Video transcript – – We are now going to talk about valence electrons, and non-valence electrons, which are known as core electrons and so one question that you might have been asking yourself this whole time that we’ve been looking at electron configurations is, what is the point? And the point of electron configurations is, is they can give us insights as to how a given atom or how a given element is likely to react with other atoms.
- And so just to make that point, or make it a little bit clearer, let’s look at the electron configuration of an element that we’ll see a lot of in chemistry, of oxygen.
- So oxygen’s electron configuration is what? Pause this video and see if you can work through that.
- Well, in a neutral oxygen atom, you have eight protons and eight electrons, so first you’re gonna fill the one shell, then you are going to start filling the second shell, so you’re gonna go 2s2, so I have four right now, I have to have four more, so then you’re going to have 2p4.
And then notice, if I add up all the electrons here, I have exactly eight electrons. Now if I’m thinking about how might oxygen react, it’s interesting to look at the outer oxygen electrons. The electrons that are in the outermost shell. So the outermost shell is being described right over here, this second shell.
So how many electrons are in the outermost shell? You have six electrons here. So oxygen has six valence, valence electrons. And how many core electrons does it have? And the core electrons generally aren’t reactive, or aren’t involved as much in reactions? It has two core, two core electrons. Now, why is six valence electrons interesting? Well, atoms tend to be more stable when they have a filled outer shell, or in most examples, at least a filled SNP subshells in their outer shell.
And so in this situation, you say, okay, oxygen has six valence electrons, and oftentimes that’s drawn with a Lewis structure, and it might look something like this, where oxygen has one, two, three, four, five, six valence electrons, and you might say, hey, it would be nice if oxygen somehow were able to share, or get ahold of, two more electrons, because then that outermost shell will have a full number of eight electrons.
- The 2s and the 2p would be filled then, we would have 2p6.
- And so you’d say, alright, well maybe they can grab those electrons from something else and that’s actually what oxygen does a lot of, it grabs electrons from other things.
- You can look at something like calcium.
- Pause this video, think about what the electron configuration of calcium is, and then think about how calcium is likely to react given that atoms tend to be more stable when they have a full outer shell, where both their S and P subshells are completely filled.
Well, calcium’s electron configuration, I could do it in noble gas notation or configuration, it’d have the electron configuration of argon, and one of the reasons why the noble gases are so stable is that they have a completely full shell. Argon for example has a completely full first shell, second shell, and third shell, and then to build calcium, will then have two electrons in that fourth shell, so it is argon and then 4s2.
So how many valence electrons does calcium have? Well, you could see it right over there, it has two valence electrons. What about its core electrons? Well, a neutral calcium atom would have 20 electrons, ’cause it has 20 protons, so it would have 18 core electrons. Electrons that are less likely to react.
And so you can say, what’s the easiest way for calcium to get to a full outer shell? Well, instead of trying to gain six electrons, it might be a lot easier to just lose these two electrons. It is actually the case that many times, calcium will lose electrons, and become ionized, will get a positive charge.
So the big picture here is, one of the values of electron configuration is to think about which of your electrons are most likely to react. Those are your valence electrons. In most cases, your valence electrons are going to be your outermost electrons. They’re going to be the electrons in that outermost shell.
Generally speaking, if you’re talking about elements that are in the S block or the P block, you can think about how many valence electrons they have just based on what column they’re in. This column right over here has one valence electron. This column over here has two valence electrons.
Contents
Why does oxygen only have 6 valence electrons?
How many valence electrons does oxygen have? Join Vedantu’s FREE Mastercalss Answer Verified Hint To find the number of valence electrons in oxygen atom, you should first know that how many electrons are present in oxygen and then, calculate the total number of electrons present in the s, p and d-orbitals to get the valence electrons.
- Now you can easily answer the statement.
- Complete step by step answer: Oxygen is a non-metal and a gas which comes under the category of chalcogens and belongs to the p-block elements of the periodic table.It lies in the 16th group and 2nd period of the periodic table.It has an atomic number as 8 and a mass number as 16.
It has the electronic configuration as: $1 ^ }2 ^ }2 ^ }$.Now considering the statement as;The number of electrons present in an atom is always equal to the atomic number of that very element.And The electrons which are present in the outermost valence shell of an atom are called the valence electrons.From the electronic configuration of the oxygen atom, we come to know that the number of electrons present in the outermost shell i.e., 2rd shell is 6 electrons.
Thus, the total number of valence electrons present in an oxygen atom is six. Note: Oxygen being a chalcogen has six electrons in its outermost shell and requires only two electrons to complete its octet. So, oxygen has a strong tendency to gain two electrons from the other electron donating species and thus, it acts as a strong Lewis acid.
: How many valence electrons does oxygen have?
Why does oxygen have 2 valence electrons?
Oxygen can form only two bonds because it requires two electrons to complete its octet after which it will not have any more vacant orbitals left to accept more electrons and form more bonds.
Is the valency of oxygen 2 or 6?
It takes or accepts 2 electrons to achieve 8 electrons in its outermost shell to complete the octet and become stable. Hence the valency of oxygen is 2.
Does oxygen want 8 valence electrons?
Oxygen (symbol O) is found in column 6 on the periodic table. It has 6 valence electrons. It needs to make 2 bonds to get an octet. The simple logic is that 6 + 2 = 8.
Does o2 have 8 electrons?
Physics Questions People Ask Fermilab – Particles and Their Properties Question: I was hoping that you could help me learn how to figure out the number of protons, the number of neutrons, and the number of electrons of a particular atom. For example, oxygen is 8 O 16, I’m not sure how to figure this out.
- Thanks in advance for your assistance.
- D Answer: Dear D: The key properties of an atom (like oxygen) are described by the Atomic Number (which is 8 for Oxygen) and the total number of nucleons (which is 16 for Oxygen).
- The atomic number gives the number of protons in the atom.
- The number of nucleons gives the total number of protons plus neutrons in the atom.
The number of nucleons is always very close to the atomic weight of the atom (which is 15.9994 for Oxygen). Here a simple way to remember this: Since an atom is electrically neutral, an atom has always the same number of electrons (negative charge) and protons (positive charge).
The neutrons, of course, are neutral. Now you can figure out how many electrons, protons and neutrons Oxygen has: Atomic number (which is always the smaller of the two numbers) is 8. Hence 8 protons. Because the atom is neutral, there are also 8 electrons. Number of nucleons (which is the larger of the two numbers because it counts all nucleons, not just protons): 16.
This is the total number of protons and neutrons. Subtract the number of protons (8) and you get the number of neutrons, which is also 8. Another example: Iron, which is 26 Fe 56. It has 26 protons, 26 electrons, and 56-26=30 neutrons. To find the atomic and group numbers of many other elements, you can look at the following Web site: http://www.webelements.com/ Best wishes, Kurt Back to Questions About Physics Main Page
What is the 2 8 8 rule in chemistry?
You must first learn why atoms bond together. We use a concept called “Happy Atoms.” We figure that most atoms want to be happy, just like you. The idea behind Happy Atoms is that atomic shells like to be full. That’s it. If you are an atom and you have a shell, you want your shell to be full. We should start with the atoms that have atomic numbers between 1 and 18. There is a 2-8-8 rule for these elements. The first shell is filled with 2 electrons, the second is filled with 8 electrons, and the third is filled with 8. You can see that sodium (Na) and magnesium (Mg) have a couple of extra electrons.
They, like all atoms, want to be happy. They have two possibilities: they can try to get to eight electrons to fill up their third shell, or they can give up a few electrons and have a filled second shell. It is always easier to give away one or two electrons than it is to go out and find six or seven to fill your shells.
What a coincidence! Many other atoms are interested in gaining a few extra electrons. Oxygen (O) and fluorine (F) are two good examples. Each of those elements is looking for a couple of electrons to make a filled shell. They each have one filled shell with two electrons, but their second shells want to have eight. There are a couple of ways they can get the electrons. When they work together, they can both wind up happy! Sodium gives up its extra electron. The sodium then has a full second shell and the fluorine (F) also has a full second shell. Two happy atoms! When an atom gives up an electron, it becomes positive like the sodium ion (Na + ).
When an atom gets an extra electron, it becomes negatively charged like the fluorine ion (F – ). The positive and negative charges continue to attract each other like magnets. The attraction of opposite charges is the way they form and maintain the bond. Any atoms in an ionic/electrovalent bond can get or give up electrons.
Chemiscope Catches Chemistry in the Act (US-NSF Video)
What is the 2 8 8 18 rule in chemistry?
Answer (Detailed Solution Below) – Option 2 : 2, 8, 8,18,18, 32 The correct answer is 2 i.e.2, 8, 8, 18, 18, 32, Explanation:
- Electronic configuration:
- It is an arrangement of electrons in various shells, sub-shells and orbitals in an atom.
- It is written as 2, 8, 8, 18, 18, 32.
- It is written as nl x ( where n indicates the principal quantum number), l indicates the azimuthal quantum number or sub-shell, and x is the number of electrons.
- Number of electrons in n shell = 2n 2 e.g. in the second shell the number of electrons = 2*2 2 = 8 exceptions of normal people.
- Electronic configuration of some elements are tabulated below:
Element Configuration 2, 8, 8. type nl x Sodium(Na-11) 2, 8, 1 1s 2, 2s 2, 2p 6, 3s 1, Iron (Fe-26) 2, 8, 14, 2 1s 2, 2s 2, 2p 6, 3s 2, 3p 6, 3d 6, 4s 2, /li>
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Does oxygen have 6 valence electrons?
Valence electrons are the electrons in the outermost shell, or energy level, of an atom. For example, oxygen has six valence electrons, two in the 2s subshell and four in the 2p subshell.
Is oxygen stable with 6 electrons?
Usually any atom needs 8 electrons in its outer orbit in order to stay stable. But, the Oxygen atom has 6 electrons in its outer orbit. So, it needs two more electrons in order to make it 8. So, it makes a bond with another oxygen atom and shares 2 electrons each and becomes stable.
Can oxygen have 3 bonds?
genchem Do not pair electrons until necessary. Determining the placement of the atoms The least frequently occurring element goes in the middle. Formula’s are written to help determine the structure. FCH 3 does the F or the C go in the center of the molecule? The C atom. The formula FCH 3 is written to show that the F and the H’s are on either side of the C atom. Other hints.
First row elements will have a maximum of four bonds.Carbon always has 4 bonds, of course, this is not strictly true, but for the molecules we talk about in General Chemistry it is.Hydrogen always has 1 bond; once again, it is possible to have more than 1 bond to H, but you will have to go to graduate school to talk about molecules like this.
Nitrogen will usually have 3 bonds, occasionally 4; however, if the N has 4 bonds it will be positively charged. Nitrogen can also have 2 bonds if the nitrogen atom is negatively charged. Oxygen will usually have 2 bonds, occasionally 3; however, if the O has 3 bonds it will be positively charged.
Is oxygen a valency 2 or 2?
Oxygen has 8 number of electrons. So, its electronic configuration is 2,6. It either takes or accepts 2 electrons to have 8 electrons in its outermost shell to complete its octet to become stable. Therefore, the valency of oxygen is 2.
Can oxygen have 7 valence electrons?
Oxygen (O) Valence Electrons – There are four simple steps to find out the valence electrons for oxygen atom which are: Step 1: Find the Atomic Number To find out the atomic number of oxygen, we can use the periodic table. With the help of the periodic table, we can easily see that the atomic number of oxygen is 8. As its atomic number is 8, it has 8 protons, and for neutral oxygen, the number of protons are always equal to the number of electrons i.e. has 8 electrons in its nucleus. Step 2: Write Electron Configuration Electron configuration is the arrangement of electrons on the orbitals. The oxygen atom has a total of 8 electrons so, we have to put 8 electrons in orbitals. The electrons will be placed in different orbitals according to the energy level:, Now, Oxygen electron configuration O (8) = 1s 2 2s 2 2p 4 (complete configuration).
- = 2s²2p⁴ (condensed configuration).
- Step 3: Determine Valence Shell As we know, the valence shell of an atom can be found from the highest number of principle quantum numbers which are expressed in the term of n, and in 2s²2p⁴, the highest value of n is 2 so that the valence shell of oxygen is 2s²2p⁴,
Step 4: Find Valence Electrons The total number of electrons present in the valence shell of an atom are called valence electrons, and there are a total of six electrons present in the valence shell of oxygen ( 2s²2p⁴ ). Thus, oxygen has six valence electrons.
Valence Electrons & Valency of Hydrogen (H), Valence Electrons & Valency of Carbon (C), Valence Electrons & Valency of Chlorine (Cl),
Does oxygen have 2 or 6 electrons?
An individual hydrogen atom has 1 electron. The closest noble gas, helium, has 2 electrons. Two hydrogens come together to share their electrons with each other. Each hydrogen now feels like it has two total electrons. Hydrogen exists in its elemental state as H 2, a molecule made of two hydrogens. Water is another covalent molecule. Notice that both oxygen and hydrogen are non-metals. The formula for water is H 2 O, it contains 2 hydrogens and 1 oxygen. The oxygen has 6 electrons in its valence shell and the hydrogen each has 1. When the hydrogen and oxygen each share 1 electron with each other, then all the atoms feel like they have a complete set. The Lewis structure describes what is bonded to what but does not really describe what the molecule looks like. Two descriptions are shown below. The one on the left is a space-filling model and the one on the right is a ball and stick description. Like hydrogen, oxygen exists in its elemental state as a diatomic molecule. Each oxygen has 6 electrons and so need to share to more and so makes two bonds with the other oxygen. This is called a double bond. Nitrogen forms a triple bond. The nitrogens are sharing 6 electrons, 2 in each bond. I am afraid that the R. Logan web site below is no longer valid. Enjoy his new site if you want anyway. http://members.aol.com/profchm/covalent.html
Can oxygen have 10 valence electrons?
How many valence electron does oxygen contain? How many electrons will it share with another oxygen atom? Valence electron of oxygen is 4 and each oxygen atom will share only 2 valence electrons to make a bond with another oxygen. No worries! We‘ve got your back.
- Try BYJU‘S free classes today! Valence electron of oxygen is 4 and each oxygen atom will share only 1 valence electron to make a bond with another oxygen atom.
- No worries! We‘ve got your back.
- Try BYJU‘S free classes today! Valence electron of oxygen is 6 and each oxygen atom will share 4 valence electrons to make a double bond with another oxygen atom.
Right on! Give the BNAT exam to get a 100% scholarship for BYJUS courses Valence electron of oxygen is 6 and each oxygen atom will share 2 valence electrons to make a bond. No worries! We‘ve got your back. Try BYJU‘S free classes today! : How many valence electron does oxygen contain? How many electrons will it share with another oxygen atom?
What elements break the octet rule?
FAQs: – 1. What elements can be an exception to the octet rule? There aren’t enough electrons in hydrogen, beryllium, or boron to make an octet. There is only one valence electron in hydrogen, and there is only one site for it to make a connection with another atom.
Beryllium only has two valence atoms and can only establish electron-pair bonds in two places.2. What are the 3 exceptions to the octet rule? The octet rule is subject to three basic exceptions: Molecules containing an odd number of electrons, such as NO; SF₆ molecules in which one or more atoms have more than eight electrons; and.
Molecules contain more atoms with less than eight electrons, like BCl₃.3. Is NH3 an exception to the octet rule? Yes, of course, nitrogen contains 5 electrons in its outermost shell. It shares three electrons with each hydrogen atom and has one lone pair at the nitrogen atom, making it an excellent Lewis base.
Will oxygen always have 8 protons?
Oxygen is a chemical element – a substance that contains only one type of atom. Its official chemical symbol is O, and its atomic number is 8, which means that an oxygen atom has eight protons in its nucleus. Oxygen is a gas at room temperature and has no colour, smell or taste.
Does oxygen have 8 or 10 electrons?
| How many protons, neutrons, and electrons are in oxygen? |
| Question Date: 2019-08-28 |
| Answer 1: Let’s look to the periodic table for our answer! The periodic table tells us information about every element in existence in its neutral state. The neutral state of an atom is when it’s net charge is zero; that is, the number of protons equals the numbers of electrons. Oxygen is the eighth element in the periodic table, with the symbol O. This means that it has eight electrons in its neutral state. Since it is neutral, it also has eight protons! The periodic table has another number associated with every element, and that is it’s atomic mass. For oxygen, the atomic mass is 16 AMU (Atomic Mass Units). In terms of mass, protons and neutrons have about the same mass, and electrons have very little mass in comparison. Protons and neutrons each count for one AMU, and the electron counts for zero AMU. So, if the atomic mass of oxygen is 16, that means we have a total of 16 protons and neutrons.16 total protons and neutrons minus 8 protons leaves us with 8 neutrons. This calculation can get surprisingly tricky! The atomic mass of an element is an average over all of the isotopes of each element. An isotope is an element that has a different number of neutrons in different atoms. The chemical properties of the element don’t change, but the atomic mass of the element is different if it has, say, 8 neutrons versus 9 neutrons. Because the atomic mass of each element is averaged over every stable isotope of that element, sometimes we see decimal numbers for the atomic mass. For example, the atomic mass of carbon (the 6th element on the periodic table) is 12.01 AMU. This tells us that most carbon atoms have 6 protons and 6 neutrons, and some carbon atoms have 6 protons and maybe 7 or 8 neutrons. Most carbon atoms have 6 protons and 6 neutrons, so the atomic mass is very close to 12 AMU. Scientists have found the relative abundance of each element and isotope, so we can look up how common an isotope is. For oxygen, the isotope with 8 protons and 8 neutrons makes up 99.7% of all oxygen atoms, so its a safe bet to say that oxygen almost always has 8 protons and 8 neutrons. |
| Answer 2: I’ll start by answering the question directly: in general, elemental oxygen has 8 protons, 8 neutrons, and 8 electrons. Your question is an interesting one, because it is often the starting point for many other questions we can ask about elements, chemicals, and materials. For instance, though we often refer to the gas we breathe as just “oxygen”, it is actually the molecule O 2 (two oxygen atoms bonded together). The reason for this has to do with the number of electrons oxygen has. Electrons have a certain way of arranging themselves on atoms, and we can think of electrons as existing in “shells” around the atom’s nucleus. For now we can think of atoms as having “inner” and “outer” shells. Oxygen has an inner shell that can hold 2 electrons, and an outer shell that can hold 8. Shells are filled from the innermost to the outermost, so since oxygen has 8 electrons, we put 2 in the inner shell, and the remaining 6 in the outer shell. As we can see, there’s still two empty spots for electrons to go in the outer shell (which can hold 8), and the oxygen would really like to fill those spots. It does this in a clever way; it looks for a partner! If two oxygens get together, they have 16 electrons total. By “sharing” 4 of them, they each get to “keep” half of the remaining electrons (16 total – 4 shared = 12 remaining, 12/2 = 6 each). On each oxygen, 2 of these 6 go in the inner shell, and the other 4 go in the outer shell. Now, the oxygens move close together, and they share the 4 remaining electrons that they didn’t “keep”. This means they both get to feel like they have a full outer shell (4 that they have to themselves, 4 that are shared between them). This is the O 2 gas that you and I breathe! This is just one example of the types of things that counting electrons can predict. Often, the number of electrons in an element can tell us about the what color it might be, whether or not it’s a magnet, or what types of other elements it will react with. Also, if you ever want to know how many protons and electrons another element has, it’s as easy as looking at the atomic number on the periodic table (the big number in the top of the box for each element). That number tells you the number of protons an element has, and by extension tells you the number of electrons it has. Elements are charge neutral (meaning the charges add up to 0), and since protons have a positive charge, each proton is balanced out by 1 electron, which has a negative charge. The situation with neutrons (which have no charge) can be a little more complicated, but the number of neutrons is often the same as or similar to the number of protons. |
| Answer 3: This is answered pretty completely on ScienceLine here. One refinement is to consider ions, whereas the answers at the linked question considers only neutral oxygen atoms. In general, the energy of an atom will be lower, then the valence (outermost) electron shell is full. For nearly all elements, this means gaining or losing electrons to other atoms, thus producing ions. While the neutral oxygen atom has 8 total electrons, 2 are in the innermost (s) shell while the valence shell, which can hold 8 electrons, has only 6. Thus, oxygen tends to gain 2 electrons, for a total of 10 electrons. This results in an atom with a net charge (i.e., an ion). |
| Answer 4: In an oxygen atom, there are 8 protons and 8 electrons. Most oxygen atoms also have 8 neutrons, but it is possible for an oxygen atom to have 9 or 10 neutrons. They are just rarer. The oxygen we breathe is not in atomic form. It is in its molecular form, which is two oxygen atoms joined together by bonds, and between its two atoms, this molecule has 16 protons, 16 electrons, and most commonly 16 neutrons. |
| Answer 5: An oxygen atom contains eight protons. A neutral oxygen atom will also contain eight electrons, but it is possible for an oxygen atom to be ionized, in which case it will have more or fewer (up to ten, or down to zero), depending on how it became ionized. Oxygen has several isotopes, and they have different numbers of neutrons. The most common isotope of oxygen is oxygen-16, which has eight neutrons; however, oxygen-18 is also relatively common, and it has ten neutrons. Both of these isotopes are stable (i.e. not radioactive). Oxygen-17 (nine neutrons) is also stable, but is rarer. Having too many neutrons, or too few, will make the oxygen isotope radioactive, but still oxygen. |
| Answer 6: Oxygen is #8 in the periodic table. That means it has 8 protons and 8 electrons. The number of neutrons varies according to the isotope: the stable isotopes have 8, 9, or 10 neutrons( Wikipedia ). Did you know that this is the International Year of the Periodic Table – IYPT? One fun thing people are doing is finding the element that is the same number as their age. Next year my age will be the same number as Tungsten. Here’s an article about the IYPT from a chemistry magazine I get: read it here. |
| Answer 7: Generally, there are 8 protons, 8 neutrons and 8 electrons in the most abundant oxygen molecule. Here’s where it gets advanced and cool! When Oxygen loses or gains neutrons it becomes an isotope. Oxygen isotopes are rarely occurring and have useful applications. For example, brain imaging in hospitals uses Oxygen 15, containing 7 neutrons. |
| Answer 8: An oxygen atom usually has 8 protons, 8 neutrons, and 8 electrons. Looking at the periodic table, oxygen has atomic number 8 and atomic weight 15.999. The atomic number tells you how many protons are in the atom’s nucleus. This identifies the atom. For example, if the atomic number were 7, then the atom would be nitrogen, with 7 protons in its nucleus. The atomic nucleus contains both protons and neutrons, but the interesting thing is that there aren’t always an equal number of neutrons and protons. This information is revealed in the atomic weight, which is a number that refers to the average mass of the nucleus (in atomic mass units or amu). If all of the oxygen atoms we know about, always had 8 protons and 8 neutrons, then the atomic weight would be 16. But we know that some forms of oxygen have fewer than 8 neutrons in their nucleus, and that is why the atomic weight is a little bit less than 16. Oxygen’s 8 electrons are negatively charged, and they orbit the atomic nucleus and balance the positive charge of the 8 protons. The positive charge of 1 proton exactly cancels the negative charge of 1 electron. |
| Answer 9: Oxygen is atomic number 8 on the periodic table, which means it has 8 protons! This means that a neutral oxygen atom will have 8 electrons (but this number can change! For example, during chemical reactions molecules can lose and gain electrons). The number of neutrons depends on the isotope, but a stable isotope will generally have either 8, 9, or 10 neutrons. |
| Answer 10: Thanks for your question, and let’s start with the basics: how chemical elements are defined, especially on the periodic table of elements. The major, whole numbers above the elements on the periodic table of elements (you’ve probably seen one in your science instructor’s room) determine the element and it refers to the number of protons as a definitional part of the element’s identity. That’s the long version of this simple fact: oxygen will always have 8 protons, whether on Mars, Pluto, Earth, yesterday, or the day after tomorrow. Next, let’s consider the number of neutrons and electrons in oxygen: in short, they’re changeable within natural constraints. In the case of neutrons, oxygen has different isotopes, which are different versions of oxygen that maintain their number of protons, but change their number of neutrons. In our scientific observations, oxygen has either 8, 9, or 10 neutrons. Now, in terms of electrons, oxygen should contain 8 electrons in order to be isoelectric, which is a way of saying the electrons equal the number of protons, rendering no charge to the oxygen atom, and this is considered the most natural state of the oxygen atom (you can “add”/”subtract” electrons by high energy collisions with particle accelerators, but that’s more artificial, and depending on the reference point, oxygen can “gain” electrons during molecular bonding). Click Here to return to the search form. |
Why oxygen has 8 protons?
Oxygen is group 8 element, so, the atom of oxygen has 8 protons and 8 electrons. The ion has the same number of protons because you never lose a proton to make an ion. But in the case of oxide form, it carries two negative charges. Negative charge come due to the transfer of electron.
Explore More – Watch the video about covalent bonding and then answer the questions below.
- How can you tell the number covalent bonds the atoms of an element can form?
- How many covalent bonds can nitrogen form? How many covalent bonds can chlorine form?
- Why are covalent bonds stronger than ionic bonds?
- Why can’t molecules of a covalent compound conduct electricity?
Does oxygen have 2 or 6 electrons?
An individual hydrogen atom has 1 electron. The closest noble gas, helium, has 2 electrons. Two hydrogens come together to share their electrons with each other. Each hydrogen now feels like it has two total electrons. Hydrogen exists in its elemental state as H 2, a molecule made of two hydrogens. Water is another covalent molecule. Notice that both oxygen and hydrogen are non-metals. The formula for water is H 2 O, it contains 2 hydrogens and 1 oxygen. The oxygen has 6 electrons in its valence shell and the hydrogen each has 1. When the hydrogen and oxygen each share 1 electron with each other, then all the atoms feel like they have a complete set. The Lewis structure describes what is bonded to what but does not really describe what the molecule looks like. Two descriptions are shown below. The one on the left is a space-filling model and the one on the right is a ball and stick description. Like hydrogen, oxygen exists in its elemental state as a diatomic molecule. Each oxygen has 6 electrons and so need to share to more and so makes two bonds with the other oxygen. This is called a double bond. Nitrogen forms a triple bond. The nitrogens are sharing 6 electrons, 2 in each bond. I am afraid that the R. Logan web site below is no longer valid. Enjoy his new site if you want anyway. http://members.aol.com/profchm/covalent.html
Does oxygen have 8 or 10 electrons?
| How many protons, neutrons, and electrons are in oxygen? |
| Question Date: 2019-08-28 |
| Answer 1: Let’s look to the periodic table for our answer! The periodic table tells us information about every element in existence in its neutral state. The neutral state of an atom is when it’s net charge is zero; that is, the number of protons equals the numbers of electrons. Oxygen is the eighth element in the periodic table, with the symbol O. This means that it has eight electrons in its neutral state. Since it is neutral, it also has eight protons! The periodic table has another number associated with every element, and that is it’s atomic mass. For oxygen, the atomic mass is 16 AMU (Atomic Mass Units). In terms of mass, protons and neutrons have about the same mass, and electrons have very little mass in comparison. Protons and neutrons each count for one AMU, and the electron counts for zero AMU. So, if the atomic mass of oxygen is 16, that means we have a total of 16 protons and neutrons.16 total protons and neutrons minus 8 protons leaves us with 8 neutrons. This calculation can get surprisingly tricky! The atomic mass of an element is an average over all of the isotopes of each element. An isotope is an element that has a different number of neutrons in different atoms. The chemical properties of the element don’t change, but the atomic mass of the element is different if it has, say, 8 neutrons versus 9 neutrons. Because the atomic mass of each element is averaged over every stable isotope of that element, sometimes we see decimal numbers for the atomic mass. For example, the atomic mass of carbon (the 6th element on the periodic table) is 12.01 AMU. This tells us that most carbon atoms have 6 protons and 6 neutrons, and some carbon atoms have 6 protons and maybe 7 or 8 neutrons. Most carbon atoms have 6 protons and 6 neutrons, so the atomic mass is very close to 12 AMU. Scientists have found the relative abundance of each element and isotope, so we can look up how common an isotope is. For oxygen, the isotope with 8 protons and 8 neutrons makes up 99.7% of all oxygen atoms, so its a safe bet to say that oxygen almost always has 8 protons and 8 neutrons. |
| Answer 2: I’ll start by answering the question directly: in general, elemental oxygen has 8 protons, 8 neutrons, and 8 electrons. Your question is an interesting one, because it is often the starting point for many other questions we can ask about elements, chemicals, and materials. For instance, though we often refer to the gas we breathe as just “oxygen”, it is actually the molecule O 2 (two oxygen atoms bonded together). The reason for this has to do with the number of electrons oxygen has. Electrons have a certain way of arranging themselves on atoms, and we can think of electrons as existing in “shells” around the atom’s nucleus. For now we can think of atoms as having “inner” and “outer” shells. Oxygen has an inner shell that can hold 2 electrons, and an outer shell that can hold 8. Shells are filled from the innermost to the outermost, so since oxygen has 8 electrons, we put 2 in the inner shell, and the remaining 6 in the outer shell. As we can see, there’s still two empty spots for electrons to go in the outer shell (which can hold 8), and the oxygen would really like to fill those spots. It does this in a clever way; it looks for a partner! If two oxygens get together, they have 16 electrons total. By “sharing” 4 of them, they each get to “keep” half of the remaining electrons (16 total – 4 shared = 12 remaining, 12/2 = 6 each). On each oxygen, 2 of these 6 go in the inner shell, and the other 4 go in the outer shell. Now, the oxygens move close together, and they share the 4 remaining electrons that they didn’t “keep”. This means they both get to feel like they have a full outer shell (4 that they have to themselves, 4 that are shared between them). This is the O 2 gas that you and I breathe! This is just one example of the types of things that counting electrons can predict. Often, the number of electrons in an element can tell us about the what color it might be, whether or not it’s a magnet, or what types of other elements it will react with. Also, if you ever want to know how many protons and electrons another element has, it’s as easy as looking at the atomic number on the periodic table (the big number in the top of the box for each element). That number tells you the number of protons an element has, and by extension tells you the number of electrons it has. Elements are charge neutral (meaning the charges add up to 0), and since protons have a positive charge, each proton is balanced out by 1 electron, which has a negative charge. The situation with neutrons (which have no charge) can be a little more complicated, but the number of neutrons is often the same as or similar to the number of protons. |
| Answer 3: This is answered pretty completely on ScienceLine here. One refinement is to consider ions, whereas the answers at the linked question considers only neutral oxygen atoms. In general, the energy of an atom will be lower, then the valence (outermost) electron shell is full. For nearly all elements, this means gaining or losing electrons to other atoms, thus producing ions. While the neutral oxygen atom has 8 total electrons, 2 are in the innermost (s) shell while the valence shell, which can hold 8 electrons, has only 6. Thus, oxygen tends to gain 2 electrons, for a total of 10 electrons. This results in an atom with a net charge (i.e., an ion). |
| Answer 4: In an oxygen atom, there are 8 protons and 8 electrons. Most oxygen atoms also have 8 neutrons, but it is possible for an oxygen atom to have 9 or 10 neutrons. They are just rarer. The oxygen we breathe is not in atomic form. It is in its molecular form, which is two oxygen atoms joined together by bonds, and between its two atoms, this molecule has 16 protons, 16 electrons, and most commonly 16 neutrons. |
| Answer 5: An oxygen atom contains eight protons. A neutral oxygen atom will also contain eight electrons, but it is possible for an oxygen atom to be ionized, in which case it will have more or fewer (up to ten, or down to zero), depending on how it became ionized. Oxygen has several isotopes, and they have different numbers of neutrons. The most common isotope of oxygen is oxygen-16, which has eight neutrons; however, oxygen-18 is also relatively common, and it has ten neutrons. Both of these isotopes are stable (i.e. not radioactive). Oxygen-17 (nine neutrons) is also stable, but is rarer. Having too many neutrons, or too few, will make the oxygen isotope radioactive, but still oxygen. |
| Answer 6: Oxygen is #8 in the periodic table. That means it has 8 protons and 8 electrons. The number of neutrons varies according to the isotope: the stable isotopes have 8, 9, or 10 neutrons( Wikipedia ). Did you know that this is the International Year of the Periodic Table – IYPT? One fun thing people are doing is finding the element that is the same number as their age. Next year my age will be the same number as Tungsten. Here’s an article about the IYPT from a chemistry magazine I get: read it here. |
| Answer 7: Generally, there are 8 protons, 8 neutrons and 8 electrons in the most abundant oxygen molecule. Here’s where it gets advanced and cool! When Oxygen loses or gains neutrons it becomes an isotope. Oxygen isotopes are rarely occurring and have useful applications. For example, brain imaging in hospitals uses Oxygen 15, containing 7 neutrons. |
| Answer 8: An oxygen atom usually has 8 protons, 8 neutrons, and 8 electrons. Looking at the periodic table, oxygen has atomic number 8 and atomic weight 15.999. The atomic number tells you how many protons are in the atom’s nucleus. This identifies the atom. For example, if the atomic number were 7, then the atom would be nitrogen, with 7 protons in its nucleus. The atomic nucleus contains both protons and neutrons, but the interesting thing is that there aren’t always an equal number of neutrons and protons. This information is revealed in the atomic weight, which is a number that refers to the average mass of the nucleus (in atomic mass units or amu). If all of the oxygen atoms we know about, always had 8 protons and 8 neutrons, then the atomic weight would be 16. But we know that some forms of oxygen have fewer than 8 neutrons in their nucleus, and that is why the atomic weight is a little bit less than 16. Oxygen’s 8 electrons are negatively charged, and they orbit the atomic nucleus and balance the positive charge of the 8 protons. The positive charge of 1 proton exactly cancels the negative charge of 1 electron. |
| Answer 9: Oxygen is atomic number 8 on the periodic table, which means it has 8 protons! This means that a neutral oxygen atom will have 8 electrons (but this number can change! For example, during chemical reactions molecules can lose and gain electrons). The number of neutrons depends on the isotope, but a stable isotope will generally have either 8, 9, or 10 neutrons. |
| Answer 10: Thanks for your question, and let’s start with the basics: how chemical elements are defined, especially on the periodic table of elements. The major, whole numbers above the elements on the periodic table of elements (you’ve probably seen one in your science instructor’s room) determine the element and it refers to the number of protons as a definitional part of the element’s identity. That’s the long version of this simple fact: oxygen will always have 8 protons, whether on Mars, Pluto, Earth, yesterday, or the day after tomorrow. Next, let’s consider the number of neutrons and electrons in oxygen: in short, they’re changeable within natural constraints. In the case of neutrons, oxygen has different isotopes, which are different versions of oxygen that maintain their number of protons, but change their number of neutrons. In our scientific observations, oxygen has either 8, 9, or 10 neutrons. Now, in terms of electrons, oxygen should contain 8 electrons in order to be isoelectric, which is a way of saying the electrons equal the number of protons, rendering no charge to the oxygen atom, and this is considered the most natural state of the oxygen atom (you can “add”/”subtract” electrons by high energy collisions with particle accelerators, but that’s more artificial, and depending on the reference point, oxygen can “gain” electrons during molecular bonding). Click Here to return to the search form. |
Does oxygen have 8 protons 8 electrons and 8 neutrons?
Oxygen atom has 8 electrons, 8 protons and 8 neutrons.
Can oxygen atoms contain 7 8 or 9 protons?
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