Secondary 1

▪ Matter is made up of basic building blocks called elements.

▪ An element is a substance that cannot be broken down into
simpler substances by chemical methods.
▪ An atom is the smallest particle of an element.
▪ Atoms of an element are all identical.
▪ For example, one silver atom would be identical to any other
silver atom.
▪ One the other hand, atoms of different elements would be
different.
▪ Atoms cannot be seen with the naked eye are they are
too small.
▪ An atom has an average size of about 0.0000000001 m or
1 x 10–10m.
▪ Relative size of an atom compared with other objects:
1 x 10–2 1 x 10 – 3 1 x 10 – 5 1 x 10 – 6 1 x 10 – 7 1 x 10 – 10 (in m)

Thickness A plant A red A A dust An atom

of a pencil cell blood cell bacterium particle
▪ Using circles
▪ Atoms vary in size, so a smaller atom is
represented with a smaller circle than that of a
bigger atom.
▪ Using models
▪ Ball and stick models are used to show how atoms are
arranged in substances.
▪ Each ball represents an atom.
▪ Atom of different elements are represented using
different coloured balls.
▪ Using chemical symbols
▪ As there are more than 100 different atoms, using
circles or models are not the most convenient ways
to represent them.
▪ Scientists use the chemical symbol of each
element to represent its atom.
▪ Each atom is made up of even smaller particles.
▪ These particles are called sub-atomic particles.
▪ There are 3 types of sub-atomic particles – protons,
electrons and neutrons.

An atom has a An atom consists mostly

positively charged of empty space.
nucleus, densely
concentrated in the
centre. The nucleus
contains protons and
neutrons, which are Negatively charged
tightly packed. electrons move around the
nucleus in fixed orbits or
paths.
▪ There are two properties of protons, neutrons
and electrons that are especially important:
❑ mass
❑ electrical charge
Particle mass charge
proton 1 +1
neutron 1 0
electron Almost 0 -1

The atoms of an element contain equal numbers of protons and electrons

and so have no overall charge.
The nucleus is:
⚫made up of protons and neutrons
⚫positively charged because of the protons
⚫dense because it contains all the mass of the
atom in a tiny space.
Electrons are:
⚫very small and light, and negatively charged
⚫able to be lost or gained in chemical reactions
⚫found thinly spread around the outside of the
nucleus, orbiting in layers called shells (energy
levels).
▪ The class will be divided into 4 groups.
▪ Each group will make a presentation and
discuss the development of atomic model.
▪ Explain the atomic model propose by John
Dalton, J.J. Thomson, Ernest Rutherford and
Niels Bohr.
▪ 1806- John Dalton carried out Experiments that
the atom is a small, solid indivisible ball.
▪ 1897- J. J. Thomson discovered the electron. He
argued that the atom must also have positively
charged part to balance the negative charge of the
electrons.
▪ 1911- Ernest Rutherford carried out
experiments that showed that the atom consist
mainly of empty space. His model of the atom
had a small, positively charged nucleus at its
centre with electrons moving around the
nucleus.
▪ 1913 - Niels Bohr fine-tuned Rutherford’s model
of the atom.
▪ He proposed that electrons move around the
nucleus in fixed orbits. → energy level (electron
shell)
The number of protons in an
atom is known as the atomic
number or proton number.

It is the smaller of the two

numbers shown in most
periodic table
What are the atomic (proton) numbers of these elements?

sodium 11

iron 26

tin 50

fluorine 9
Electrons have a mass of almost zero, which means that the
mass of each atom results almost entirely from the number
of protons and neutrons in the nucleus.

The sum of the protons and neutrons

in an atom’s nucleus is the mass number.

It is the larger of the two numbers shown

in most periodic tables.

atoms protons neutrons Mass number

hydrogen 1 0 1
lithium 3 4 7
aluminium 13 14 27
mass number = number of protons + number of neutrons

What is the mass number of these atoms?

Atoms Protons Neutrons Mass number

helium 2 2 4
copper 29 35 64
cobalt 27 32 59

iodine 53 74 127
germanium 32 41 73
▪ When an atom loses or gains electrons, we say
that an ion is formed.
▪ An ion is an atom that carries a positive or
negative charge as a result of having lost or
gained one or more electrons.
▪ Atoms which lose electrons will have a net
positive charge. Hence, they form positive ions.

neutral atom with net positive charge

atom
+ + e–
electron lost by
atom
▪ Atoms which gain electrons will have a negative
charge. Hence, they form negative ions.

neutral
atom with net
atom
negative charge
+ e– -
electron gained by atom

▪ Generally, when atoms react to form compounds:

▪ the atoms of metals tend to lose electrons;
▪ and the atoms of non-metals tend to gain electrons.
Example 1
Magnesium chloride is a compound made from two
kinds of ions – magnesium ions, which have a positive
charge, and chloride ions, which have a negative charge.
A magnesium atom has the chemical symbol,24 12 Mg.
A magnesium atom (an atom of a metal) loses two
electrons to form a magnesium ion in its compound.

Mg Mg2+ + 2e –
Magnesium atom Magnesium ion Electrons
Example 1

Magnesium atom Magnesium ion

Number of protons 12 12
Number of electrons 12 10
Net charge 0 +2

A magnesium ion has 12 protons and 10 electrons.

Hence, it has a net positive charge of +2.
Example 2
35
A chlorine atom has the chemical symbol, 17Cl.
A chlorine atom (an atom of a non-metal) gains an
electron to form a chloride ion in its compound.

Cl + e- Cl-
Chlorine atom Electron Chloride ion

Chlorine atom Chloride ion

Number of protons 17 17
Number of electrons 17 18
Net charge 0 – 1

A chloride ion has 17 protons and 18 electrons. Hence, it

has a net negative charge of –1.
▪ The table below shows some ions formed by common
atoms:
Element Chemical symbol Ion formed
Hydrogen H H+
Sodium Na Na+
Potassium K K+
Aluminium Al Al3+
Calcium Ca Ca2+
Magnesium Mg Mg2+
Oxygen O O2-
Chlorine Cl Cl-
Bromine Br Br-
Sulphur S S2-
▪ Some atoms share electrons with other atoms
by combining to from molecules.
▪ These atoms have a tendency to combine
with other atoms to form molecules rather
than exist alone.
▪ A molecule is made up of two or more atoms
chemically combined together.
▪ Molecules of elements usually consist of a
fixed number of one type of atom
chemically combined together.
▪ Many non-metallic elements exist as
molecules.
Each molecule of
hydrogen, oxygen and
nitrogen gas is made up
of two atoms of the same
type.

These molecules are

called diatomic
molecules as each
molecule contains only
two atoms.

Other elements that

consist of diatomic
molecules include
chlorine, bromine and
iodine.
▪ When atoms of the different types combine
together, a molecule of a compound is
formed.
▪ These molecules contain a fixed number of
different types of atoms chemically
combined together.
 The number of each
type of atom in a
molecule of a
compound never
changes.

A molecule of water
contains one oxygen
atom and two hydrogen
atoms chemically
combined together.

This ratio of oxygen and

hydrogen remains fixed
whether water is in
liquid, solid or gaseous
state.
▪ The chemical formula is a combination of the
chemical symbols of the elements present in
the molecule.
▪ This tells us the type of atoms present in the
molecule.
▪ The small number beside each symbol is
called a subscript.
▪ It tells us the number of atoms of that element
present in the molecule.
▪ No subscript means that there is only one atom
of that element present in the molecule.
▪ Each chemical formula represents a particular
substance.
▪ Carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide contain similar
elements: carbon and oxygen. But each have different
numbers of oxygen atoms.
▪ Thus, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide are
different compounds.
▪ The chemical symbols and formulae you are learning
are used throughout the world.
▪ This allows scientists all over the world to communicate
with one another using a common language of
chemical symbols and formulae.