Year 4 Chemistry Notes

Lin Shu Nuo 4J (17)

Periodic Table

- Elements are arranged in order of proton/atomic number.

- Vertical columns - groups, horizontal columns - periods

General trends across a period:

- elements go from metals to non-metals (metallic nature decreases)

- atomic radius decreases
- number of valence electrons increases
- number of protons increases
- number of electron shell is constant
- electronegativity increases

General trends down any group:

- number of valence electrons is constant

- number of protons increases
- atomic radius increases
- number of electron shell increases
 - metallic nature increases (because of the metalloid “ladder” between groups 13 and 17)
- electronegativity decreases
- ionisation energy increases

Properties of alkali metals (Group 1):

- Highly reactive
- Form ions with 1+ charge
- Going down the group:
- density increases
- mp/bp decreases
- reactivity increases
- reason: down group 1, number of electron shells increases, resulting in a
larger atomic radius, thus the distance from nucleus increases, making it
much easier for it to lose electrons.
- React with water to form an alkali + hydrogen.
- Eg. 2Na(s) + 2H2O(l) —> 2NaOH(aq) + H2(g)
- All are soluble in water

Properties of transition metals (Groups 4-11):

- High melting and boiling points

- High density
- Shows variable oxidation states in its compounds
- Form coloured compounds
- Used as catalysts in many biological and industrial reactions (chemically unchanged)
- Harder than alkali metals
HIGHER
- than alkali metals
DENSITY
- Smaller atomic radius than alkali metals
- Not all soluble in water

Properties of halogens (Group 17):

- Diatomic non-metals
- Form ions with 1- charge
- Going down group:
- Colour becomes darker
- Electronegativity (and thus reactivity) decreases
 - reason: down group 17, number of electron shells increases, resulting in
larger atomic radius, thus distance from nucleus increases, making it much
harder for it to gain electrons.
- mp/bp increases
- reason: generally, larger molecules have stronger IMF than smaller
molecules (*because of larger molecules having higher polarisability
resulted by more surface area for interactions between molecules) —>
more energy needed to break these stronger forces
- In a displacement reaction, a more reactive halogen will displace a less reactive
halogen. Halogens are unable to displace any other halogen that is more reactive than it.
(This is because more reactive halogens have a greater tendency to gain electrons from
cations and form ions.)
- Eg. F2(aq) + 2NaCl(aq) —> Cl2(aq) + 2NaF(aq)
- But Cl2(aq) + 2NaF(aq) won’t trigger any reaction, since Cl is less reactive than F.

Properties of noble gases (Group 18):

- Monatomic
- Generally unreactive (*xenon, however, is able to form fluorides such as XeF 2, XeF4,
XeF6)
- Must-know uses of noble gases:
- Helium (He) is a very light gas and has the lowest melting point. (*At 1 atm, it
can’t even exist in solid form!) It is commonly used to fill weather balloons.
- Argon is unreactive, and thus it is the gas inside lightbulbs - if air is inside, the
oxygen would combust due to the very high temperature near the tungsten
filament. It also serves as an inert environment in the production of materials eg.
steel.

Qualitative Analysis
Tests for gases:

Gas Test for gas

Hydrogen (H2) Gas extinguishes lighted splint with a ‘pop’ sound

2H2 + O2 —> 2H2O, water extinguishes fire

Oxygen (O2) Gas relights glowing splint

Fire needs oxygen to survive - with increased O2, flame size increases

Carbon dioxide (CO2) When gas is bubbled through limewater, white ppt formed
CO2(g) + Ca(OH)2(aq) —> CaCO3(s) + H2O(l)
 Ammonia (NH3) Gas turns moist red litmus paper blue

Chlorine (Cl2) Gas turns moist blue litmus paper red, then bleaches it

Sulfur dioxide (SO2) Gas changes colour of acidified KMNO4 from purple to colourless
For all cation and anion tests, only need to know the tests for H2, CO2 and NH3.

Tests for cations:

Cation Dissolve in dilute sodium hydroxide Dissolve in aqueous ammonia

Ca2+ Forms white ppt No ppt

Insoluble in excess reagent

Fe2+ Forms green ppt Forms green ppt

Insoluble in excess reagent Insoluble in excess reagent

Fe3+ Forms red-brown ppt Forms red-brown ppt

Insoluble in excess reagent Insoluble in excess reagent

Cu2+ Forms light blue ppt Forms light blue ppt

Insoluble in excess reagent Dissolves in excess reagent forming a
dark blue solution
Cu(OH)2 + 4(NH3•H2O) → [Cu(NH3)4](OH)2 + 4H2O

Zn2+ Forms white ppt Forms white ppt

Dissolves in excess reagent forming a Dissolves in excess reagent forming a
colourless solution colourless solution
(zinc, aluminium and lead(II) form amphoteric hydroxides thus Zn(OH)2 + 4(NH3•H2O) → [Zn(NH3)4](OH)2 + 4H2O
they can neutralise NaOH) (the two reactions above are complexation rxns)

Al3+ Forms white ppt Forms white ppt

Dissolves in excess reagent forming a Insoluble in excess reagent
colourless solution

Pb2+ Forms white ppt Forms white ppt

Dissolves in excess reagent forming a Insoluble in excess reagent
colourless solution

NH4+ Ammonia gas is produced after gentle N/A

heating
Note: to differentiate between Al3+ and Pb2+ is to add potassium iodide solution (KI). There
would be a yellow precipitate if it is Pb2+, and no ppt otherwise.

Tests for anions:

 Anion Test for anion Positive result

NO3- Add dilute NaOH solution and aluminium Ammonia is evolved

foil, heat gently

Cl- Add acidified AgNO3 solution White ppt formed

(silver halides are insoluble in water. yes, lead(II) halides as
well, but it would make it more difficult to differentiate
whether the anion is a halide or a sulfate.

I- Add acidified AgNO3 solution Yellow ppt formed

SO42- Add acidified BaSO4 solution White ppt formed

CO32- Add dilute HNO3 Carbon dioxide evolved

Note: acidified here means add dilute HNO3 (reasoning is that nitrate compounds are always
soluble in water based on solubility rules). Since carbon dioxide is evolved when nitric acid is
added to a carbonate, the lack of effervescence after adding dilute HNO 3 will eliminate the
possibility of the anion being CO32-.

Chemical Equilibrium
- Many reactions in chemistry are reversible; they are able to proceed either forward or
backward. They are denoted by ⇌.
- These reactions tend not to go into completion; they just exist in a state of equilibrium.
- At equilibrium state the rates of forward and backward reactions are equal, but not 0.
Thus no change is seen on a macro scale, but on the atomic scale many reactions are
taking place.

Le Chatelier’s Principle:

- If a system at equilibrium is subjected to a small change, the equilibrium’s response is to

counteract the change so as to minimise the effect of the change.
- We’ll look at a sample reversible reaction: N2(g) + 3H2(g) ⇌ 2NH3(g), ∆H = -92 kJ

- Increased pressure: the position of equilibrium will shift to whichever side has less
molecules, counteracting the increased pressure by decreasing the number of
molecules; this only applies if all the reactants and products are in gaseous form.
Thus, with increased pressure, the concentration of NH3 increases.

- Increased concentration (of N2): the position of equilibrium will shift to the opposite
side to counteract the increased concentration of N2 by decreasing N2 concentration,
 thus as concentration of N2 increases, concentration of NH3 increases (and concentration
of H2 decreases accordingly).
- Similarly, as concentration of NH3 increases, concentration of both N2 and H2 increases.

- Increased temperature: The reaction above is exothermic thus when more heat is
added, the position of equilibrium will shift to the left, so as to counteract the increased
temperature by decreasing heat, thus as temperature increases concentration of NH3
decreases.

- Added catalyst: main misconception; even though catalyst speeds up the reaction in both
directions, there is no change of amount of reactant/product as the rates of both
directions of reactions are increased equally.

Haber Process:

- Used in the production of ammonia

- Equation: N2(g) + 3H2(g) ⇌ 2NH3(g)
- Operated at 450˚C, 200 atm, with iron catalysing the reaction. These are the optimum
conditions generating maximum yield of ammonia with the most amount of financial
gains. #stonks

Metals & Reactivity Series

Metals in decreasing order of reactivity:

Atomic Metal Mnemonic

symbol

K Potassium Please

Na Sodium Stop

Ca Calcium Calling

Mg Magnesium Me

Al Aluminium A

C (Carbon) Careless

Zn Zinc Zebra

Fe Iron Instead
 Sn Tin Try

Pb Lead Learning

H (Hydrogen) How

Cu Copper Copper

Ag Silver Saves

Au Gold Gold

General pattern:

- reduction strength decreases down the reactivity series

- a metal can only displace a less reactive metal from its solution (think 大鱼吃小鱼)
- all metals react with Cl2 on heating to form the corresponding chloride with decreasing
vigour

Displacement of H2 gas:

- from cold water: K to Mg only, forms corresponding hydroxide

- from steam: K to Sn only, forms corresponding oxide
- from dilute HCl/H2SO4: K to Pb only, forms corresponding chloride/sulfate

Thermal stability of metal carbonates:

- carbonates of potassium and sodium are stable to heating

- carbonates of silver and gold decompose to form metal, oxygen and carbon dioxide
- carbonates of other metals in the reactivity series decompose to form metal oxide and
carbon dioxide