The ionic bond is normally formed between metals and nonmetals and the reason for this is their different electron affinity. Remember, metals have low ionization energies and therefore, tend to form cations, while nonmetals have high electron affinity and tend … Read more
Lewis dot symbols consist of the symbol of an element surrounded by its valence electrons represented as dots. So, to draw the Lewis dot symbol of an element, we must first know how many valence electrons it has. Remember, this … Read more
Another colligative property of solutions is the osmotic pressure. So, what is osmotic pressure? To understand it, let’s imagine a tube with a semipermeable membrane that separates a solvent from a solution: The semipermeable membrane allows passing of … Read more
Have you ever wondered what they are sparing on airplanes on cold days before they take off? What they are spraying is a solution typically containing ethylene glycol, C₂H₆O₂ which lowers the freezing point of water. It is essentially … Read more
In the previous post, we have seen that solutions have lower vapor pressure than the corresponding pure solvents. In short, this is because the solution has higher entropy than the solvent, and the evaporation of the solvent molecules from the … Read more
Vapor pressure lowering is a colligative property of solutions. So, first, what is vapor pressure? Recall that when a liquid evaporates in a closed container, an equilibrium is established between the liquid and the gas, and the pressure exerted by the … Read more
Colligative (collective) properties are those that depend only on the number of particles dissolved in solution, and not on the type of particle. For example, salt is sometimes scattered on icy roads to melt the ice. What happens … Read more
The VSEPR (valence shell electron pair repulsion) theory predicts the geometry of atoms or molecules. It is based on the principle that atoms and lone pairs repel each other because of electrostatic forces and thus, they are positioned as far … Read more
We know that the formation of covalent bonds is achieved by an overlap of orbitals between two atoms that share a pair of valence electrons. The bonds are most often shown with either two dots or a line, and these … Read more
In the previous post, we talked about the hybridization of atomic orbitals, so this practice set is to master to concepts of determining whether an atom is sp, sp2, sp3, sp3d, or sp3d2 hybridized.
