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# Advanced Theories of Bonding ## Multiple Bonds The hybrid orbital model appears to account well for the geometry of molecules involving single covalent bonds. Is it also capable of describing molecules containing double and triple bonds? We have already discussed that multiple bonds consist of σ and π bonds. Next w...
# Advanced Theories of Bonding ## Molecular Orbital Theory For almost every covalent molecule that exists, we can now draw the Lewis structure, predict the electron-pair geometry, predict the molecular geometry, and come close to predicting bond angles. However, one of the most important molecules we know, the oxygen...
# Composition of Substances and Solutions ## Introduction Swimming pools have long been a popular means of recreation, exercise, and physical therapy. Since it is impractical to refill large pools with fresh water on a frequent basis, pool water is regularly treated with chemicals to prevent the growth of harmful bac...
# Composition of Substances and Solutions ## Formula Mass Many argue that modern chemical science began when scientists started exploring the quantitative as well as the qualitative aspects of chemistry. For example, Dalton’s atomic theory was an attempt to explain the results of measurements that allowed him to calc...
# Composition of Substances and Solutions ## Determining Empirical and Molecular Formulas A previous chapter of this text discussed the relationship between the bulk mass of a substance and the number of atoms or molecules it contains (moles). Given the chemical formula of the substance, one may determine the amount ...
# Composition of Substances and Solutions ## Molarity Preceding sections of this chapter focused on the composition of substances: samples of matter that contain only one type of element or compound. However, mixtures—samples of matter containing two or more substances physically combined—are more commonly encountere...
# Composition of Substances and Solutions ## Other Units for Solution Concentrations The previous section introduced molarity, a very useful measurement unit for evaluating the concentration of solutions. However, molarity is only one measure of concentration. This section will describe some other units of concentrat...
# Stoichiometry of Chemical Reactions ## Introduction Solid-fuel rockets are a central feature in the world’s space exploration programs, including the new Space Launch System being developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to replace the retired Space Shuttle fleet (). The engines of thes...
# Stoichiometry of Chemical Reactions ## Writing and Balancing Chemical Equations An earlier chapter of this text introduced the use of element symbols to represent individual atoms. When atoms gain or lose electrons to yield ions, or combine with other atoms to form molecules, their symbols are modified or combined ...
# Stoichiometry of Chemical Reactions ## Classifying Chemical Reactions Humans interact with one another in various and complex ways, and we classify these interactions according to common patterns of behavior. When two humans exchange information, we say they are communicating. When they exchange blows with their fi...
# Stoichiometry of Chemical Reactions ## Reaction Stoichiometry A balanced chemical equation provides a great deal of information in a very succinct format. Chemical formulas provide the identities of the reactants and products involved in the chemical change, allowing classification of the reaction. Coefficients pro...
# Stoichiometry of Chemical Reactions ## Reaction Yields The relative amounts of reactants and products represented in a balanced chemical equation are often referred to as stoichiometric amounts. All the exercises of the preceding module involved stoichiometric amounts of reactants. For example, when calculating the...
# Stoichiometry of Chemical Reactions ## Quantitative Chemical Analysis In the 18th century, the strength (actually the concentration) of vinegar samples was determined by noting the amount of potassium carbonate, K2CO3, which had to be added, a little at a time, before bubbling ceased. The greater the weight of pota...
# Gases ## Introduction We are surrounded by an ocean of gas—the atmosphere—and many of the properties of gases are familiar to us from our daily activities. Heated gases expand, which can make a hot air balloon rise () or cause a blowout in a bicycle tire left in the sun on a hot day. Gases have played an important ...
# Gases ## Gas Pressure The earth’s atmosphere exerts a pressure, as does any other gas. Although we do not normally notice atmospheric pressure, we are sensitive to pressure changes—for example, when your ears “pop” during take-off and landing while flying, or when you dive underwater. Gas pressure is caused by the ...
# Gases ## Relating Pressure, Volume, Amount, and Temperature: The Ideal Gas Law During the seventeenth and especially eighteenth centuries, driven both by a desire to understand nature and a quest to make balloons in which they could fly (), a number of scientists established the relationships between the macroscopi...
# Gases ## Stoichiometry of Gaseous Substances, Mixtures, and Reactions The study of the chemical behavior of gases was part of the basis of perhaps the most fundamental chemical revolution in history. French nobleman Antoine Lavoisier, widely regarded as the “father of modern chemistry,” changed chemistry from a qua...
# Gases ## Effusion and Diffusion of Gases If you have ever been in a room when a piping hot pizza was delivered, you have been made aware of the fact that gaseous molecules can quickly spread throughout a room, as evidenced by the pleasant aroma that soon reaches your nose. Although gaseous molecules travel at treme...
# Gases ## The Kinetic-Molecular Theory The gas laws that we have seen to this point, as well as the ideal gas equation, are empirical, that is, they have been derived from experimental observations. The mathematical forms of these laws closely describe the macroscopic behavior of most gases at pressures less than ab...
# Gases ## Non-Ideal Gas Behavior Thus far, the ideal gas law, PV = nRT, has been applied to a variety of different types of problems, ranging from reaction stoichiometry and empirical and molecular formula problems to determining the density and molar mass of a gas. As mentioned in the previous modules of this chapt...
# Thermochemistry ## Introduction Chemical reactions, such as those that occur when you light a match, involve changes in energy as well as matter. Societies at all levels of development could not function without the energy released by chemical reactions. In 2012, about 85% of US energy consumption came from the com...
# Thermochemistry ## Energy Basics Chemical changes and their accompanying changes in energy are important parts of our everyday world (). The macronutrients in food (proteins, fats, and carbohydrates) undergo metabolic reactions that provide the energy to keep our bodies functioning. We burn a variety of fuels (gaso...
# Thermochemistry ## Calorimetry One technique we can use to measure the amount of heat involved in a chemical or physical process is known as calorimetry. Calorimetry is used to measure amounts of heat transferred to or from a substance. To do so, the heat is exchanged with a calibrated object (calorimeter). The tem...
# Thermochemistry ## Enthalpy Thermochemistry is a branch of chemical thermodynamics, the science that deals with the relationships between heat, work, and other forms of energy in the context of chemical and physical processes. As we concentrate on thermochemistry in this chapter, we need to consider some widely use...
# Thermochemistry ## Strengths of Ionic and Covalent Bonds A bond’s strength describes how strongly each atom is joined to another atom, and therefore how much energy is required to break the bond between the two atoms. It is essential to remember that energy must be added to break chemical bonds (an endothermic pro...
# Liquids and Solids ## Introduction Leprosy has been a devastating disease throughout much of human history. Aside from the symptoms and complications of the illness, its social stigma led sufferers to be cast out of communities and isolated in colonies; in some regions this practice lasted well into the twentieth c...
# Liquids and Solids ## Intermolecular Forces As was the case for gaseous substances, the kinetic molecular theory may be used to explain the behavior of solids and liquids. In the following description, the term particle will be used to refer to an atom, molecule, or ion. Note that we will use the popular phrase “in...
# Liquids and Solids ## Properties of Liquids When you pour a glass of water, or fill a car with gasoline, you observe that water and gasoline flow freely. But when you pour syrup on pancakes or add oil to a car engine, you note that syrup and motor oil do not flow as readily. The viscosity of a liquid is a measure o...
# Liquids and Solids ## Phase Transitions We witness and utilize changes of physical state, or phase transitions, in a great number of ways. As one example of global significance, consider the evaporation, condensation, freezing, and melting of water. These changes of state are essential aspects of our earth’s water ...
# Liquids and Solids ## Phase Diagrams In the previous module, the variation of a liquid’s equilibrium vapor pressure with temperature was described. Considering the definition of boiling point, plots of vapor pressure versus temperature represent how the boiling point of the liquid varies with pressure. Also describ...
# Liquids and Solids ## The Solid State of Matter When most liquids are cooled, they eventually freeze and form crystalline solids, solids in which the atoms, ions, or molecules are arranged in a definite repeating pattern. It is also possible for a liquid to freeze before its molecules become arranged in an orderly ...
# Liquids and Solids ## Lattice Structures in Crystalline Solids Over 90% of naturally occurring and man-made solids are crystalline. Most solids form with a regular arrangement of their particles because the overall attractive interactions between particles are maximized, and the total intermolecular energy is minim...
# Solutions and Colloids ## Introduction Coral reefs are home to about 25% of all marine species. They are being threatened by climate change, oceanic acidification, and water pollution, all of which change the composition of the solution known as seawater. Dissolved oxygen in seawater is critical for sea creatures, ...
# Solutions and Colloids ## The Dissolution Process An earlier chapter of this text introduced solutions, defined as homogeneous mixtures of two or more substances. Often, one component of a solution is present at a significantly greater concentration, in which case it is called the solvent. The other components of t...
# Solutions and Colloids ## Electrolytes When some substances are dissolved in water, they undergo either a physical or a chemical change that yields ions in solution. These substances constitute an important class of compounds called electrolytes. Substances that do not yield ions when dissolved are called nonelectr...
# Solutions and Colloids ## Solubility Imagine adding a small amount of sugar to a glass of water, stirring until all the sugar has dissolved, and then adding a bit more. You can repeat this process until the sugar concentration of the solution reaches its natural limit, a limit determined primarily by the relative s...
# Solutions and Colloids ## Colligative Properties The properties of a solution are different from those of either the pure solute(s) or solvent. Many solution properties are dependent upon the chemical identity of the solute. Compared to pure water, a solution of hydrogen chloride is more acidic, a solution of ammon...
# Solutions and Colloids ## Colloids As a child, you may have made suspensions such as mixtures of mud and water, flour and water, or a suspension of solid pigments in water, known as tempera paint. These suspensions are heterogeneous mixtures composed of relatively large particles that are visible (or that can be se...
# Thermodynamics ## Introduction Among the many capabilities of chemistry is its ability to predict if a process will occur under specified conditions. Thermodynamics, the study of relationships between the energy and work associated with chemical and physical processes, provides this predictive ability. Previous cha...
# Thermodynamics ## Spontaneity Processes have a natural tendency to occur in one direction under a given set of conditions. Water will naturally flow downhill, but uphill flow requires outside intervention such as the use of a pump. Iron exposed to the earth’s atmosphere will corrode, but rust is not converted to ir...
# Thermodynamics ## Entropy In 1824, at the age of 28, Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot () published the results of an extensive study regarding the efficiency of steam heat engines. A later review of Carnot’s findings by Rudolf Clausius introduced a new thermodynamic property that relates the spontaneous heat flow accomp...
# Thermodynamics ## The Second and Third Laws of Thermodynamics ### The Second Law of Thermodynamics In the quest to identify a property that may reliably predict the spontaneity of a process, a promising candidate has been identified: entropy. Processes that involve an increase in entropy of the system (ΔS > 0) ar...
# Thermodynamics ## Free Energy One of the challenges of using the second law of thermodynamics to determine if a process is spontaneous is that it requires measurements of the entropy change for the system and the entropy change for the surroundings. An alternative approach involving a new thermodynamic property def...
# Fundamental Equilibrium Concepts ## Introduction Imagine a beach populated with sunbathers and swimmers. As those basking in the sun get too hot, they enter the surf to swim and cool off. As the swimmers tire, they return to the beach to rest. If the rate at which sunbathers enter the surf were to equal the rate at...
# Fundamental Equilibrium Concepts ## Chemical Equilibria The convention for writing chemical equations involves placing reactant formulas on the left side of a reaction arrow and product formulas on the right side. By this convention, and the definitions of “reactant” and “product,” a chemical equation represents th...
# Fundamental Equilibrium Concepts ## Equilibrium Constants The status of a reversible reaction is conveniently assessed by evaluating its reaction quotient (. For a reversible reaction described by the reaction quotient is derived directly from the stoichiometry of the balanced equation as where the subscript c deno...
# Fundamental Equilibrium Concepts ## Shifting Equilibria: Le Châtelier’s Principle A system at equilibrium is in a state of dynamic balance, with forward and reverse reactions taking place at equal rates. If an equilibrium system is subjected to a change in conditions that affects these reaction rates differently (a...
# Fundamental Equilibrium Concepts ## Equilibrium Calculations Having covered the essential concepts of chemical equilibria in the preceding sections of this chapter, this final section will demonstrate the more practical aspect of using these concepts and appropriate mathematical strategies to perform various equili...
# Acid-Base Equilibria ## Introduction Liquid water is essential to life on our planet, and chemistry involving the characteristic ions of water, H+ and OH–, is widely encountered in nature and society. As introduced in another chapter of this text, acid-base chemistry involves the transfer of hydrogen ions from dono...
# Acid-Base Equilibria ## Brønsted-Lowry Acids and Bases The acid-base reaction class has been studied for quite some time. In 1680, Robert Boyle reported traits of acid solutions that included their ability to dissolve many substances, to change the colors of certain natural dyes, and to lose these traits after comi...
# Acid-Base Equilibria ## pH and pOH As discussed earlier, hydronium and hydroxide ions are present both in pure water and in all aqueous solutions, and their concentrations are inversely proportional as determined by the ion product of water (Kw). The concentrations of these ions in a solution are often critical det...
# Acid-Base Equilibria ## Relative Strengths of Acids and Bases ### Acid and Base Ionization Constants The relative strength of an acid or base is the extent to which it ionizes when dissolved in water. If the ionization reaction is essentially complete, the acid or base is termed strong; if relatively little ioniz...
# Acid-Base Equilibria ## Hydrolysis of Salts ### Salts with Acidic Ions Salts are ionic compounds composed of cations and anions, either of which may be capable of undergoing an acid or base ionization reaction with water. Aqueous salt solutions, therefore, may be acidic, basic, or neutral, depending on the relati...
# Acid-Base Equilibria ## Polyprotic Acids Acids are classified by the number of protons per molecule that they can give up in a reaction. Acids such as HCl, HNO3, and HCN that contain one ionizable hydrogen atom in each molecule are called monoprotic acids. Their reactions with water are: Even though it contains fou...
# Acid-Base Equilibria ## Buffers A solution containing appreciable amounts of a weak conjugate acid-base pair is called a buffer solution, or a buffer. Buffer solutions resist a change in pH when small amounts of a strong acid or a strong base are added (). A solution of acetic acid and sodium acetate (CH3COOH + CH3...
# Acid-Base Equilibria ## Acid-Base Titrations As seen in the chapter on the stoichiometry of chemical reactions, titrations can be used to quantitatively analyze solutions for their acid or base concentrations. In this section, we will explore the underlying chemical equilibria that make acid-base titrimetry a usefu...
# Equilibria of Other Reaction Classes ## Introduction The mineral fluorite, CaF2 , is commonly used as a semiprecious stone in many types of jewelry because of its striking appearance. Deposits of fluorite are formed through a process called hydrothermal precipitation in which calcium and fluoride ions dissolved in ...
# Equilibria of Other Reaction Classes ## Precipitation and Dissolution Solubility equilibria are established when the dissolution and precipitation of a solute species occur at equal rates. These equilibria underlie many natural and technological processes, ranging from tooth decay to water purification. An understa...
# Equilibria of Other Reaction Classes ## Lewis Acids and Bases In 1923, G. N. Lewis proposed a generalized definition of acid-base behavior in which acids and bases are identified by their ability to accept or to donate a pair of electrons and form a coordinate covalent bond. A coordinate covalent bond (or dative bo...
# Equilibria of Other Reaction Classes ## Coupled Equilibria As discussed in preceding chapters on equilibrium, coupled equilibria involve two or more separate chemical reactions that share one or more reactants or products. This section of this chapter will address solubility equilibria coupled with acid-base and co...
# Electrochemistry ## Introduction Another chapter in this text introduced the chemistry of reduction-oxidation (redox) reactions. This important reaction class is defined by changes in oxidation states for one or more reactant elements, and it includes a subset of reactions involving the transfer of electrons betwee...
# Electrochemistry ## Review of Redox Chemistry Since reactions involving electron transfer are essential to the topic of electrochemistry, a brief review of redox chemistry is provided here that summarizes and extends the content of an earlier text chapter (see chapter on reaction stoichiometry). Readers wishing add...
# Electrochemistry ## Galvanic Cells As demonstration of spontaneous chemical change, shows the result of immersing a coiled wire of copper into an aqueous solution of silver nitrate. A gradual but visually impressive change spontaneously occurs as the initially colorless solution becomes increasingly blue, and the ...
# Electrochemistry ## Electrode and Cell Potentials Unlike the spontaneous oxidation of copper by aqueous silver(I) ions described in section 17.2, immersing a copper wire in an aqueous solution of lead(II) ions yields no reaction. The two species, Ag+(aq) and Pb2+(aq), thus show a distinct difference in their redox ...
# Electrochemistry ## Potential, Free Energy, and Equilibrium So far in this chapter, the relationship between the cell potential and reaction spontaneity has been described, suggesting a link to the free energy change for the reaction (see chapter on thermodynamics). The interpretation of potentials as measures of o...
# Electrochemistry ## Batteries and Fuel Cells There are many technological products associated with the past two centuries of electrochemistry research, none more immediately obvious than the battery. A battery is a galvanic cell that has been specially designed and constructed in a way that best suits its intended ...
# Electrochemistry ## Corrosion Corrosion is usually defined as the degradation of metals by a naturally occurring electrochemical process. The formation of rust on iron, tarnish on silver, and the blue-green patina that develops on copper are all examples of corrosion. The total cost of corrosion remediation in the ...
# Electrochemistry ## Electrolysis Electrochemical cells in which spontaneous redox reactions take place (galvanic cells) have been the topic of discussion so far in this chapter. In these cells, electrical work is done by a redox system on its surroundings as electrons produced by the redox reaction are transferred ...
# Kinetics ## Introduction The lizard in the photograph is not simply enjoying the sunshine or working on its tan. The heat from the sun’s rays is critical to the lizard’s survival. A warm lizard can move faster than a cold one because the chemical reactions that allow its muscles to move occur more rapidly at higher...
# Kinetics ## Chemical Reaction Rates A rate is a measure of how some property varies with time. Speed is a familiar rate that expresses the distance traveled by an object in a given amount of time. Wage is a rate that represents the amount of money earned by a person working for a given amount of time. Likewise, the...
# Kinetics ## Factors Affecting Reaction Rates The rates at which reactants are consumed and products are formed during chemical reactions vary greatly. Five factors typically affecting the rates of chemical reactions will be explored in this section: the chemical nature of the reacting substances, the state of subdi...
# Kinetics ## Rate Laws As described in the previous module, the rate of a reaction is often affected by the concentrations of reactants. Rate laws (sometimes called differential rate laws) or rate equations are mathematical expressions that describe the relationship between the rate of a chemical reaction and the co...
# Kinetics ## Integrated Rate Laws The rate laws discussed thus far relate the rate and the concentrations of reactants. We can also determine a second form of each rate law that relates the concentrations of reactants and time. These are called integrated rate laws. We can use an integrated rate law to determine the...
# Kinetics ## Collision Theory We should not be surprised that atoms, molecules, or ions must collide before they can react with each other. Atoms must be close together to form chemical bonds. This simple premise is the basis for a very powerful theory that explains many observations regarding chemical kinetics, inc...
# Kinetics ## Reaction Mechanisms Chemical reactions very often occur in a step-wise fashion, involving two or more distinct reactions taking place in sequence. A balanced equation indicates what is reacting and what is produced, but it reveals no details about how the reaction actually takes place. The reaction mech...
# Kinetics ## Catalysis ### Catalysts Do Not Affect Equilibrium A catalyst can speed up the rate of a reaction. Though this increase in reaction rate may cause a system to reach equilibrium more quickly (by speeding up the forward and reverse reactions), a catalyst has no effect on the value of an equilibrium const...
# Representative Metals, Metalloids, and Nonmetals ## Introduction The development of the periodic table in the mid-1800s came from observations that there was a periodic relationship between the properties of the elements. Chemists, who have an understanding of the variations of these properties, have been able to u...
# Representative Metals, Metalloids, and Nonmetals ## Periodicity We begin this section by examining the behaviors of representative metals in relation to their positions in the periodic table. The primary focus of this section will be the application of periodicity to the representative metals. It is possible to div...
# Representative Metals, Metalloids, and Nonmetals ## Occurrence and Preparation of the Representative Metals Because of their reactivity, we do not find most representative metals as free elements in nature. However, compounds that contain ions of most representative metals are abundant. In this section, we will con...
# Representative Metals, Metalloids, and Nonmetals ## Structure and General Properties of the Metalloids A series of six elements called the metalloids separate the metals from the nonmetals in the periodic table. The metalloids are boron, silicon, germanium, arsenic, antimony, and tellurium. These elements look meta...
# Representative Metals, Metalloids, and Nonmetals ## Structure and General Properties of the Nonmetals The nonmetals are elements located in the upper right portion of the periodic table. Their properties and behavior are quite different from those of metals on the left side. Under normal conditions, more than half ...
# Representative Metals, Metalloids, and Nonmetals ## Occurrence, Preparation, and Compounds of Hydrogen Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe. The sun and other stars are composed largely of hydrogen. Astronomers estimate that 90% of the atoms in the universe are hydrogen atoms. Hydrogen is a compone...
# Representative Metals, Metalloids, and Nonmetals ## Occurrence, Preparation, and Properties of Carbonates The chemistry of carbon is extensive; however, most of this chemistry is not relevant to this chapter. The other aspects of the chemistry of carbon will appear in the chapter covering organic chemistry. In this...
# Representative Metals, Metalloids, and Nonmetals ## Occurrence, Preparation, and Properties of Nitrogen Most pure nitrogen comes from the fractional distillation of liquid air. The atmosphere consists of 78% nitrogen by volume. This means there are more than 20 million tons of nitrogen over every square mile of the...
# Representative Metals, Metalloids, and Nonmetals ## Occurrence, Preparation, and Properties of Phosphorus The industrial preparation of phosphorus is by heating calcium phosphate, obtained from phosphate rock, with sand and coke: The phosphorus distills out of the furnace and is condensed into a solid or burned to ...
# Representative Metals, Metalloids, and Nonmetals ## Occurrence, Preparation, and Compounds of Oxygen Oxygen is the most abundant element on the earth’s crust. The earth’s surface is composed of the crust, atmosphere, and hydrosphere. About 50% of the mass of the earth’s crust consists of oxygen (combined with other...
# Representative Metals, Metalloids, and Nonmetals ## Occurrence, Preparation, and Properties of Sulfur Sulfur exists in nature as elemental deposits as well as sulfides of iron, zinc, lead, and copper, and sulfates of sodium, calcium, barium, and magnesium. Hydrogen sulfide is often a component of natural gas and oc...
# Representative Metals, Metalloids, and Nonmetals ## Occurrence, Preparation, and Properties of Halogens The elements in group 17 are the halogens. These are the elements fluorine, chlorine, bromine, iodine, and astatine. These elements are too reactive to occur freely in nature, but their compounds are widely distr...
# Representative Metals, Metalloids, and Nonmetals ## Occurrence, Preparation, and Properties of the Noble Gases The elements in group 18 are the noble gases (helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon, and radon). They earned the name “noble” because they were assumed to be nonreactive since they have filled valence shells...
# Transition Metals and Coordination Chemistry ## Introduction We have daily contact with many transition metals. Iron occurs everywhere—from the rings in your spiral notebook and the cutlery in your kitchen to automobiles, ships, buildings, and in the hemoglobin in your blood. Titanium is useful in the manufacture o...
# Transition Metals and Coordination Chemistry ## Occurrence, Preparation, and Properties of Transition Metals and Their Compounds Transition metals are defined as those elements that have (or readily form) partially filled d orbitals. As shown in , the in groups 3–11 are transition elements. The , also called inner...
# Transition Metals and Coordination Chemistry ## Coordination Chemistry of Transition Metals The hemoglobin in your blood, the chlorophyll in green plants, vitamin B-12, and the catalyst used in the manufacture of polyethylene all contain coordination compounds. Ions of the metals, especially the transition metals, ...
# Transition Metals and Coordination Chemistry ## Spectroscopic and Magnetic Properties of Coordination Compounds The behavior of coordination compounds cannot be adequately explained by the same theories used for main group element chemistry. The observed geometries of coordination complexes are not consistent with ...
# Nuclear Chemistry ## Introduction The chemical reactions that we have considered in previous chapters involve changes in the electronic structure of the species involved, that is, the arrangement of the electrons around atoms, ions, or molecules. Nuclear structure, the numbers of protons and neutrons within the nuc...
# Nuclear Chemistry ## Nuclear Structure and Stability Nuclear chemistry is the study of reactions that involve changes in nuclear structure. The chapter on atoms, molecules, and ions introduced the basic idea of nuclear structure, that the nucleus of an atom is composed of protons and, with the exception of neutron...
# Nuclear Chemistry ## Nuclear Equations Changes of nuclei that result in changes in their atomic numbers, mass numbers, or energy states are nuclear reactions. To describe a nuclear reaction, we use an equation that identifies the nuclides involved in the reaction, their mass numbers and atomic numbers, and the othe...
# Nuclear Chemistry ## Radioactive Decay Following the somewhat serendipitous discovery of radioactivity by Becquerel, many prominent scientists began to investigate this new, intriguing phenomenon. Among them were Marie Curie (the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, and the only person to win two Nobel Prizes in diffe...
# Nuclear Chemistry ## Transmutation and Nuclear Energy After the discovery of radioactivity, the field of nuclear chemistry was created and developed rapidly during the early twentieth century. A slew of new discoveries in the 1930s and 1940s, along with World War II, combined to usher in the Nuclear Age in the mid-...
# Nuclear Chemistry ## Uses of Radioisotopes Radioactive isotopes have the same chemical properties as stable isotopes of the same element, but they emit radiation, which can be detected. If we replace one (or more) atom(s) with radioisotope(s) in a compound, we can track them by monitoring their radioactive emission...
# Nuclear Chemistry ## Biological Effects of Radiation The increased use of radioisotopes has led to increased concerns over the effects of these materials on biological systems (such as humans). All radioactive nuclides emit high-energy particles or electromagnetic waves. When this radiation encounters living cells,...