Ion
An ion is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge. The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by convention. The net charge of an ion is not zero because its total number of electrons is unequal to its total number of protons.
A cation is a positively charged ion with fewer electrons than protons while an anion is a negatively charged ion with more electrons than protons and OH− ). Opposite electric charges are pulled towards one another by electrostatic force, so cations and anions attract each other and readily form ionic compounds. Ions consisting of only a single atom are termed monatomic ions, atomic ions or simple ions, while ions consisting of two or more atoms are termed polyatomic ions or molecular ions.
If only a + or − is present, it indicates a +1 or −1 charge, as seen in Na+ and . To indicate a more severe charge, the number of additional or missing electrons is supplied, as seen in and He2+.
In the case of physical ionization in a fluid, "ion pairs" are created by spontaneous molecule collisions, where each generated pair consists of a free electron and a positive ion. Ions are also created by chemical interactions, such as the dissolution of a salt in liquids, or by other means, such as passing a direct current through a conducting solution, dissolving an anode via ionization.
History of discovery
The word ion was coined from neuter present participle ofGreek ἰέναι, meaning "to go". A cation is something that moves down and an anion is something that moves up. They are so called because ions move toward the electrode of opposite charge. This term was introduced by English physicist and chemist Michael Faraday in 1834 for the then-unknown species that goes from one electrode to the other through an aqueous medium. Faraday did not know the nature of these species, but he knew that since metals dissolved into and entered a solution at one electrode and new metal came forth from a solution at the other electrode; that some kind of substance has moved through the solution in a current. This conveys matter from one place to the other. In correspondence with Faraday, Whewell also coined the words anode and cathode, as well as anion and cation as ions that are attracted to the respective electrodes.
Svante Arrhenius put forth, in his 1884 dissertation, the explanation of the fact that solid crystalline salts dissociate into paired charged particles when dissolved, for which he would win the 1903 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Arrhenius' explanation was that in forming a solution, the salt dissociates into Faraday's ions, he proposed that ions formed even in the absence of an electric current.
Characteristics
Ions in their gas-like state are highly reactive and will rapidly interact with ions of opposite charge to give neutral molecules or ionic salts. Ions are also produced in the liquid or solid state when salts interact with solvents to produce solvation shell around them. These solvated ions are more stable, for reasons involving a combination of energy and entropy changes as the ions move away from each other to interact with the liquid. These stabilized species are more commonly found in the environment at low temperatures. A common example is the ions present in seawater, which are derived from dissolved salts.As charged objects, ions are attracted to opposite electric charges and repelled by like charges. When they move, their trajectories can be deflected by a magnetic field.
Electrons, due to their smaller mass and thus larger space-filling properties as matter waves, determine the size of atoms and molecules that possess any electrons at all. Thus, anions are larger than the parent molecule or atom, as the excess electron repel each other and add to the physical size of the ion, because its size is determined by its electron cloud. Cations are smaller than the corresponding parent atom or molecule due to the smaller size of the electron cloud. One particular cation contains no electrons, and thus consists of a single proton – much smaller than the parent hydrogen atom.
Anions and cations
Anion and cation indicate the net electric charge on an ion. An ion that has more electrons than protons, giving it a net negative charge, is named an anion, and a minus indication "Anion " indicates the negative charge. With a cation it is just the opposite: it has fewer electrons than protons, giving it a net positive charge, hence the indication "Cation ".Since the electric charge on a proton is equal in magnitude to the charge on an electron, the net electric charge on an ion is equal to the number of protons in the ion minus the number of electrons.
An is an ion with more electrons than protons, giving it a net negative charge.
A is an ion with fewer electrons than protons, giving it a positive charge.
There are additional names used for ions with multiple charges. For example, an ion with a −2 charge is known as a dianion and an ion with a +2 charge is known as a dication. A zwitterion is a neutral molecule with positive and negative charges at different locations within that molecule.
Cations and anions are measured by their ionic radius and they differ in relative size: "Cations are small, most of them less than 10−10 m in radius. But most anions are large, as is the most common Earth anion, oxygen. From this fact it is apparent that most of the space of a crystal is occupied by the anion and that the cations fit into the spaces between them."
The terms anion and cation were [|introduced by Michael Faraday in 1834] following his consultation with William Whewell.
Natural occurrences
Ions are ubiquitous in nature and are responsible for diverse phenomena from the luminescence of the Sun to the existence of the Earth's ionosphere. Atoms in their ionic state may have a different color from neutral atoms, and thus light absorption by metal ions gives the color of gemstones. In both inorganic and organic chemistry, the interaction of water and ions is often relevant for understanding properties of systems; an example of their importance is in the breakdown of adenosine triphosphate, which provides the energy for many reactions in biological systems.Related technology
Ions can be non-chemically prepared using various ion sources, usually involving high voltage or temperature. These are used in a multitude of devices such as mass spectrometers, optical emission spectrometers, particle accelerators, ion implanters, and ion engines.As reactive charged particles, they are also used in air purification by disrupting microbes, and in household items such as smoke detectors.
As signalling and metabolism in organisms are controlled by a precise ionic gradient across membranes, the disruption of this gradient contributes to cell death. This is a common mechanism exploited by natural and artificial biocides, including the ion channels gramicidin and amphotericin.
Inorganic dissolved ions are a component of total dissolved solids, a widely known indicator of water quality.
Detection of ionizing radiation
The ionizing effect of radiation on a gas is extensively used for the detection of radiation such as alpha, beta, gamma, and X-rays. The original ionization event in these instruments results in the formation of an "ion pair"; a positive ion and a free electron, by ion impact by the radiation on the gas molecules. The ionization chamber is the simplest of these detectors, and collects all the charges created by direct ionization within the gas through the application of an electric field.The Geiger–Müller tube and the proportional counter both use a phenomenon known as a Townsend avalanche to multiply the effect of the original ionizing event by means of a cascade effect whereby the free electrons are given sufficient energy by the electric field to release further electrons by ion impact.
Chemistry
Denoting the charged state
When writing the chemical formula for an ion, its net charge is written in superscript immediately after the chemical structure for the molecule/atom. The net charge is written with the magnitude before the sign; that is, a doubly charged cation is indicated as 2+ instead of +2. However, the magnitude of the charge is omitted for singly charged molecules/atoms; for example, the sodium cation is indicated as and not.An alternative way of showing a molecule/atom with multiple charges is by drawing out the signs multiple times, this is often seen with transition metals. Chemists sometimes circle the sign; this is merely ornamental and does not alter the chemical meaning. All three representations of,, and shown in the figure, are thus equivalent.
Monatomic ions are sometimes also denoted with Roman numerals, particularly in spectroscopy; for example, the example seen above is referred to as, or Fe III. The Roman numeral designates the formal oxidation state of an element, whereas the superscripted Indo-Arabic numerals denote the net charge. The two notations are, therefore, exchangeable for monatomic ions, but the Roman numerals cannot be applied to polyatomic ions. However, it is possible to mix the notations for the individual metal centre with a polyatomic complex, as shown by the uranyl ion example.