A hydrogen bomb explosion (above! produces an enormous amount of energy virtually instantaneously. It works in two main stages. First, an atomic (fission) bomb explodes to produce the extremely high pressure and temperature needed for the second stage, the fusion reaction. In a fission reaction, atoms are split to produce energy. In a fusion reaction, nuclei of deuterium and tritium fuse. This produces a helium nucleus, a free neutron, and a large amount of energy. Scientists are trying to develop fusion reactors in which the energy of fusion can be controlled and used to generate electricity.
The nucleus of hydrogen, the simplest atom, consists of a single particle—a proton. Of the two basic nuclear particles, the proton is the one with the positive charge. Its charge attracts electrons and holds them in their swarming orbits. But the nuclei of atoms may also contain additional particles that are electrically neutral—neutrons. This combination of protons and neutrons determines an atom’s atomic weight, or mass number.
Protons and neutrons can be divided into even smaller parts. But chemistry is not concerned with this—that is the realm of atomic or particle physics. Chemistry focuses on what happens between atoms during chemical changes, while nuclear physics focuses on activity within the atom itself.
Of the two nuclear particles, the proton has a special importance—it serves to distinguish atoms of one element from atoms of another element How? By the number of protons in the nucleus. The number of protons in the atomic nucleus is called the atomic number. Hydrogen, the only element that has just one proton in its nucleus, has an atomic number of 1. Helium, with two protons, has an atomic number of 2, and so on for all the other elements. The atomic number also serves to identify each element in the periodic table, the chart that lists all the known elements, arranged in order of increasing atomic number.
The energy that binds together the nucleus and its swarm of electrons is electrical. A proton is electrically positive. An electron, in motion around the nucleus, is electrically negative. The attraction between these opposite charges keeps the electron of a hydrogen atom spinning around the proton of the hydrogen nucleus. In its electrically neutral state, with an oxidation number of zero, an atom has as many electrons as protons. In its charged state as an ion, oxidized or reduced, it has either more electrons than protons or fewer.
Read More Inside the atom
Comments
Post a Comment