dioxide. S is the central atom, and the total number of valence electrons is 3 x 6 = 18.
Because we count the electrons in the double covalent bond as one group, the electron-group geometry around the central S atom is that of three electron groups—trigonal-planar. Of the three electron groups, two are bonding groups and one is a lone pair. This is the case of AX2E (see Table 10.1). The molecular shape is angular, or bent, with an expected bond angle of 120° (The measured
bond angle in SO2 is 119°.)
The device pictured is called an electrical condenser (or capacitor). It consists of a pair of electrodes separated by a medium that does not conduct electricity but consists of polar molecules. (a) When the field is off, the molecules orient randomly. (b) When the electric field is turned on, the polar molecules orient in the field between the charged plates so that the negative ends of the molecules are toward the positive plate and vice versa.
HCl is a polar molecule
An interesting situation arises for molecules in which resonance is present. In such molecules, fractional bond orders are possible. Consider, for example, the carbonate anion, The CO bond distance in the carbonate anion is 129 pm, which is intermediate between a single bond
(143 pm) and a double bond (120 pm), as we might expect for a fractional bond order.
The same quantity of energy, 453.93 kJ/mol, is required to break all H-H bonds. In H2O more energy is required to break the first bond (498.7 kJ/mol) than to break the second (428.0 kJ/mol) The second bond broken is that in the •OH radical. The O-H bond energy in H2O is the average of the two values: 463.4 kJ/mol.
You can use bond energies in exactly the same way you can use enthalpies of formation. Enthalpy of formation is more accurately known and bond energy is usually an average (thus the approximation sign), but it can be used effectively if formation data is unavailable.