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Works on organizing the elements by atomic weight, until then had been stymied by the widespread use of equivalent weights for the elements, rather than atomic weights. [7] Most 19th-century chemists defined the valence of an element as the number of its bonds without distinguishing different types of valence or of bond.
Atomicity is the total number of atoms present in a molecule of an element. For example, each molecule of oxygen (O 2) is composed of two oxygen atoms. Therefore, the atomicity of oxygen is 2. [1] In older contexts, atomicity is sometimes equivalent to valency. Some authors also use the term to refer to the maximum number of valencies observed ...
The equivalent weight of an element is the mass which combines with or displaces 1.008 gram of hydrogen or 8.0 grams of oxygen or 35.5 grams of chlorine. The equivalent weight of an element is the mass of a mole of the element divided by the element's valence. That is, in grams, the atomic weight of the element divided by the usual valence. [2]
An earlier definition, used especially for chemical elements, holds that an equivalent is the amount of a substance that will react with 1 g (0.035 oz) of hydrogen, 8 g (0.28 oz) of oxygen, or 35.5 g (1.25 oz) of chlorine—or that will displace any of the three.
For alloys containing transition metal elements there is a difficulty in interpretation of the Hume-Rothery electron concentration rule, as the values of e/a values (number of itinerant electrons per atom) for transition metals have been quite controversial for a long time, and no satisfactory solutions have yet emerged.
Hence, in many cases the elements of a particular group have the same valency. However, this periodic trend is not always followed for heavier elements, especially for the f-block and the transition metals. These elements show variable valency as these elements have a d-orbital as the penultimate orbital and an s-orbital as the outermost orbital.
If the structure of a compound is known, the empirical bond valence - bond length correlation of Eq. 2 can be used to estimate the bond valences from their observed bond lengths. Eq. 1 can then be used to check that the structure is chemically valid; any deviation between the atomic valence and the bond valence sum needs to be accounted for.
The mass number should also not be confused with the standard atomic weight (also called atomic weight) of an element, which is the ratio of the average atomic mass of the different isotopes of that element (weighted by abundance) to the atomic mass constant. [9] The atomic weight is a mass ratio, while the mass number is a counted number (and ...