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Question

The chemical properties of an element are determined by the number of electrons in its atom, which in turn is determined by the number of protons.

So can we say that the chemical properties of an element are determined by the number of protons?

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Solution

The number of electrons, in turn, determines the chemical properties of the atom.

Protons contribute to the mass of an atom and provide the positive charge to the nucleus. The number of protons also determines the identity of the element.

Electrons have a negative charge. Since the atom is electrically neutral, the number of electrons must equal the number of protons.

The electrons arrange themselves in energy levels around the nucleus. The outermost or valence electrons of an atom are the ones that take part in chemical reactions. An element’s chemical properties depend on its valence electrons.

the properties of the electrons of an atom are determined in large part by the number of protons present in the nucleus of the atom. The number of neutrons generally has a neglegible effect upon the properties of the electrons which are of chemical significance. Thus the chemical nature of an atom, which is to say the chemical properties of an element, is determined by the number of protons in the nucleus. This number of protons is called theatomic number. The mass of the atom, its atomic mass, depends significantly upon both the number of protons and upon the number of neutrons present in the nucleus.

Since the properties of the electrons depend upon the number of protons in the nucleus of an atom, each different atomic number corresponds to a qualitatively different kind of atom. Each different kind of atom makes up a different chemical element. The atomic numbers of the known elements are all integers, and range from one (hydrogen) to well above 100. Above atomic number 100, atomic nuclei are found to become increasingly unstable; they rapidly break apart or fission into nuclei of elements with lower atomic numbers.

The number of neutrons generally has a neglegible effect upon the properties of the electrons which are of chemicalsignificance. Thus the chemical nature of an atom, which is to say the chemical properties of an element, is determined by the number of protons in the nucleus.


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