Periodic Table & Bonding of Elements

The Periodic Table & Bonding of Elements:

There are 3 kinds of bonding between elements that you have to learn.

a) Ionic Bonds (Between metals and non-metals)

b) Covalent Bonds (Between non-metals only)
c) Metallic Bonds (Between metals only)

Before going into details with them, you need to learn about the periodic table.

The periodic table is organized in the form of Groups (Columns) and Periods (Rows).

Elements in the same Group have similar chemical properties. Chemical properties of elements are
determined by their valance electrons (electrons in the outermost shell).

-Elements in “Group I” have 1 valence electron, elements in “Group II” have 2 valence electrons,
elements in “Group III” has 3 valence electrons, and so on. Elements in “Group 0” (Noble gases) have a
complete outermost shell, so they don’t have any valence electron, and thus they are very unreactive in
nature.

The periodic table is further classified into metals and non metals.

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 Periodic Table & Bonding of Elements

The elements on the left side of the table are metals (Group I, II and III including the transition metals
which I’ll tell you about later). The elements on the right side of the table are non metals, i.e. from
Group IV to Group VII.

-The periods (rows) tell you the number of shells an atom has. Elements in Period 1 have 1 shell,
elements in period 2 have 2 shells, elements in period 3 have 3 shells, and so on.

Electronic configuration:
It is essential for you to understand the electronic structure of the elements. You don’t have to go into
the extremity of the details in your syllabus, but there is quite a bit you MUST understand otherwise
you’ll find it difficult to learn about ions, which relates to your ionic and covalent bonding.

Let’s look at the electronic configuration of Potassium (K).

You do know that neutral atoms have an equal amount of electrons to the number of protons.
Therefore, the number of electrons Potassium has is 19 when it is neutral.

Before I even show you the electronic configuration, I’d like you to take this as an example to the part I
explained about groups and periods.

According to the periodic table, K is in the Group I and in the period 4. This means it will have 1 electron
in the outermost shell and will have a total of 4 shells.

About shell capacity, you have to know that the first shell of any atom can accommodate up to 2
electrons, i.e., the first shell can have a maximum of 2 electrons. From the second shell and onwards,
the maximum they can hold is up to 8 electrons (they can hold more but our syllabus limits to 8)

Now you divide the 19 electrons in shells knowing that rule.

•First shell has 2 electrons

•Second shell has 8 electrons

•Third shell has 8 electrons

•Fourth shell has 1 electron.

(2+8+8+1 = 19)

Therefore, the electronic configuration of K is = 2, 8, 8, 1

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 Periodic Table & Bonding of Elements

PS: A shell is one ring around the nucleus of the atom, in case you didn’t know.

The same way, you can figure out the electronic configuration of the element Calcium.

Calcium has an atomic number of 20, so it has 20 electrons in its neutral atom.

It is in the 2nd group of the periodic table and on the 4th period, so can you figure out the number of
shells and valance electrons it should have?

We divide 20 electrons this way:

•First shell = 2

•Second shell = 8

•Third Shell = 8

•Fourth Shell = 2

(2+8+8+2 = 20)

Therefore, the electronic configuration of Calcium is 2,8,8,2

Transition metals:
Transition metals are the elements you can see that are not classified into those 8 groups in the table.
They are the elements that are in between group II till group III (that long rectangular area colored in
Deep Blue. Transition metals are different because they have variable valencies. That is they can have
different number of outermost shell electron. For example, Iron (Fe) can have 2 different valencies. It
could have 2 or 3 electrons in its outermost shell, and these 2 forms of Iron are known as “Iron (II)” and
“Iron (III)”. In this way, there are other metals in the transition metal region that have different
valencies. The significance of the transition metals depend on how they are used. According to your
syllabus, you need to know these properties if Transition metals:

✎ They are hard and strong

✎ They have high density
✎ They have high boiling and melting points
✎ They are not necessarily coloured, but they ALWAYS FORM COLOURED compounds.
✎ They or their compounds are often used as catalysts in chemical reactions. (Catalysts increase
the rate of reaction between chemicals but they do not react themselves)

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 Periodic Table & Bonding of Elements

Examples of Transition metals: Iron(II), Iron (III), Copper(II), Zinc (II), Vanadium(V), etc.Now that I have
explained the periodic table, we can move on to learning about “Ions”.

Formation of Ions:
Ions are charged particles that are formed when a neutral atom loses or gains one or more electrons.
There’s a rule about how ions are formed.

•All metals (also Hydrogen) form positive ions = they lose electrons to become ions.

•All non-metals (except Hydrogen) form negative ions = they gain electrons to become ions.

An atom becomes an ion to become stable by having an electronic configuration like a noble gas (Group
0 elements), as in they can become stable by having either 2 or 8 electrons in their outermost shell.

Metals form positive ions by losing electrons. We’ll look at a Potassium ion now.

Its electronic configuration is: 2,8,8,1

To become stable and have a full shell electron, it will lose the 1 electron that it has in its outermost
shell and form an ion, with the new electronic configuration: 2,8,8. We say that is has become positively
charged because the number of protons remain the same even though an electron is lost. This ion is not
neutral anymore, as it has one more proton than the number of electrons.

The number of protons is still 19, while the number of electrons has reduced to 18. Therefore, it has one
more proton (positive charge) than electrons (negative charge), so the overall charge it has is now 1+.

The same rule applies to Calcium. Its electronic structure is: 2,8,8,2

To become stable, it loses the 2 electrons in its outermost shell and attain the configuration of
2,8,8…like Potassium.

It has 20 protons and 18 electrons, so it has 2 more protons than electrons, and therefore the charge on
its ion is 2+.

Now we’ll look at Aluminium. It has 13 protons, o the configuration is: 2,8,3 (can you say which Group
and which period Aluminium is located in?)

It loses 3 electrons to attain the configuration: 2,8

Therefore, it has lost 3 electrons and so it has a charge of 3+.

So, elements till Group III lose electrons and become positively charged.

I’d like you to email me the charges of ions formed by these atoms: Magnesium (Mg), Cesium (Cs),
Gallium (Ga).

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 Periodic Table & Bonding of Elements

PS: You can also say the charge of an ion formed by metals by their group number: K is in Group I, its ion
+ 2+
is K , Ca is in Group II and so its ion is Ca .

Now we will look at non-metallic elements (Group IV to VII).

Let’s look at the element Sulphur. Its atomic number is 16.

The electronic configuration is: 2,8,6

Now, to become stable and attain the electronic configuration of a noble gas, it is easier for Sulphur to
gain 2 more electrons instead of losing 6. So it gains 2 more electrons and attains the configuration:
2,8,8.

Now, the Sulphur ion has 16 protons and 18 electrons. It has 2 more electrons than protons, so it has an
overall negative charge (opposite of what I explained about metals). Therefore, it now has a charge of
2-
2-. Thus, the formula of a Sulphide ion is S .

Now let’s look at Nitrogen. It has an atomic number of 7.

Its electronic configuration is: 2,5.

It can gain 3 electrons to attain the configuration: 2, 8.

Nitrogen ends up having 3 more electrons than its protons and therefore has an overall negative charge
of 3, (3-).

This is how ions are formed.

Note: Ions of an atom do not have the same characteristics of its original atom. As in, a Potassium atom
and Potassium ion do not have the same characteristics. Potassium atom is very reactive, but the
potassium ion is very unreactive (as it has full outer shell electrons)

That was all you needed to know about ions. Now we can go further into our first bonding topic, “Ionic
Bonding.”

Ionic Bonding:
As you know, like charges repel and unlike charges attract. In an ionic bonding, there is an electrostatic
bond between a positive and a negative ion, which means this bond is only possible between a metal
and a non-metal.

In an ionic bond, a metal loses its electron to a non-metal and combine with it to become a stable
compound.

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 Periodic Table & Bonding of Elements

All metal salts are ionic compounds. Sodium chloride {NaCl}, Magnesium Bromide{(MgBr2}, Copper (II)
sulphate {Cu(II)SO4} are examples of ionic compounds.

Now we’ll take a look at how we write the formulae for a few ionic compounds.

To write the formula for an ionic compound, you must know the number of charges of the 2 elements
you need to make that compound’s formula.

We’ll look at Sodium Chloride.

Sodium has 1 electron in its outermost shell and Chlorine has 7 electrons in its outermost shell. For
Chlorine to become stable and have 8 electrons in its outermost shell, it needs to gain 1 electron from
Sodium. Therefore, Sodium loses an electron to Chlorine and Chlorine gains one electron from Sodium.
Since they have equal opposite charges, only ONE atom of Sodium is needed to bond with ONE atom of
Chlorine.

To write the formula of Sodium chloride, first find out the formula of Sodium (Na) and Chlorine (Cl) from
the periodic table (you need to do that for all elements unless you memorize all the formulae of all
elements), and then the number of outermost electrons from its group number. Then write the formula
of the elements next to their corresponding charges. Then interchange the charges, as in move Na’s
charge next to Chlorine and Chlorine’s charge next to Na to get the formula. Ignore the signs of charges
here because we know they are opposite.

Na – 1 Cl – 1

After you have interchanged, you get NaCl as the compound (we
don’t write “1” in formulae)

Now we’ll try a different kind of ionic compound. We’ll take Calcium
bromide as our next compound.

Ca – 2 Br – 1

After you have interchanged the numbers, you get CaBr2, which
means 2 Bromine atoms combined with one Calcium atom to form
Calcium bromide. That happens because Calcium can lose 2 electrons
but Bromine can accept only one as it already has 7 electrons in the
outermost shell. So 2 Bromine atoms each take one electron from
one Calcium atom

Ctrl+ Click here for a more detailed explanation.

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 Periodic Table & Bonding of Elements

This is where your ionic reactions come in.

Zn + H2SO4  ZnSO4 + H2

This is a metal + acid reaction. In this reaction, the metal displaces Hydrogen from the acid and forms a
salt and Hydrogen gas evolves.
2+ + 2-
To understand how this happens, we write an ionic equation. The ions present are: Zn , H and SO4 .

Zinc is the metal which displaces Hydrogen from H2SO4 and forms ZnSO4.

2+
Zn Loses 2 electrons and forms Zn ion.

+ 2-
2 H ions gain 1 electron each from the Zn atom that loses 2 electrons, and form H2, and so the SO4 ion
2+
combines with Zn ion to form ZnSO4 (remember the 2 charges cancel out and so one Zn ion needs one
SO4 ion to form a compound since they have equal number of opposite charges).

Therefore, by reacting Zinc and Sulphuric acid, you get Zinc sulphate and Hydrogen as the product.

Note that Hydrogen and all the Group VII elements exist as diatomic molecules, as in they always have 2
atoms together (H2, F2, Cl2, Br2, I2, At2)

Now if you react Lithium with Sulphuric acid, you get Li2SO4 because Lithium has 1 positive charge, while
SO4 has 2 negative charges. So if you interchange the charges, you get Li2SO4 as the product.

Li + H2SO4  Li2SO4 + H2 .

So whenever you form a compound, always make sure you know the charges and interchange them
when you write its formula. In Zinc sulphate, one Zinc ion was enough to bond with one Sulphate ion.
But 2 Lithium ions are needed to bond with one Sulphate ion because of having unequal opposite
charges.

Ionic bonds also occur in a neutralisation reactions (Acid-Base reactions).

When an Acid reacts with a Base, the products formed are always a salt and water.

We’ll make a reaction between Hydrochloric acid and Sodium hydroxide.

HCl + NaOH  NaCl + H2O

+ - + -
In this reaction, HCl breaks into H and Cl ions and NaOH breaks into Na and OH ions and they combine
+ - + -
to form the products when Na and Cl ions H and OH ions react to form NaCl and H2O.

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 Periodic Table & Bonding of Elements

Ionic bonds have a strong force of attraction in between them and they are arranged in rows and
columns. You need to know some properties of Ionic compounds.

Properties of ionic compounds:

a) They have a high melting and boiling point.

b) They are soluble in water.

c) They do not conduct electricity when in solid state.

d) They conduct electricity in molten or aqueous (dissolved in water) state.

Covalent Bonding:
Covalent Bonds occur between non metals only. Ions are not involved in covalent bonds; instead atoms
share electrons to form compounds.

Water, Bromine, Hydrogen, etc are examples of covalent bonds.

Hydrogen has 1 electron in its outermost shell, Oxygen has 6. Therefore,

Oxygen needs 2 more electrons to attain 8 outer shell electrons, and
Hydrogen needs 1 electron to have 2 outermost shell electrons. Therefore,
2 Hydrogen atoms combine with one Oxygen atom to form H2O (H-O-H). In
that way, Each Hydrogen atom gets 2 electrons and the Oxygen atom gets 8
electrons.

The same way, the Group VII gases, for example Bromine has 7 electrons in the outermost shell, so 2
Bromine atoms share one electron from each atom to fill the shell with 8 electrons.

Properties of Covalent compounds:

a) They are insoluble in water.

b) They don’t conduct electricity in any state.

c) They have high melting and boiling points.

That’s basically the concept of Covalent bonds.

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 Periodic Table & Bonding of Elements

Metallic Bonding:
This is a bond formed between metals only. In metallic bonding,
there’s a bond between positive ions. The metal ions are
arranged in a lattice shape, in rows and columns and they are
surrounded by a “sea of electrons.” The electrons move around
through the metals. That is why they can slide over each other,
and also that is why they conduct electricity, because the
electrons are always moving.

As you can see in the diagram, the + signs indicate the positive
ions, or the protons, and the small – shows the electrons, and
the arrows indicate their movement along the lattice.

Properties of Metals:

a) The metals are malleable (can be made into sheets) and they are ductile (can be shaped into
wires).

b) They conduct electricity due to the sea of electrons surrounding them.

c) Metals conduct electricity in both solid and molten state.

d) Metals are good conductors of heat.