Chemistry - from Hydrogen to Tellurium

2011 is a special year for chemistry - it is the International Year of Chemistry. To celebrate this  Anyone 4 Science plans to write a blog introducing Chemistry to you. 


The plan to start at the very beginning - which according to the Sound of Music is a very good place to start. When you read you begin with A B C, when you sing you begin with Doh, Ray, Me but it is H, He, Li for Chemistry.......


Each week I am going to take a different element and write a few interesting facts. Hopefully by the end of the year you will know a little about all the elements from Hydrogen to Tellurium......... who knows I might even keep on going into 2012.



Hydrogen
So H,  why am I going to start there. Well H is the atomic symbol for Hydrogen, the smallest of all the atoms in the universe. All atoms are tiny, but hydrogen is the smallest of all. Even though they are tiny (more than a million can fit on the full stop at the end of this sentence), atoms are made up of different parts. Like all other atoms, Hydrogen is made up of a central nucleus containing protons and neutrons and Hydrogen has one of each. Spinning around or orbiting the nucleus are electrons and Hydrogen has just one of these. 


So what does an atom looks like. I like to think of them like fried eggs, where the yolk in the middle is like the nucleus and I imagine the electron whizzing around at the outside of the white part.

The dotted line shows the path the electron takes as it circles the nucleus.

Hydrogen atoms aren't very happy like this, maybe their electron gets lonely - who knows, anyway, rather than remain like this hydrogen prefers either to give away its electron so it has none or share an electron with another atom so it thinks it has 2. 

In nature, Hydrogen atoms always go around in pairs. Scientists write it as H2. I like to think of it as 2 fried eggs stuck together or maybe an egg with 2 yolks... The electrons orbit the 2 nucleii and both are tricked into believing that they both have 2 electrons. This H2 is known by scientists as the Hydrogen molecule.

Other interesting things about Hydrogen are

It is a gas

It is reactive.

It reacts with oxygen to create water and lots of energy. This is currently how rockets are fuelled. Many scientists hope that in the future we will be able to use Hydrogen instead of petrol and diesel for cars and heating. After it burns all that is left behind is water so there would be no polluting chemicals to be disposed of.

For more information about hydrogen check out http://www.chemicool.com/elements/hydrogen.html