CHEMISTRY SOME BASIC CONCEPTS OF CHEMISTRY

Laws of Chemical Combination

 The elements chemically combine with each other to form compounds.
 The process of chemically combining of elements to form compounds is governed by five basic laws.

Law of
Conservation
of Mass

Law of
Avogadro's
Definite
Law
Proportions
Laws of
Chemical
Combination

Gay-
Law of
Lussac's Law
Multiple
of Gaseous
Proportions
Volumes

Law of Conservation of Mass

 This law was put forth by Antoine Lavoisier in 1789. He performed careful experimental studies on
combustion reactions.

Matter can neither be created nor destroyed in a chemical reaction.

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 CHEMISTRY SOME BASIC CONCEPTS OF CHEMISTRY

 This law was the result of exact measurements for the masses of reactants and products.
According to the law of conservation of mass, sum of the masses of reactants is always equal to the
sum of the masses of products formed during the reaction.

Example: Burning of carbon

Mass of
Mass of Mass of
Carbon
Carbon Oxygen
dioxide

Law of Definite Proportions (Law of Definite Compositions)

 This law was proposed by the French chemist Joseph Proust.

A compound always contains exactly the same proportions of elements by weight.

 The law was experimentally proved by following examples:

1. Naturally occurring pure sample of copper carbonate or cupric carbonate contains 51.35% of
copper, 38.91% of carbon and 9.74% of oxygen.
Later, a pure sample of cupric carbonate was synthesized in laboratory and was found that the
percentage by weight of copper, carbon and oxygen were exactly identical to that of sample of
naturally occurring sample of cupric carbonate.

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 CHEMISTRY SOME BASIC CONCEPTS OF CHEMISTRY

51.35% Copper

Naturally occuring and synthesized

sample of Cupric Carbonate 38.91% Carbon

9.74% Oxygen

2. This law was further supported by different samples of pure water. It was observed that
irrespective of sources of water it contained 88.81% oxygen and 11.19% hydrogen by weight.

Pure water

88.81% oxygen 11.19% hydrogen

3. The pure samples of sugar obtained 51.4% oxygen, 42.1 % carbon and 6.5 % hydrogen by weight.

Sugar

51.4% Oxygen 42.1 % Carbon 6.5 % Hydrogen

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Law of Multiple Proportions

 The law was proposed by British scientist John Dalton, in 1803.

If two elements can combine to form more than one compound, then the masses
of one element which combines with the fixed mass of the other element are in the
ratio of small whole numbers.

Example:
1. Carbon reacts chemically with oxygen forming two compounds carbon monoxide and carbon
dioxide.
Carbon monoxide is a poisonous combustible gas. While carbon dioxide is non-poisonous, non
combustible gas.
On analysis it was found that, 1g of carbon reacts with 1.33 g of oxygen to form carbon monoxide
and 1 g of carbon reacts with 2.66 g of oxygen to yield carbon dioxide. Hence the ratio of weights of
oxygen to that of carbon for two compounds are,

Therefore the ratio of masses of oxygen that combine with the same mass of carbon is 2 : 1.

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 CHEMISTRY SOME BASIC CONCEPTS OF CHEMISTRY

2. Hydrogen reacts with oxygen to form two compounds water and hydrogen peroxide.
On analysis it is found that water (H2O) contains 2g of hydrogen and 16g of oxygen.

Hydrogen Oxygen Water

2g 16g 18g

3. Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) contains 2g of hydrogen and 32g of oxygen.

Hydrogen
Hydrogen Oxygen
Peroxide
2g 32g
34g

Hence the masses of oxygen 16g and 32g which combine with a fixed mass of hydrogen (2g) bear a
simple ratio, i.e., 16:32 or 1:2.

Gay-Lussac’s Law of Gaseous Volumes (Law of Combining Volumes)

 This law was given by Gay-Lussac in 1808. He investigated a large number of chemical reactions
occurring in gases.

 As a result of his experiments, Gay-Lussac found that there exists a definite relationship among the
volumes of gaseous reactants and products.

When gases react together, they always do so in volumes which bear a simple
ratio to one another and to the volumes of the products, if these are also gases,
provided all measurements of volumes are performed under similar conditions
of temperature and pressure.

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 CHEMISTRY SOME BASIC CONCEPTS OF CHEMISTRY

Consider the following illustrations.

 When gases react together to produce gaseous products, the volumes of reactants and products bear
a simple whole number ratio with each other, provided volumes are measured at same temperature
and pressure.

Example 1: Under identical conditions of temperature and pressure equal volumes, say 1 litre i.e., 1L
of each hydrogen and chlorine gases react together to produce double the volume, 2L of hydrogen
chloride gas.

Hydrogen
Hydrogen Chlorine
chloride
1L 1L
2L
(1Vol) (1 Vol)
(2 Vol)

Thus, the ratio of volumes is 1 : 1 : 2.

Example 2: Under identical conditions of temperature and pressure 2l of hydrogen gas reacts with 1L
of oxygen gas to produce 2L of steam (water vapour).

Water
Hydrogen Oxygen
vapour
2L 1L
2L
(2 Vol) (1 Vol)
(2 Vol)

Thus, the ratio of volumes is 2 : 1 : 2.

Example 3: Under identical conditions of temperature and pressure 1L of nitrogen gas reacts with 3L
of hydrogen to produce 2L of ammonia gas.

Nitrogen Hydrogen Ammonia

1L 3L 2L
(1 Vol) (3 Vol) (2 Vol)

Here the ratio of volumes is 1 : 3 : 2.

Conclusion: All examples cited above indicate that during gaseous reaction, gaseous reactants and
products bear a simple ratio of whole number of volumes with each other.

Gay-Lussac’s law was explained in detail by Avogadro in 1811.

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Avogadro’s Law
 In 1811, Amedeo Avogadro proposed that equal volumes of gases at the same temperature and
pressure should contain equal number of molecules.

Equal volumes of gases at the same temperature and pressure contain equal
number of molecules.

 The distinction between atoms and molecules was made quite understandable by Avogadro.
 Let us again consider the reaction of hydrogen and oxygen to produce water. We see that two
volumes of hydrogen combine with one volume of oxygen to give two volumes of water without leaving
any unreacted oxygen.
 In the figure, each box contains equal number of molecules. In fact, Avogadro could explain the above
result by considering the molecules to be polyatomic; for example, the diatomic molecules such as
hydrogen and oxygen.
 Avogadro’s proposal was published in the French Journal de Physique. Despite being correct, it did
not gain much support.
 However, Dalton and others believed at that time that atoms of the same kind cannot combine and
molecules of oxygen or hydrogen containing two atoms do not exist.
 After about 50 years, in 1860, at a meeting held in Germany, Stanislao Cannizzaro presented a sketch
of a course of chemical philosophy which emphasised the importance of Avogadro’s work.

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Dalton’s Atomic Theory

 John Dalton, a British chemist, provided a basic theory about the nature of matter. In 1808, he
presented his atomic theory, which was a turning point in the study of matter.

An atom is the smallest indivisible particle of matter. It is similar to a hard, solid

sphere.

Dalton’s theory did not propose anything about the charges in an atom as he considered the atom to be
indivisible. Therefore, his theory was not able to explain the behaviour and properties of matter. However,
his theory could explain the laws of chemical combination.

Postulates of Dalton's Atomic Theory

1. Matter consists of indivisible atoms.
2. All the atoms of a given element have identical properties including identical mass. Atoms of different
elements differ in mass.
3. Compounds are formed when atoms of different elements combine in a fixed ratio.
4. Chemical reactions involve reorganisation of atoms. These are neither created nor destroyed in a
chemical reaction.

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