Saturday 17 May 2014

Periodic Table with Charges



The periodic table with charges will help you get a simplified representation of all elements and their respective charges, when they are in the ionic state. This periodic table article gives an insight about determining the charge of an element.
Science students who have studied chemistry as one of the subjects must be well-acquainted with the labeled periodic table. In fact, that's the first step towards understanding the basic concepts of chemistry. While studying the history of periodic table, you will come across the Mendeleev periodic table, developed in 1869 by Dmitri Mendeleev, a Russian chemist. In this table, chemical elements with symbols are arranged according to increasing order of the mass number.

The modern periodic table of elements, or just periodic table, is a tabular representation of the identified elements (as of date 118) along with their respective symbolic name and atomic number. Thus, instead of sorting elements as per their mass number (which is so in Mendeleev periodic table), elements are arranged from left to right, according to increasing order of the atomic number. This labeled periodic table of element with names and their atomic number helps in easy interpretation of the properties of elements.



You may also come across periodic table with atomic mass that gives a simplified view of the elements with their respective mass numbers (total number of protons and neutrons). Likewise, the periodic table with charges illustrates elements with the probable charges, when they are in the ionic form. And a periodic table with atomic mass and charges interprets both the charges and atomic mass. Briefly speaking, the charge of an element in its ionic form refers to the actual number of electrons that it loses or gains to achieve the nearest noble gas configuration. 

Periodic Table with Charges: Explained

When we say the charge of an element, it refers to the ionic charge of the corresponding element. Considering this, the charge of an atom in its natural state is zero. To be more precise, charge is the difference between the number of protons (positively charged particles) and the number of electrons (negatively charged particles). So, for a non-reacting atom, the charge is zero, as the number of proton is equal to the number of electrons and vice versa. It is a fact that metal elements lose electrons to attain a noble gas configuration, whereas non-metallic elements gain electrons to achieve the same.

The number of charge corresponds to the number of electrons that the atom requires to have a complete outer shell. If the atom loses electron, a positive charge is assigned, whereas negative sign indicates gain of electrons. For example, an element 'X' in ionic form loses 2 electrons to fill the outermost shell. This element along with its charge will be represented as X2+. Whereas, in case of another element 'Y' that gains 2 electrons to complete the outer shell, the representation will be Y2-.

In order to find out the charge, first examine the configuration of electrons in the orbitals or shells (S, P, D, and F shells) as per the 2n2 rule (where 'n' is the number of shells). Thus, according to this method, 2 electrons are allotted in the first shell, 8 electrons in the second shell, and 18 electrons in the third shell. Let's take an example of sodium (Na) that has atomic number 11. Over here, the electronic configuration is 2 electrons in the S shell, 8 in the P shell, and remaining 1 in the outer D shell. So, to achieve a complete shell (nearest inert gas, neon like configuration), it donates its 1 electron, thus having a charge +1 (represented as Na1+).

In case of inert gases or noble gases (the helium group), the electrons fill up the shell completely and their charge is zero. For example, helium (with atomic number 2) has a complete first shell, while in case of neon with atomic number 10, 2 electrons fill the first shell and the remaining 8 occupy the second shell, thus making the element inert. Overall, the periodic table with charges is useful to help determine the nature of the chemical element in its ionic form, i.e., whether it loses or gains electrons to achieve the nearest inert gas configuration.

Source:  http://www.buzzle.com/articles/periodic-table-with-charges.html

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