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Atoms can be excited by heat, electricity, or light. The hydrogen atom provides a simple example of this concept.. The ground state of the hydrogen atom has the atom's single electron in the lowest possible orbital (that is, the spherically symmetric "1s" wave function, which, so far, has been demonstrated to have the lowest possible quantum numbers).
The lowest excited state of the diatomic oxygen molecule is a singlet state. It is a gas with physical properties differing only subtly from those of the more prevalent triplet ground state of O 2 . In terms of its chemical reactivity, however, singlet oxygen is far more reactive toward organic compounds.
The oxidation state of oxygen is −2 in almost all known compounds of oxygen. The oxidation state −1 is found in a few compounds such as peroxides. [125] Compounds containing oxygen in other oxidation states are very uncommon: −1/2 (superoxides), −1/3 , 0 (elemental, hypofluorous acid), +1/2 , +1 (dioxygen difluoride), and +2 (oxygen ...
Hydrogen atoms are covalently bonded to oxygen in a water molecule but also have an additional attraction (about 23.3 kJ·mol −1 per hydrogen atom) to an adjacent oxygen atom in a separate molecule. [2] These hydrogen bonds between water molecules hold them approximately 15% closer than what would be expected in a simple liquid with just Van ...
The excited states are unstable and naturally relax back to the ground state. Over various short time scales after the excitation (typically a fraction of a second, or sometimes longer than a second if the excited state is metastable ), transitions occur from higher to lower electronic states and ultimately to the ground state, and in each ...
Furthermore, the solvated electron can recombine with the H 2 O + cation to form an excited state of the water. This excited state then decomposes to species such as hydroxyl radicals (HO.), hydrogen atoms (H.) and oxygen atoms (O.). Finally, the solvated electron can react with solutes such as solvated protons or oxygen molecules to form ...
Atomic oxygen, denoted O or O 1, is very reactive, as the individual atoms of oxygen tend to quickly bond with nearby molecules. Its lowest-energy electronic state is a spin triplet, designated by the term symbol 3 P. On Earth's surface, it exists naturally for a very short time.
A molecule may be homonuclear, that is, it consists of atoms of one chemical element, e.g. two atoms in the oxygen molecule (O 2); or it may be heteronuclear, a chemical compound composed of more than one element, e.g. water (two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom; H 2 O).