Protons, Neutrons, & Electrons are building blocks for the elements

1. Fe S S Cl Na Fe S S Cl Na Fe S S Si Si O O O O Si O O Si Si O O O O CHEMISTRY: IT'S ALL ABOUT BUILDING BLOCKS Energy as light… makes matter & antimatter...which includes protons, neutrons, & electrons By Ken Costello Protons, Neutrons, & Electrons are building blocks for the elements Anti-Matter Matter 2) Gamma rays (photons) collide to make protons & antiprotons, electrons & positrons, neutrons & antineutrons, quarks & antiquarks. Most revert to light, but some matter remains. “Up & Down” quarks also create protons & neutrons. Lone neutrons decay to protons & electrons. Supernova Neutron Proton 1) Energy in the form of light is first building block. More specifically, the light is high energy gamma rays. Electron Helium atom Elements are building blocks for compounds. 3) Protons, neutrons, and electrons are versatile building blocks which make the atoms for the elements. The positive protons in the nucleus attract orbiting negative electrons. Elements are formed in stars and exploding stars (supernovas). The number of protons in the nucleus determines the element. Over a 100 elements are built, from gases like helium (shown above) to metals like gold. All made from these 3 tiny particles. 4) Electrical attraction & repulsion are primary forces that cause elements to combine. Protons & electrons attract each other even when in different atoms. This attraction causes atoms to combine to form a compound. Hydrogen & oxygen make water 5) Compounds are not man-made, elements assemble themselves.It’s important to point out that elements can combine to form an almost infinite number of compounds. They do not need humans to combine. We think products like furniture, medicines, soap, beer, glass, and candy are man-made. People shape these products, but it is the elements that assemble themselves into wood, soap, glass, and sugar. People can steer elements towards certain compounds, but in nature elements do this on their own when conditions are right. For convenience, we divide compounds into two types: Organic (carbon-based) and inorganic. 6) Inorganic compounds are compounds that usually do not come from an organism. They usually make up non-living things like minerals. The building blocks for minerals and salts are one or two metals combined with one or two non-metals (2 non-metals can form a building block called a polyatomic ion [explained below]). Inorganic compounds often form crystals. For example, table salt is the metal, sodium (Na), combined with the non-metal gas, chlorine (Cl). They build cubic-shaped salt crystals. Pyrite (Fool’s Gold) is made from the metal, iron (Fe), plus two atoms of the non-metal, sulfur. They build the shiny golden crystal of Fool’s Gold. The two most abundant elements in the Earth’s crust are silicon (Si) and oxygen. So when you see a mountain, about half of it is oxygen and about 30% is silicon. So silicon combined with oxygen forms the common building block, silicon oxide. You recognize it as quartz or glass. The other common elements in order of abundance are the metals aluminum, iron, calcium, sodium, and potassium. So one or two of these are often combined with oxygen to form minerals, rocks, soil, and even gems. All gems except diamonds have oxygen in them. Sapphires and rubies are built fromaluminum and oxygen. Emeralds have aluminum, silicon, oxygen, & beryllium. Topaz is mostly aluminum, silicon, & oxygen. Again, oxygen, silicon, and aluminum are common building blocks.

2. O S O O O P S O O O O O O O P O O O O Cl O O Cl O O O O 7) Polyatomic Ions are two or more non-metal atoms that behave as one atom and have a charge (hence “ion”). As a group they are usually negatively charged ions because they capture one or more electrons from a metal, leaving the metal positively charged. You learned earlier that opposite charges attract. So the negatively charged polyatomic ions are attracted to positively charge metals. They combine to form various salts (usually water soluble) and minerals (usually insoluble). Since oxygen is the most abundant element on Earth, it’s not surprising to find oxygen as one of the elements in most of the polyatomic ions. Let’s look at some of these. -2 -2 At the right you see that sulfur (S), phosphorus (P), and chlorine (Cl) have 3 and 4 oxygen atoms surrounding them. The negative number tells you how many electrons the group has captured in order to stay a stable group of atoms. By themselves they are not building blocks because two groups with a negative charge will repel each other and not come together. However, after they attract a positive metal ion, they then build compounds. -3 -3 For example, chlorine with three or four oxygens combines with a positive sodium or potassium ion to make compounds that are used as a source of oxygen in fireworks and explosives. -1 -1 8) Organic compounds contain carbon and often are assembled by living things but not necessarily. Hydrocarbons can assemble on their own or be made by living things. C N S O H 9) Hydrocarbons & polymers: Methylene (CH2=1 carbon & 2 hydrogens) is the building block for many hydrocarbons. One combines with two hydrogens to make methane (natural gas) CH4. Three make propane (CH3CH2CH3). 4 make butane (cigarette lighter fluid). Six to ten make gasoline. A few more make diesel. 20 or so make motor oil. For structural compounds, the best building block is ethylene (C2H2=2 carbons & 2 hydrogens). Hundreds to thousands of these chain to make the polymer (plastic), polyethylene. You know it as cling wrap. With other atoms attached to ethylene, numerous polymers you’ve heard of are created. C H H Methylene C C H H Ethylene 10) Living things use small compounds as building blocks for larger compounds and large compounds as building blocks for very large compounds (macromolecules). For example, plants use the small compounds carbon dioxide and water to make sugars. The sugar molecules are then used to make starch or cellulose with thousands of carbon atoms. Very large organic compounds are used to build structures like cell walls, muscle fibers, fur, etc. Other very large organic compounds are builtfor chemical energy storage (e.g. starch) or for directing chemical reactions (e.g. enzymes and DNA). 11) Carbohydrates: Carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O) combine under photosynthesis to form sugars with 5 to 12 carbons. The 6-carbon sugar, glucose, becomes a building block for starch, dextran, glycogen, and cellulose. Cellulose is created by plants to form the woody structure of the plant (cell walls, stems, truck, etc.) The others are for storing chemical energy in plants, animals, or bacteria. This is glucose. It bends itself into 2 types of ring positions. These rings connect in different ways to form chains of either starch, cellulose, glycogen, or dextran. O C O Carbon dioxide & water make sugars H H O O H C C N 12) Amino acids are building blocks for proteins: Amino acids chain together to make proteins. The simplest amino acid is glycine (shown). Other amino acids have more atoms attached to the left carbon O H H H H Acid part Amino part 13) Lipids (oils and fats): Fatty acids have an acid part just like amino acids, but the fatty part is a hydrocarbon. These are building blocks for oils and fat. Organisms use lipids for chemical energy storage and for building structures like membranes. O H H H H H C C C C C C H O H 14) RNA and DNA: The building block for RNA and DNA are four nucleosides. Nucleosides have a 5 carbon sugar ring (ribose), and one or two rings that contain nitrogen. Slight differences in the nitrogen rings create the 4 nucleosides,guanine, cytosine, thymine, and adenine. Shown are two nucleosides held together by hydrogen bonding. Shown is just one rung on the DNA ladder. Each sequence of three of nucleosides translates to an amino acid that gets assembled into a protein. Proteins buildthe rest of the organism. H H H H H Acid part Hydrocarbon=Fatty part N O N H-N O|| OH| N N-H N N O| O| ||O O O-P-O-C N O C-O-P-O N N-H |O |O Cytosine Guanine |OH Summary: Light  Electrons, Neutrons, Protons  Elements  Compounds  Macromolecules Organisms Phosphate N N O Ribose sugar