Thursday, October 04, 2001
it is a mater of valence electrons. with covalent bonding, everything wants to be surrounded by 8 electrons in its outer valence shell to be stable, except hydrogen, which only has its 1a shell or whatever it is, which only needs 2 electrons to be full. but bonding really has nothing to do with the difference between ions and atoms. for something to be an ion, it just needs a charge. for something not to be an ion, it needs no charge, which means it needs the same number of protons and electrons. Hydrogen ions are usually (i say usually because there is an exception to every rule, and 90% of these exceptions involve Hydrogen) H+. Hydrogen atoms are usually only 1 proton with one electron spinning around it. to get to be an H+ ion, you need to take away the electron. this leaves just a proton with nothing spinning around it. so when she said a hydrogen ion is just a proton, she was right in 99% of all hydrogen ions. sometimes, hydrogen will have 1 or 2 neutrons in it, deuterium and triterium or whatever they are called, you know hard water blah blah, fusion blah blah. but yeah, they have a proton and 1 neutron, or a proton and 2 neutrons respectively, they are just really really uncommon. hydrogen ions on their own aren't really something to look for. hydrogen is usually H2. the only way i can think of for finding hydrogen ions are in like an HCl solution, which if i remember correctly loosens the bonds and turns it into a pool of H+ and Cl- ions, and then you run an electrical current through it, so the H+ ions are all pulled to one side, but then how do you get at them....
when hydrogen is bonding, with lets say cholrine, it wants to fill its outer valence electron shell. if you remember back to general chem, the first row of atoms (consisting of only hydrogen and helium) only has to fill the lowest ring of electrons, with only 2 revolving around it to be ultimately happy. the next row of electrons has to fill the ring with 2 electrons then another ring of 8 electrons outside of it. hence the chemical facination with the number of 8 electrons, and the reason Helium is so happy with only 2 electrons, and Neon? is so happy with 10 electrons, etc etc. so, when it is bonding, hydrogen wants to fill its respective outer shell, so it wants to have 2 electrons spinning around it. when its just an atom, it wants to have a neutral charge, so it just has 1 electron. but ultimately, hydrogen wants to have those 2 electrons which is why it is so damn reactive. so, the hydrogen with its 1 electron and the chorine with its 7 valence electrons come together and share, so the chorine has its 8, and the hydrogen has its 2 spinning around it.
at least that is what i remember about the subject. it was a long time since i actually sat through a lecture on this (11th grade). this was kind of a rambling wierd explanation, and i probably repeated myself about 20 times, but whatever :) i need to take some more chem
when hydrogen is bonding, with lets say cholrine, it wants to fill its outer valence electron shell. if you remember back to general chem, the first row of atoms (consisting of only hydrogen and helium) only has to fill the lowest ring of electrons, with only 2 revolving around it to be ultimately happy. the next row of electrons has to fill the ring with 2 electrons then another ring of 8 electrons outside of it. hence the chemical facination with the number of 8 electrons, and the reason Helium is so happy with only 2 electrons, and Neon? is so happy with 10 electrons, etc etc. so, when it is bonding, hydrogen wants to fill its respective outer shell, so it wants to have 2 electrons spinning around it. when its just an atom, it wants to have a neutral charge, so it just has 1 electron. but ultimately, hydrogen wants to have those 2 electrons which is why it is so damn reactive. so, the hydrogen with its 1 electron and the chorine with its 7 valence electrons come together and share, so the chorine has its 8, and the hydrogen has its 2 spinning around it.
at least that is what i remember about the subject. it was a long time since i actually sat through a lecture on this (11th grade). this was kind of a rambling wierd explanation, and i probably repeated myself about 20 times, but whatever :) i need to take some more chem
