CHEMISTRY YEAR 09 Class activity sheet-12 (Ions and sub-atomic particles)

Lesson objectives:
By the end of this lesson, about 70% of the learners should be able to:

Define the terms ion, and explain why a charge can exist on an atom or group of atoms

Deduce number of sub-atomic particles from an atom if its mass, atomic number and charge are known

Define relative atomic mass and calculate relative atomic mass from data provided.
Recap of previous lesson:
What can you recall about the last lesson?

Prompt for prior knowledge:

What do you known about ions?

Ions and sub-atomic particles

- Since neutrons are neutral, particles carry an electric charge because of an imbalance in
number of protons and neutrons.
- Definition: An Ion is any atom or group of atoms with a net negative or net positive
electric charge.
- An ion carries a net positive charge because it has more protons than electrons. A charge
of +1 means one more proton than electrons etc.
- An ion carries a net negative charge because it has more electrons than protons. A
charge of -2 means two more electrons than protons etc.
- The number of electrons in an ion is given by: No of electrons = Z (q). Where:

Z = atomic number, q = charge and can be positive (+q) or negative (-q).

Activity 01: Complete the table below.
Symbol of
species
23
11
27
13

Number of protons

Number of electrons

Number of neutrons

mass

Na+
Al3+

37
17

Cl-

17
8

O2-

- The charge on an ion (q) is given by: q = P E, where: P = number of protons, E =

number of electrons.
Activity 02: Complete the table below by calculating the on each species V, W, X, Y and
Z. An example using species T is done for you
Species

Number of protons

Number of electrons

charge

Formula of ion

T
V
W
X
Y
Z

22
31
51
15
11
34

18
28
54
18
10
36

22 18 = +4

T4+

Relative atomic mass (Ar)

- In most cases, isotopes of an element do not usually occur in equal proportion in nature.
- Relative atomic mass of an element takes into account the mass and the proportion of each
of its stable isotope in nature.
- Definition: Relative atomic mass is the weighted average mass of naturally occurring atoms
of an element on a scale where an atom of carbon-12 has a mass of exactly 12 units.
Calculation of relative atomic mass
- To calculate the relative atomic mass (Ar) of an element, one needs:
The masses of stable isotopes of the element
The abundance (proportion) of each isotope in nature
- Relative atomic mass (Ar) of an element is calculated by applying the following steps.
Step 1: Multiply each isotopic mass by its abundance (proportion)
Step 2: Sum up all the products of isotopic mass and abundance obtained in step 1 above
Step 3: Sum up all the abundances and use the formula below.
Sum of isotopic mass x abundance
Relative atomic mass (Ar) =
Sum of abundances
Activity 03: Chlorine has two naturally occurring isotopes i.e. chlorine-35 and chlorine-37
with percentage (%) abundance of 75 and 25 respectively. Use the data provided to
calculate the relative atomic mass (Ar) of chlorine.

Activity 04: Chlorine has two naturally occurring isotopes i.e. chlorine-35 and chlorine-37
in the ratio 3:1. Use the data provided to calculate the relative atomic mass (Ar) of
chlorine.

Activity 05: A sample of naturally occurring chlorine contains 15 atoms of chlorine-35

and 5 atoms chlorine-37. Use the data provided to calculate the relative atomic mass (Ar)
of chlorine.

Assignment
01: Boron has two naturally occurring isotopes i.e. boron-10 and boron-11 with
percentage (%) abundance of 20 and 80 respectively. Use the data provided to calculate
the relative atomic mass (Ar) of boron.

02: Boron has two naturally occurring isotopes i.e. boron-10 and boron-11 in the ratio 1:4.
Use the data provided to calculate the relative atomic mass (Ar) of boron.
.

03: A sample of naturally occurring boron contains 8 atoms of boron-10 and 32 atoms
boron-11. Use the data provided to calculate the relative atomic mass (Ar) of boron.
.
.