Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Nitrogen Family of Elements

Introduction :
General information about the nitrogen family:
            Elements: 7N, 15P, 33 As, 51Sb, 83 Bi
            Name: Nitrogen Family
            Electronic configuration:            7N = [He] 2s2 2p3
                                                               15P = [Ne] 3s2 3p3                                                                         
                                                               33As= [Ar] 3d10 4s2 4p3
                                                                51Sb= [kr] 4d10 5s2 5p3
                                                               83Bi = [Xe] 4f14 5d10 6s2 6p3
            In this article we shall discuss about the physical properties of nitrogen family of elements 



Physical Properties of Nitrogen Family:

  • Atomic radii: they are smaller than the corresponding elements of group 14 because of increase in nuclear change. Down the group they show an increase mainly due to addition of a new shell.
  • Oxidation state: Because of small size, N and P can gain three electrons to complete their octets and hence show an oxidation state of -3. Because of three half-filled orbital’s, they also show an oxidation state of +3. Except N, other elements also show an oxidation state of +5 because of the presence of empty d-orbital.
  • Ionization enthalpy: IEs of these elements are much higher than the corresponding elements of group14 because of increase in nuclear charge and greater stability of exactly half filled orbitals. Down the group the values decrease because of increase in atomic size.
  • Metalic: Metalic character increase down the group because of decrease in ionization enthalpy and increase in atomic size. Thus N and P are non-metals. As and Sb are metalloids while Bi is a typical metal.

Occurrence:
                       Molecular nitrogen comprises 78% by quantity of the impression. It occurs as sodium nitrate, NaNO3 and potassium nitrate. It is founded in the form of proteins in plants and animals. Phosphorus occurs in minerals of the apatite family.Ca9(PO)6,CaX2(X=F,C1 or OH) Which are the main components of phosphate rock.
Electronic configuration:
                       The valence shield electronic arrangement of these fundamentals is ns2np3. The s orbital in these element is completely filled and p orbitals are half filled.
Atomic and ionic radii:
                       Covalent and ionic radii increase in size down the group. There is substantial amplify in covalent radius from N to P. Bi only small increase in covalent radius is observed.
Ionization Enthalpy:
                       Ionization Enthalpy reduces down the collection due to gradual increase in atomic size. Because of the extra stable half-filled p orbital’s electronic configuration and small size. The ionization enthalpy of the group 15 elements is much greater than that of the group 14 elements in the corresponding periods.
Electro negativity:
                     Electro negativity value in group 15 general, decreasing down the group with increasing atomic size.
Physical properties:
                     All the element of this group 15 element is polyatomic. Dinitrogen is a diatomic gas while all other are solids. Metallic quality increases downward the collection.
Chemical properties:
                     The common oxidation state of these elements is -3, +3, and +5. The tendency to exhibit -3 oxidation state decreases downs the group due to increase in size and metallic character. The stability of +5 oxidation state decrease down the group.
In the case of nitrogen, all oxidation state from +1 to +4 tent to disproportionate in acid solution. 

Some other Physical Properties of Nitrogen Family:

  • Electro-negativity: These are more electronegative than group 14 elements because of further decrease in size. It decreases down the group because of increase in atomic size
  • Melting points and boiling points: Melting points first increase from N to As due to increase in nuclear charge and then decrease to Sb to Bi. The decrease is due to increase in size and weakening of inter atomic forces and also due to inter pair effect resulting in the formation of 3 bonds instead of 5.
  • Nature of the bonds formed: N and P mainly from covalent bonds (through them also from N3-  and P3-). Down the group the tendency to from covalent bonds decreases i.e. the strength of the covalent bond decreases i.e the order is N > P > As > Sb > Bi
  • Density: The densities increase regularly down the group as usual.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Organic Chemical Reactions

The term organic nowadays arouses lot of curiosity because of the term organic produce.
Whereas the meaning imbibed in this term relates to purity of agricultural produce  sans fertilizers or insectisides.
However in chemistry it applies to a wider term  that is connected to carbon.
Organic chemistry is the chemistry of carbon and its compounds, their preparations, physical and chemical  properties, reactions and everything about them.
The arena of this branch of chemistry has grown to such extent that a separate branch had to be earmarked for the study of these compounds.

Why Carbon?

Carbon is the important element to organic chemistry. But why?
It is because of the electronic configuration of carbon.
As it is having two 2p electrons, one 2p orbital is vacant and the valency of 4 can be obtained by carbon by the rearrangement of the orbitals.
As a result carbon can form single, double and even triple bonds with atoms like hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen,etc.as well as other carbon atoms.
It can arrange itself in chained, cyclic, acyclic, branched and unbranched compounds.
It can even form hitherto unknown aromatic compounds where specific phenomena called resonance exists. In this type of structure as is in the benzene, the 3 pi bonds lie alternately in a aromatic ring.
This in turn facilitates nucleophilic as well as electrophilic additions to the aromatic ring.
Not only this, the s and p orbitals can mix up and get rearranged to give special 'hybridized' bonds like sp, sp2 and sp3.

Types of Organic Chemical Reactions

There are various types of organic chemical reactions. A few are as under.
Addition: It takes place across unsaturated double or triple bond.
e.g.CH2=CH2 + Cl2   ---------------->  ClCH2-CH2Cl
Substitution When a species is substituted for another.
CH3SH  + O2    --> CH3OH
Elimination When certain species is altogether removed.
ClCH2-CH3    ---------------> CH2=CH2 + HCl
Re-arrangement
When the compounds change the structure.
BrCH2-CH2 -CH2Cl     <=======>  ClCH2-CH2-CH2Br

Ether Nomenclature

Introduction:

The replacement of hydrogen atom in a hydrocarbon by an alkoxy group yields a new class of compounds known as ether. Ether is differing from the alcohols and phenols. Examples for ethers are as follows diethyl ether, methyl n-propyl ether, methylphenyl ether, ethylphenyl ether, heptyphenyl ether, methyl isopropyl ether and pheylisopentyl ether.          

Classification of Ether:

Based on the nomenclature property ether can be classified as two types.

Classification of ether:
Symmetrical ether
Unsymmetrical ether

Symmetrical ether:
Alkyl or aryl group attached to the oxygen atom are the similar is called as symmetric ether.
Example for symmetrical ether:
 Diethyl ether

Unsymmetrical ether:
Alkyl or aryl group closed to the oxygen atom are the different is called as unsymmetrical ether.

Example for unsymmetrical ether:
CH3OC2H5

Nomenclature ether:
General name of ether is derived from the name of alkyl or aryl groups.
Example for ether with IUPAC name:
Common name                         IUPAC name
Dimethyl ether                         methoxymethane
Diethyl ether                           ethoxyetahne
Methyl n-propyl ether            1-methoxypropane
Methylphenyl ether                methoxypropane
Ethylphenyl ether                   ethoxybenzene
Heptyphenyl ether                  1-phenoxyheptane
Methyl isopropyl ether           2-methoxypropane  
Pheylisopentyl ether              3-methylbutoxybenzene

      According to IUPAC system of nomenclature, ethers are observed as hydrocarbon derived in which a hydrogen atom is swapped by an –OR or –OAr group, where R and Ar denotes the alkyl and aryl groups respectively. The huger (R) group is chosen as the parent hydrocarbon.


Properties of Ether Nomenclature:

Physical properties of ether:
      The C-O combinations in ethers are polar. Ethers contain net dipole moment. The weak polarity of ethers does not significantly affect their boiling points which are similar to those of the alkenes of comparable molecular groups.
The following ethers have the low level boiling point:
Ether name                      boiling point
N-pentane                              309.1
Ethoxyethane                        307.6
Butan-ol                                 390

Chemical properties of ether:
Cleavage C-O bond in ethers
Electrophilic substitution
Types of electrophilic substitution:
  • Halogenations
  • Friedel crafts reaction
  • Nitration   

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Molar Mass of Helium Gas

We use various units to measure the mass or weight of objects. We weigh our apples, oranges, vegetables and grains before buying them. It is easy to comprehend the idea of mass of a ball, apple or planet. There are different instruments for measuring the mass. However, can one place molecules of Helium gas on the grocer’s weighing balance and find how much they weigh?

What is the Molar Mass of Helium Gas

Molecular mass (MM), molecular weight (MW), formula mass (FM) or formula weight (FW) of a substance is the mass of a molecule of that substance. Here, we assume that every molecule that is composed of the same combination of atoms, will have the same mass. The unit of measure used is amu, which stands for atomic mass units.
One atom of carbon-12 (Carbon atoms with 6 neutrons and 6 protons) has a mass of 12 amu. This means 1 amu is about the weight of a neutron. It is evident that it is very small in magnitude. Atomic mass unit can also be expressed  in grams per mole (g/mol). One mole is the number of atoms in 12 grams of carbon-12. This number is called Avogadro's number or Avogadro's constant (NA) and is equal to 6.022 x 1023.
Sounds a little confusing? Let us do some math.
1atom of carbon - 12 = 12 amu
1 mole = no. of atoms in 12 g of carbon - 12, which happens to be 6.022 x 1023 .
1 amu of an element = x g/mol  ( grams per mole - varies with each element).
This is the molar mass of the substance. It is the mass of one mole of the substance in grams, and not mass of one molecule.

Calculate Molar Mass

Helium occurs in natural form as a gas. It is a pure substance, i.e. an element in the periodic table.



One mole of helium atoms = 6.022 x 1023 Helium atoms.
Number of atoms in m moles = m x  Avagadro’s constant = m x 6.022 x 1023
So, 10 moles of helium (He) contains 10 x 6.022 x 1023 = 60.022 x 1023 helium atoms.
One mole of a pure element = molecular mass of the element.
One mole of molecules = Avogadro’s constant number of molecules.
So one mole of helium molecules =  6.022 x 1023 molecules of helium.
Molecular mass of helium = Mass of one mole of helium molecules.
The question then is, how many grams of helium fit in one mole? This is the molar mass of Helium gas and happens to be 4.003 g/mol. (grams per mole of helium).

Uranium atomic symbol

Introduction :
Uranium atomic symbol is U.  Atomic number of Uranium is 92. Atomic Weight is 238.0289. Uranium is found in Actinide series and belongs to Radioactive Rare Earth Element. Uranium is discovered by Martin Klaproth.
It has Density of 19.05 g/cc, Melting Point 1405.5 K, Boiling Point 4018 K.
Uranium appears as Silvery-white, dense, ductile and malleable and it is a radioactive metal. 
Atomic radius of Uranium is 138 pm. 
Atomic Volume is 12.5 cc/mol. 
Electronic Configuration of uranium is [Rn] 5f3 6d1 7s2
Oxidation States of Uanium is 6, 5, 4, and 3.

Radiochemistry of Uranium:

Uranium Isotopes:
Natural uranium is 99.274 atom % 238U, 0.7205 atom % 235U, and 0.0056 atom % 234U. The 234/238 ratio is exactly the ratio of their half-lives as expected for nuclei in secular equilibrium. The isotope 233U is produced by neutron capture on 232Th, followed by β- decay. 232U is a short-lived (t1/2 =72 y) nuclide that is a contaminant in 233U samples (from fast neutron reactions). The daughters of 232U are hard gama-ray emitters that make working with 232U containing samples difficult. 236,237,239U are produced by neutron captures on 235U and 238U. 236U is long-lived but 237,239U are short-lived and decay to 237Np and 239Pu, respectively.

Metallic Uranium:
Metallic uranium can exist in three different solid phases with differing densities, depending on temperature.  At room temperature, a phase is observed with a density of 19.07 g/cm3 and a melting point of 1132C.  Metallic uranium is a very reactive metal that is silvery in color. (Frequently, a surface oxide layer makes metallic uranium look black.) Uranium powder is pyrophoric. When uranium metal is cut or scratched in the laboratory, a shower of sparks is sometimes observed due to the creation of small particles that ignite. Uranium metal with an oxide coating will burn at 700C to form U3O8. Uranium reacts with hot water to produce UO2 and UH3. In reactors, uranium is alloyed with zirconium to resist corrosion and radiation damage. Metallic uranium can be produced by the reduction of UF4.

Uranium Compounds:

Uranium exists in the +3, +4, +5, and +6 oxidation states.  The +5 state disproportionate to the +4 and +6 states and is of little importance. Trivalent uranium reduces water and therefore there is no stable aqueous chemistry of U3+ although compounds do exist. The most important uranium compounds are the oxides. UO2 is the compound used in reactor fuel. It is a stable refractory material that is brown-black in color and is nonreactive with H2O.  Uranium hydride, UH3, is a reactive black powder.  It is a powerful reducing agent and is pyrophoric.  A mixture of uranium and zirconium hydrides is used as the fuel.