Book1

Substance and mixture

Examples of pure chemical substances.

From left to right: the elements tin (Sn)
and sulfur (S), diamond (an allotrope of carb
on), sucrose (pure sugar), and sodium
chloride (salt) and sodium
bicarbonate (baking soda), which are both
ionic compounds.

A chemical substance is a kind of matter with a

definite composition and set of properties.[25] A collection of substances
is called a mixture. Examples of mixtures are air and alloys.[26]
Mole and amount of substance
Main article: Mole
The mole is a unit of measurement that denotes an amount of
substance (also called chemical amount). One mole is defined to
contain exactly 6.02214076×1023 particles (atoms, molecules, ions,
or electrons), where the number of particles per mole is known as
the Avogadro constant.[27] Molar concentration is the amount of a
particular substance per volume of solution, and is commonly reported
in mol/dm3.[28]
Phase

Diagram showing relationships among the phases

and the terms used to describe phase changes
Main article: Phase
In addition to the specific chemical properties that distinguish different
chemical classifications, chemicals can exist in several phases. For
the most part, the chemical classifications are independent of these
bulk phase classifications; however, some more exotic phases are
incompatible with certain chemical properties. A phase is a set of
states of a chemical system that have similar bulk structural
properties, over a range of conditions, such
as pressure or temperature.
Physical properties, such as density and refractive index tend to fall
within values characteristic of the phase. The phase of matter is
defined by the phase transition, which is when energy put into or taken
out of the system goes into rearranging the structure of the system,
instead of changing the bulk conditions.
Sometimes the distinction between phases can be continuous instead
of having a discrete boundary' in this case the matter is considered to
be in a supercritical state. When three states meet based on the
conditions, it is known as a triple point and since this is invariant, it is a
convenient way to define a set of conditions.
The most familiar examples of phases are solids, liquids, and gases.
Many substances exhibit multiple solid phases. For example, there are
three phases of solid iron (alpha, gamma, and delta) that vary based
on temperature and pressure. A principal difference between solid
phases is the crystal structure, or arrangement, of the atoms. Another
phase commonly encountered in the study of chemistry is
the aqueous phase, which is the state of substances dissolved
in aqueous solution (that is, in water).
Less familiar phases include plasmas, Bose–Einstein
condensates and fermionic condensates and
the paramagnetic and ferromagnetic phases of magnetic materials.
While most familiar phases deal with three-dimensional systems, it is
also possible to define analogs in two-dimensional systems, which has
received attention for its relevance to systems in biology.
Bonding
Main article: Chemical bond

An animation of the process of ionic bonding

between sodium (Na) and chlorine (Cl) to form sodium chloride, or common table salt. Ionic
bonding involves one atom taking valence electrons from another (as opposed to sharing, which
occurs in covalent bonding).
Atoms sticking together in molecules or crystals are said to be bonded
with one another. A chemical bond may be visualized as
the multipole balance between the positive charges in the nuclei and
the negative charges oscillating about them.[29] More than simple
attraction and repulsion, the energies and distributions characterize
the availability of an electron to bond to another atom.
The chemical bond can be a covalent bond, an ionic bond, a hydrogen
bond or just because of Van der Waals force. Each of these kinds of
bonds is ascribed to some potential. These potentials create the
interactions which hold atoms together in molecules or crystals. In
many simple compounds, valence bond theory, the Valence Shell
Electron Pair Repulsion model (VSEPR), and the concept of oxidation
number can be used to explain molecular structure and composition.
An ionic bond is formed when a metal loses one or more of its
electrons, becoming a positively charged cation, and the electrons are
then gained by the non-metal atom, becoming a negatively charged
anion. The two oppositely charged ions attract one another, and the
ionic bond is the electrostatic force of attraction between them. For
example, sodium (Na), a metal, loses one electron to become an
Na+ cation while chlorine (Cl), a non-metal, gains this electron to
become Cl−. The ions are held together due to electrostatic attraction,
and that compound sodium chloride (NaCl), or common table salt, is
formed.

In the methane molecule (CH4), the carbon atom shares a pair of

valence electrons with each of the four hydrogen atoms. Thus, the octet rule is satisfied for C-
atom (it has eight electrons in its valence shell) and the duet rule is satisfied for the H-atoms
(they have two electrons in their valence shells).
In a covalent bond, one or more pairs of valence electrons are shared
by two atoms: the resulting electrically neutral group of bonded atoms
is termed a molecule. Atoms will share valence electrons in such a
way as to create a noble gas electron configuration (eight electrons in
their outermost shell) for each atom. Atoms that tend to combine in
such a way that they each have eight electrons in their valence shell
are said to follow the octet rule. However, some elements
like hydrogen and lithium need only two electrons in their outermost
shell to attain this stable configuration; these atoms are said to follow
the duet rule, and in this way they are reaching the electron
configuration of the noble gas helium, which has two electrons in its
outer shell.
Similarly, theories from classical physics can be used to predict many
ionic structures. With more complicated compounds, such as metal
complexes, valence bond theory is less applicable and alternative
approaches, such as the molecular orbital theory, are generally used.
See diagram on electronic orbitals.