The Interplay of Dancing Electrons

Negatively charged ions have a big impact on everything around us. Finally Scientists from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden have discovered how to analyze “how the electrons in negative ions interact in, which is important in, for example, superconductors and in radiocarbon dating.”

Anton Lindahl of the Department of Physics at the University of Gothenburg. said "By studying atoms with a negative charge, 'negative ions', we can learn how electrons coordinate their motion in what can be compared to a tightly choreographed dance. Such knowledge is important in understanding phenomena in which the interaction between electrons is important, such as in superconductors,"

  

A higher understanding of negative ions can get us a much better knowledge of our origins. The reason why is because negative ions have an important impact in chemical reactions anywhere in space, since it is very important in those procedures like forming molecules from atoms. The molecules have given us much information about our origins.  

"I have worked with ions in a vacuum, not in water as in the body. In order to be able to study the properties of individual ions, we isolate them in a vacuum chamber at extremely low pressure. This pressure is even lower than the pressure outside of the International Space Station, ISS."

Anton Lindahl's doctoral thesis states investigations where he used laser spectroscopy to understand how the electrons interact with each other.

"In order to be able to carry out these studies, I have had to develop measurement methods and build experimental equipment. The measurements that the new equipment makes possible will increase our understanding of the dance-like interplay."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111129092024.htm 

Element Activity

 

In the first picture you can see magnesium with 2 valence electrons, and Oxygen with 6 valence electron. So since magnesium is a metal it wants to loose 2 electrons to become stable, and oxygen since it is a non metla it wants to gain 2 to become stable. That is why they bond, since when magnesium gives the 2 to oxygen, oxygen has a complete shell. As well as when magnesium gives the electrons to oxygen it becomes positive and oxygen becomes negative and since positives attract negatives they become a compound.

That is how it looks like at the end:

  

Oxygen can also bond with  berylium forming Beryllium oxide. Look how this demonstrates the bonding of the 2. 

Oxygen can also bond with both lithium and sodium together, wanna know how, well let me show you.

So in this case you cant have only lithium or only sodium since that has only one electron and oxygen needs too. So If it takes one from lithium and the one left from sodium oxygen has a stable set of 8 valence electrons and the other two also have a full one too.

 Lastly you can have two of the same, like 2 atoms of Cesium. So since cesium has one electron you need 2 cesium atoms to complete oxygen valence shell. So that is what oxygen does, it takes one valence electron from each Cesium atoms to make the valence shell full.

Graphene Reveals Its Magnetic Personality

Scientists from University of Manchester prooved that organic matter can act as a magnet. In the report they created Grapheme magnetic, thinnest and strongest material in the world. It is very thin carbon atoms set in a “chick wire structure”. When it is untouched it has no magnetic ability. Manchester researchers won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010 for showing its extraordinary properties. 

Dr Irina Grigorieva and Professor Sir Andre Geim, showed something very important for the future of graphene in electronics.

The Manchester researchers got graphene with no magnetic ability, then “peppered” it with atoms without magnetism or took out carbon atoms from the chicken wire. The vacancies (empty spaces), and additional atoms all became magnetic, just like atoms of iron.

"It is like minus multiplied by minus gives you plus," says Dr Irina Grigorieva.

The researchers found out that “defect” has to be far away from one another and their attentiveness has to be quite low to become a magnetic atom. If there are too many defects added to graphene, they cancel each other's magnetic power. In the case of vacancies, their high concentration makes graphene 

"The observed magnetism is tiny, and even the most magnetized graphene samples would not stick to your fridge." said Professor Geim. 

"Adding this new degree of functionality can prove important for potential applications of graphene in electronics," adds Dr Grigorieva.

  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120108143603.htm

ScienceDaily (Jan. 9, 2012)