Why does the amount of protons in an element wildly change its properties? For example: why is two protons a gas, but suddenly three protons is a metallic solid?
In: 109
(Note: for this explanation I’m going to personify atoms and molecules, which is obviously inaccurate, but makes for an easier to understand explanation)
For non-ELI5 reasons, there are certain numbers of electrons that atoms like to have: 0, 2, 10, 18, 36, 54, 86, 118…. Also, opposite charges attract and same charges repel. These two facts are very powerful for understanding some of the “why”s of chemistry.
Helium with its 2 protons and 2 electrons has both a happy number of electrons, and is electrically neutral, so it really feels no need to chemically interact with anything. In fact, it would rather not interact with anything. All it wants to do is be free and bounce around. This libertarian attitude makes it a gas.
Lithium has 3 protons and 3 electrons. It’s really close to having a nice happy 2 electrons, so it really wants to get rid of its third electron. If one, lone lithium atom tried to throw its electron off, it would just come back because the atom would become positively charged so it would attract the electron back to it. But in a whole hunk of lithium it can instead toss the electron to one of its neighbors. But that lithium doesn’t want the electron either so you get this game of hot-potato on a massive scale with all these extra electrons. If one of the lithium atoms tries to get clever and leave the game when it has a happy number of electrons, its positive charge will make its neighbors hold on to their electrons more, and their negative charge will pull the positively charged cheater back in. But if something else gets close, the lithium will try to react with it to break this unhappy game.
Another good example of all of this is table salt! Sodium has one more than a happy number of electrons and chlorine has one too few. On their own, they’re both really dangerous because they really want to react with something to get to a happy number, but if that “something” is *you* they’ll be wreaking havoc on your molecules. But, if you combine them with each other, the sodium tosses its spare electron to the chlorine so they can both have a happy number. Then, those positive sodium atoms and negative chlorine atoms nestle up nice and close in an alternating 3-D grid since they’re attracting each other, but not themselves. This makes a solid with a regular pattern (AKA, a crystal) where each of the atoms is happy, so it’s safe for humans to touch. But that 3-D grid isn’t like, TIED together, so lots of things – for example water – can pull the sodiums and chlorines apart without changing their number of electrons. This is why salt dissolves in water.
Protons *indirectly* affect the chemical properties of an element. How is this done? Because they attract electrons differently. The vertical alignment of the periodic table is laid out in such a way as to align elements such that other elements with similar electron behavior.
This is why, for example, scientists have posited the possibility of silicon-based lifeforms. Silicon is directly below Carbon on the periodic table, which means its electron shell behavior is very similar to that of carbon. That, in turn, means it can form similarly structured chemicals with similar properties. Of course, these properties aren’t 100% analogous, for example, Si02 is considerably divergent from C02. One is a gas at room temperature, one is a powder, but both Si02 and C02 form linear molecules with oxygen on the outsides.
The reason you see these similarities is due to a property of electrons called [valence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valence_electron). What valence is, at its most simple to describe level, is the interactive property of an element’s electron cloud which causes it to tend to form certain types of bonds (or not form them) with other atoms’ electron clouds. This all has to do with the fact that, at low energies, electrons want to form stable structures.
Elements whose electrons naturally have sufficient electrons to be stable without interacting with another atom are on the far right of the period table, and are sometimes referred to as ‘noble gasses’, alluding to their dis-inclionation to mix with other elements to form compounds. Elements on the far left side of the table tend to be highly reactive, meaning they’re almost never found in elemental form in nature.
So, in respect to this question:
>why is two protons a gas, but suddenly three protons is a metallic solid?
In this case, helium is a noble gas, its valence shell is very stable, and it’s also very light. Lithium, by comparison, is very unstable and reactive, such that even when it’s isolated from other elements it can react with, it will form metallic bonds with *itself*. In effect, that loose electron is hugging tight to other loose lithium electrons trying to achieve that coveted equilibrium. But, again, because lithium is *so* reactive, the moment you expose it to open air, it will spontaneously react oxygen, or nitrogen, or hydrogen, or carbon dioxide. Because lithium loves you, and wants to stop being elemental lithium, *really badly*.
Protons *indirectly* affect the chemical properties of an element. How is this done? Because they attract electrons differently. The vertical alignment of the periodic table is laid out in such a way as to align elements such that other elements with similar electron behavior.
This is why, for example, scientists have posited the possibility of silicon-based lifeforms. Silicon is directly below Carbon on the periodic table, which means its electron shell behavior is very similar to that of carbon. That, in turn, means it can form similarly structured chemicals with similar properties. Of course, these properties aren’t 100% analogous, for example, Si02 is considerably divergent from C02. One is a gas at room temperature, one is a powder, but both Si02 and C02 form linear molecules with oxygen on the outsides.
The reason you see these similarities is due to a property of electrons called [valence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valence_electron). What valence is, at its most simple to describe level, is the interactive property of an element’s electron cloud which causes it to tend to form certain types of bonds (or not form them) with other atoms’ electron clouds. This all has to do with the fact that, at low energies, electrons want to form stable structures.
Elements whose electrons naturally have sufficient electrons to be stable without interacting with another atom are on the far right of the period table, and are sometimes referred to as ‘noble gasses’, alluding to their dis-inclionation to mix with other elements to form compounds. Elements on the far left side of the table tend to be highly reactive, meaning they’re almost never found in elemental form in nature.
So, in respect to this question:
>why is two protons a gas, but suddenly three protons is a metallic solid?
In this case, helium is a noble gas, its valence shell is very stable, and it’s also very light. Lithium, by comparison, is very unstable and reactive, such that even when it’s isolated from other elements it can react with, it will form metallic bonds with *itself*. In effect, that loose electron is hugging tight to other loose lithium electrons trying to achieve that coveted equilibrium. But, again, because lithium is *so* reactive, the moment you expose it to open air, it will spontaneously react oxygen, or nitrogen, or hydrogen, or carbon dioxide. Because lithium loves you, and wants to stop being elemental lithium, *really badly*.
Protons *indirectly* affect the chemical properties of an element. How is this done? Because they attract electrons differently. The vertical alignment of the periodic table is laid out in such a way as to align elements such that other elements with similar electron behavior.
This is why, for example, scientists have posited the possibility of silicon-based lifeforms. Silicon is directly below Carbon on the periodic table, which means its electron shell behavior is very similar to that of carbon. That, in turn, means it can form similarly structured chemicals with similar properties. Of course, these properties aren’t 100% analogous, for example, Si02 is considerably divergent from C02. One is a gas at room temperature, one is a powder, but both Si02 and C02 form linear molecules with oxygen on the outsides.
The reason you see these similarities is due to a property of electrons called [valence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valence_electron). What valence is, at its most simple to describe level, is the interactive property of an element’s electron cloud which causes it to tend to form certain types of bonds (or not form them) with other atoms’ electron clouds. This all has to do with the fact that, at low energies, electrons want to form stable structures.
Elements whose electrons naturally have sufficient electrons to be stable without interacting with another atom are on the far right of the period table, and are sometimes referred to as ‘noble gasses’, alluding to their dis-inclionation to mix with other elements to form compounds. Elements on the far left side of the table tend to be highly reactive, meaning they’re almost never found in elemental form in nature.
So, in respect to this question:
>why is two protons a gas, but suddenly three protons is a metallic solid?
In this case, helium is a noble gas, its valence shell is very stable, and it’s also very light. Lithium, by comparison, is very unstable and reactive, such that even when it’s isolated from other elements it can react with, it will form metallic bonds with *itself*. In effect, that loose electron is hugging tight to other loose lithium electrons trying to achieve that coveted equilibrium. But, again, because lithium is *so* reactive, the moment you expose it to open air, it will spontaneously react oxygen, or nitrogen, or hydrogen, or carbon dioxide. Because lithium loves you, and wants to stop being elemental lithium, *really badly*.
I think the main two sources of an element’s properties are:
* mass/density
* electric
Mass/density:
If something has more protons, then it is heavier per atom. Atoms with more protons do take up a bit more space, but they get heavier moreso than they take up more space, so they are much denser. This factors greatly into things like whether they are a gas/liquid/solid at room temperature, for instance.
Electric:
We think of ‘electric’ meaning relating to electric power running through wires, but in atoms, the proton is charged. This attracts electrons to come and surround the atom.
The electrons hang around the outside of the atom, and will therefore be the first to interact with other atoms, and greatly effecting how elements effect each other at the microscopic level.
Electricity is very different to magnetism, but as a quick analogy, but the protons and electrions are a little bit like tiny magnets are in&around each atom, pushing and pulling in specific ways.
Electrons have some strange properties, one of which is how they absolutely insist on all being in a different situation, except that they don’t mind existing in pairs* . They actually *cannot* be in the same situation as each other in anything more than pairs – it isn’t just a mild preference, but it is *physically impossible*. We call it the *Exclusion Principle* (often with the name ‘Pauli’, after the scientist that worked this out in 1925.)
Imagine if every room in a building could never have more than 2 people in them. If someone tries to enter a room with 2 people in it, *they can’t* (as if an invisible wall is at the door), and so they’d need to order someone else to leave first, or if you want to move a lot of people in a line full of full rooms, you’d need to arrange for 1 person in every room to step one room across at the same time, or other highly specific behaviours like that.
At a microscopic level, electrons have to follow patterns of movement sort of like that example [Not exactly, like that example, but kinda that weirdly specific.] This can force them to do some *very specific* interactions, as so many options are cut off from them when they meet other atoms. The moves that are possible thus greatly influences how electrons contribute to bonding atoms together to form molecules or crystals and so on.
* They can pair up because they have an internal property we call “spin”, which can be either “up” or “down”**, so a pair of electrons can be in the same state, except with different spins.
** Uh, it is far more complicated than there being only up and down, but for quantum-weirdness reasons we can and should pretend it is this simple.
I think the main two sources of an element’s properties are:
* mass/density
* electric
Mass/density:
If something has more protons, then it is heavier per atom. Atoms with more protons do take up a bit more space, but they get heavier moreso than they take up more space, so they are much denser. This factors greatly into things like whether they are a gas/liquid/solid at room temperature, for instance.
Electric:
We think of ‘electric’ meaning relating to electric power running through wires, but in atoms, the proton is charged. This attracts electrons to come and surround the atom.
The electrons hang around the outside of the atom, and will therefore be the first to interact with other atoms, and greatly effecting how elements effect each other at the microscopic level.
Electricity is very different to magnetism, but as a quick analogy, but the protons and electrions are a little bit like tiny magnets are in&around each atom, pushing and pulling in specific ways.
Electrons have some strange properties, one of which is how they absolutely insist on all being in a different situation, except that they don’t mind existing in pairs* . They actually *cannot* be in the same situation as each other in anything more than pairs – it isn’t just a mild preference, but it is *physically impossible*. We call it the *Exclusion Principle* (often with the name ‘Pauli’, after the scientist that worked this out in 1925.)
Imagine if every room in a building could never have more than 2 people in them. If someone tries to enter a room with 2 people in it, *they can’t* (as if an invisible wall is at the door), and so they’d need to order someone else to leave first, or if you want to move a lot of people in a line full of full rooms, you’d need to arrange for 1 person in every room to step one room across at the same time, or other highly specific behaviours like that.
At a microscopic level, electrons have to follow patterns of movement sort of like that example [Not exactly, like that example, but kinda that weirdly specific.] This can force them to do some *very specific* interactions, as so many options are cut off from them when they meet other atoms. The moves that are possible thus greatly influences how electrons contribute to bonding atoms together to form molecules or crystals and so on.
* They can pair up because they have an internal property we call “spin”, which can be either “up” or “down”**, so a pair of electrons can be in the same state, except with different spins.
** Uh, it is far more complicated than there being only up and down, but for quantum-weirdness reasons we can and should pretend it is this simple.
It’s less about the protons and more about the electrons.
The reactivity of an element is directly related to the number of electrons it has in its outer valence shell. The periodic table literally shows you how many electrons will fit in that shell (number of elements in that row) and the number of electrons that element has in that shell (left-most is 1, right most is full).
The farther to the left, the more likely the atom will lose an electron. The right most (with the exception of the noble gases) are more likely to capture an electron. The ones in the middle have more spaces and can gain/load more.
It’s less about the protons and more about the electrons.
The reactivity of an element is directly related to the number of electrons it has in its outer valence shell. The periodic table literally shows you how many electrons will fit in that shell (number of elements in that row) and the number of electrons that element has in that shell (left-most is 1, right most is full).
The farther to the left, the more likely the atom will lose an electron. The right most (with the exception of the noble gases) are more likely to capture an electron. The ones in the middle have more spaces and can gain/load more.
The number of protons in an element, also known as its atomic number, plays a fundamental role in determining the properties of the element. The atomic number determines the number and arrangement of electrons in the atom, which in turn influences the chemical and physical properties of the element.
For example, the difference in properties between hydrogen (one proton) and helium (two protons) is due to the number of electrons in their atoms. Hydrogen has one electron, while helium has two, and this difference in the number of electrons determines how the atoms interact with each other and with their surroundings. Helium has a full outer shell of electrons, which makes it inert and stable, while hydrogen only has one electron in its outer shell, making it highly reactive and unstable.
Similarly, the difference between lithium (three protons) and helium (two protons) is due to the arrangement of electrons in their atoms. Lithium has three electrons, two of which are in its inner shells and one in its outermost shell, while helium has two electrons in its innermost shell. The electron arrangement of lithium makes it more likely to lose its outermost electron, which gives it metallic properties, while helium’s full outer shell makes it inert.
Therefore, the number of protons in an element affects the arrangement and behavior of electrons in its atoms, which in turn determines its chemical and physical properties. This is why even a small change in the number of protons can result in a significant difference in the properties of the element.
I think the main two sources of an element’s properties are:
* mass/density
* electric
Mass/density:
If something has more protons, then it is heavier per atom. Atoms with more protons do take up a bit more space, but they get heavier moreso than they take up more space, so they are much denser. This factors greatly into things like whether they are a gas/liquid/solid at room temperature, for instance.
Electric:
We think of ‘electric’ meaning relating to electric power running through wires, but in atoms, the proton is charged. This attracts electrons to come and surround the atom.
The electrons hang around the outside of the atom, and will therefore be the first to interact with other atoms, and greatly effecting how elements effect each other at the microscopic level.
Electricity is very different to magnetism, but as a quick analogy, but the protons and electrions are a little bit like tiny magnets are in&around each atom, pushing and pulling in specific ways.
Electrons have some strange properties, one of which is how they absolutely insist on all being in a different situation, except that they don’t mind existing in pairs* . They actually *cannot* be in the same situation as each other in anything more than pairs – it isn’t just a mild preference, but it is *physically impossible*. We call it the *Exclusion Principle* (often with the name ‘Pauli’, after the scientist that worked this out in 1925.)
Imagine if every room in a building could never have more than 2 people in them. If someone tries to enter a room with 2 people in it, *they can’t* (as if an invisible wall is at the door), and so they’d need to order someone else to leave first, or if you want to move a lot of people in a line full of full rooms, you’d need to arrange for 1 person in every room to step one room across at the same time, or other highly specific behaviours like that.
At a microscopic level, electrons have to follow patterns of movement sort of like that example [Not exactly, like that example, but kinda that weirdly specific.] This can force them to do some *very specific* interactions, as so many options are cut off from them when they meet other atoms. The moves that are possible thus greatly influences how electrons contribute to bonding atoms together to form molecules or crystals and so on.
* They can pair up because they have an internal property we call “spin”, which can be either “up” or “down”**, so a pair of electrons can be in the same state, except with different spins.
** Uh, it is far more complicated than there being only up and down, but for quantum-weirdness reasons we can and should pretend it is this simple.
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