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AMMONIA
This is an Ammonia molecule with the formula, NH3. Scientists use the name ammonia, the same way they call H2O water. In this compound, three hydrogen atoms share their electrons with the nitrogen atoms. That way the nitrogen has a filled outer shell and the Hydrogens have two electrons to fill their shells.
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WHAT HAPPENS WHEN ELEMENTS COMBINE?
When several elements come together it is called a compound. Compounds can be made up of two atoms or hundreds of atoms. There are even compounds that have the same number of atoms but have different shapes. These compounds with different shapes are called isomers.
No matter what atoms are in a compound, they all want to be "happy". A happy atom is one with the right number of electrons in the outer orbital. That desire to be happy is why some elements only combine with a few other elements. Not all elements can make each other "happy".
To learn more what makes an atom happy and how it picks other elements to combine with, just click... ![[Button: To Compound Details]](../../art_global/icon_details.gif)
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NITROGEN TRICHLORIDE
Nitrogen can combine with three chlorine atoms, forming Nitrogen trichloride, or NCl3. Nitrogen shares its electrons with the Chlorine atoms, so all of the atoms have their shells filled.
Take a look at the dots around the atoms. All of them now have eight electrons, and a filled outer shell!
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HOW DO SCIENTISTS NAME COMPOUNDS?
When you look at the names of some of these compounds... Don't get confused. The names may be long but they all make sense. Scientists came up with a naming system for compounds that is very specific.
You can see that there are usually at least two words. The first word describes the first part of the compound. The second word describes the last part of the compound.
Use H2S as an example. The name of the compound is Hydrogen sulfide. Hydrogen is for the H2 part of the formula. Sulfur is the second part so scientists say SULFIDE. There is SULF and then they finish the word with IDE. Most compound names end with IDE.
For the real dirt on naming just click... ![[Button: To Naming Details]](../../art_global/icon_details2.gif)
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CYANOGEN CHLORIDE
Here's something new! We have three different elements here, carbon, nitrogen, and chlorine. That's not special, but the way they combine is! Look at the carbon and the nitrogen, they are sharing six electrons!
When two atom share two electrons, that's a single bond. If they share four it's a double bond. Well these two are sharing six, that's a triple bond. It's extremely strong and powerful. It would take a lot of work to separate the C and the N!
One more thing! Because the bond between carbon and nitrogen is so strong, scientists call them Cyanogen instead of carbon-nitrogen. Scientists know that Cyanogen is always CN.
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DIFFERENT KINDS OF BONDS!
You should know that even though there are two electrons involved in a bond, those electrons can be shared in different ways. Two types of bonds we will talk about are covalent and ionic (electrovalent) bonds.
Ionic bonds happen when electrons are given up by one atom to another. Covalent bonds happen when electrons are shared by both atoms.
If you want to learn more about bonds try this...
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