Biodiesel Project

For an into to our Biodiesel unit, we are compiling a video to inform people about biodiesel. We are going to enter this into a competition hosted by the American Lung Association.

Today in class we received a really informational pamphlet about biodesiel, so I think we are going to incorporate that somehow. 

Also, I think we have finally decided that we are using Powtoon! It's a really good website to make animated videos that we cab voiceover.

If you want to know more about biodesiel, here are a few links:

http://www.biodiesel.com/

http://biodiesel.org/

http://www.afdc.energy.gov/fuels/biodiesel.html

https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/biodiesel.shtml

http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel.html

http://nbb.org/

Test Day

Today we took our test over the Chemical Bonding unit and overall, I thought it went ok. I didn't have much time to study due to soccer and other issues lately, so I didn't feel as prepared as I could have walking into it.

There were a few questions on the test about covalent/ionic bonds, as well as some about polarity that I'm pretty sure I got wrong.

Overall, I thought the test was pretty straightforward and I'm hoping that that equals a good grade...but most likely not!

Hybridization

One of the things that we learned this short unit was hybridization in correlation to chemical bonding.

The name is a lot scarier than the actual process, I promise you.

All you need to do is count the number of electron domains, or places where potential bonds can occur on the atom, and put that number in the basic electron configuration model (spdf).

If you remember, S has 1 orbital, p 3, d 5, and f 7.

So if a bond has 5 electron domains on the structure, it has a hybridization of sp3d.

If a bond has 7 electron domains it would be sp3d3.

As this picture demonstrates, the hybridization corresponds with the electron pair geometry of a bond, due to both being determined by the number of electron domains.

Here are some links if you want more info:

https://chemistry.boisestate.edu/richardbanks/inorganic/bonding%20and%20hybridization/bonding_hybridization.htm

http://chemwiki.ucdavis.edu/Core/Theoretical_Chemistry/Chemical_Bonding/Valence_Bond_Theory/Hybridization

http://www.mhhe.com/physsci/chemistry/carey5e/Ch02/ch2-3.html

Also, here's a chem pun because it's funny. Ha. Ha.

Lewis Structures

The entirety of this unit is based on the ability to create the BEST lewis structure for each bond.

There are a few guiding rules to doing that,  ut mostly it is just practicing and trial and error.

One rule is that electronegative elements do not like to carry positive charges, so if one does it is most likely not the BEST structure.

Another rule is that charges on elements prefer to be spread out over the entire bond, instead of all piled onto one elements. For example, if one O in NO3 has a -3 charge on it while the rest are at 0, there is a better Lewis structure possible.

One more thing to make certain is that the charges on each part of the bond correspond with the overall charge. You can't have 2, -1 O's on a bond and have the overall charge be +4.

Here's a picture demonstrating this concept:

Here are some additional links if you want some more help:

http://chemed.chem.purdue.edu/genchem/topicreview/bp/ch8/lewis.html

http://www.chem.ucla.edu/harding/lewisdots.html

http://antoine.frostburg.edu/chem/senese/101/bonds/faq/simple-lewis-structures.shtml

Periodic Trends

The last thing we learned in this unit was periodic trends.  These trends include: electronegativity, ionization energy, electron affinity, atomic radius, melting point, and metallic character.

A super, duper easy way to remember these trends is this:

All trends increase up and to the right except for metallic character and atomic radius.

These 2 trends increase down and to the left.

Here's a picture to more clearly see the trends:

Quantum Numbers

Another way to name elements on the table is with quantum numbers. There are a total of 4. First there is t he Principal Quantum Number (signified by the letter 'n'). This can be found just by identifying which energy level the element is in.

The Azimuthal Quantum Number (signified by the letter 'ℓ') is based on the sublevel:

s= 0

p-1

d=2

f=3

The Magnetic Quantum Number (signified by the letter 'm' or mℓ) is also based on the sublevel. Depending on the number of orbitals, this will either be 0, -/+1, -/+ 2, or -/+3.

The Spin Quantum Number (signified by the letter 's' or ms) is based on the magnetic quantum number, but it is whichever number you run out of electrons on, when you're making the electron configurations. 1 electron is a +1/2 spin, 2 electrons is a -1/2 spin. 

Resources

I like to make one dedicated post a unit just for all the great resources I found. I feel like this makes it easier for people to sort through them and find which ones help. Here are all of the great sources I've been studying from:

http://sciences.unlv.edu/Chemistry/hatchett/pdf/103/CH09Solutions.pdf

https://edocs.uis.edu/hbapa1/www/CHE141/Flash/pdf/Chapter7.pdf

http://www.chemteam.info/Electrons/LightEquations1.html

http://www.chemteam.info/Electrons/QuantumNumbers.html

http://www.chemteam.info/Electrons/Video-given-ionization-energy-calc-wavelength.html

http://chemwiki.ucdavis.edu/Core/Inorganic_Chemistry/Descriptive_Chemistry/Periodic_Trends_of_Elemental_Properties/Periodic_Trends

Calculations with Energy

There are 2 very easy, yet important equations involved with finding energy, wavelength, and frequency.

One of them is:

The value of C is 3.0x10^8.

The second equation is E=h * f

E stands for energy.

h stands for Plank's constant, which is 6.63 * 10^-34

f stands for frequency, which can be calculated with the above equation.