Transition Pack for A Level Chemistry A guide to help you get ready for A-level Chemistry. You will be tested on this material in the week beginning 12 th September 2016 1
This booklet contains background reading materials, links to useful websites, activities and resources to prepare you to start an A level in Chemistry in September. It is aimed to be used after you complete your GCSE, throughout the remainder of the summer term and over the Summer Holidays to ensure you are ready to start your course in September. Book Recommendations Periodic Tales: The Curious Lives of the Elements (Paperback) Hugh Aldersey-Williams ISBN-10: 0141041455 http://bit.ly/pixlchembook1 This book covers the chemical elements, where they come from and how they are used. There are loads of fascinating insights into uses for chemicals you would have never even thought about. The Science of Everyday Life: Why Teapots Dribble, Toast Burns and Light Bulbs Shine (Hardback) Marty Jopson ISBN-10: 1782434186 http://bit.ly/pixlchembook2 The title says it all really, lots of interesting stuff about the things around you home! Calculations in AS/A Level Chemistry (Paperback) Jim Clark (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) ISBN-10: 0582411270 http://bit.ly/pixlchembook4 If you struggle with the calculations side of chemistry, this is the book for you. Covers all the possible calculations you are ever likely to come across. Brought to you by the same guy who wrote the excellent chemguide.co.uk website. You will be tested on this material in the week beginning 12 th September 2016 2
30 Definitions you need to Learn Word Acid Alkali Anhydrous Aqueous Avagadro s constant Base Bonded pair Concentration Covalent bond Dative covalent (coordinate bond) Dipole Empirical formula First Ionisation Energy Hydrated Hydrocarbon Intermolecular force Ionic bonding Isotopes Definition A species that releases H + ions in aqueous solution. A type of base that dissolves in water forming OH - (aq) ions. Containing no water molecules. Substance dissolved in water The number of atoms per mole of the Carbon-12 isotope. (6.02x10 23 mol -1 ) A compound that neutralises an acid to form a salt. A pair of electrons shared between two atoms to form a covalent bond. The amount of solute, in moles, dissolved in 1dm 3 of solution. The strong electrostatic attraction between a shared pair of electrons and the nuclei of the bonded atoms. A shared pair of electrons in which the bonded pair has been provided by one of the bonding atoms only. A separation in electrical charge so that one atom of a polar covalent bond, or one end of a polar molecule, has a small positive charge δ + and the other has a small negative charge δ -. The formula that shows the simplest wholenumber ratio of atoms of each element present in a compound. The energy required to remove one electron from each atom in mole mole of gaseous atoms of an element to form one mole of gaseous 1+ ions. A crystalline compound containing water molecules. A compound of Hydrogen and Carbon only. An attractive force between molecules. Intermolecular forces can be London forces, permanent dipole-dipole interactions or hydrogen bonding. The electrostatic attraction between positive and negative ions. Atoms of the same element with different numbers of neutrons and different masses. You will be tested on this material in the week beginning 12 th September 2016 3
Lone pair An outer shell pair of electrons that in not involved in chemical bonding. Metallic bond The electrostatic attraction between positive metal ions and delocalised electrons. Mass number The sum of the protons and neutrons in the nucleus also referred to as Nucleon number. Mole The amount of any substance containing as many elementary particles as there are carbon atoms in exactly 12g of the Carbon- 12 isotope, which is 6.02 x 10 23 particles. Neutralisation A chemical reaction in which an acid and base react together to form a salt. Oxidation Loss of electrons or an increase in oxidation number (also addition of oxygen) Redox reaction A reaction involving reduction and oxidation. Reduction Gain of electrons or a decrease in oxidation number (also loss of oxygen) Relative atomic mass The weighted mean mass of an atom of an element compared with one twelfth of the mass of an atom of Carbon-12. Relative Isotopic mass The mass of an atom of an isotope compared with one twelfth of the mass of an atom of Carbon-12. Salt The product of a reaction in which the H + ions from the acid are replaced by metal or ammonium ions Saturated Containing single bonds only. Unsaturated Containing a multiple carbon-carbon bond. You will be tested on this material in the week beginning 12 th September 2016 4
Brushing up your GCSE knowledge Many of the topics we cover below will be familiar to you from GCSE but at A level you need to be able to apply your knowledge quickly and so the following sections are to help you boost your existing knowledge and to allow you to tackle exam questions of these types without worry. Chemical Formula Table of common ions. 1+ 1-2+ 2-3+ Lithium Li + Chloride Cl - Magnesium Mg 2+ Sulphate 2- SO4 Aluminium Al 3+ Sodium Na + Bromide Br - Calcium Ca 2+ Carbonate Iron III Fe 3+ CO3 2- Potassium K + Iodide I - Zinc Zn 2+ Oxide O 2- Silver Ag + Hydroxide OH - Copper Cu 2+ Sulphide S 2- Ammonium NH4 + Hydrogen H + Nitrate - NO3 Lead Pb 2+ Hydrogencarbonate HCO3 - Iron II Fe 2+ Writing a chemical formula the rules Ionic compounds are neutral, so the number of positively charged ions and negatively charged ions in a formula must always be equal. Charges are never written in a chemical formula The number of ions in a formula is written after the symbol and below the line, eg. MgCl2 is made of 1 Mg ion and 2 Cl ions. Some ions contain more than one atom, such as NO3 -. If you more than one of these ions in a formula, brackets must be used, eg. (NO3)2 You will be tested on this material in the week beginning 12 th September 2016 5
Now use these rules to work out the formulae of the following compounds Balancing equations Balancing chemical equations is the stepping stone to using equations to calculate masses in chemistry. The guidelines are: Calculate how many atoms of each type of are on either side of the equation If it is the same then it is balanced job done. If it is not the same then the quantities of each part of the equation may need to be changed to make them balance. You can only change quantities by using a large number in front of the reactant or product and NOT small subscript numbers in the formula as the FORMULA MUST stay the SAME. (start with the elements that are not balanced first but remember you change the quantity of every atom in the molecule) Keep doing this until the numbers of each type of atom are the same on either side Check and make sure that these numbers are the smallest ratio they can be. NB Atoms cannot be created or destroyed so what you have at the beginning, you must have at the end. You will be tested on this material in the week beginning 12 th September 2016 6
Beginner level You will be tested on this material in the week beginning 12 th September 2016 7
Intermediate Level You will be tested on this material in the week beginning 12 th September 2016 8
Challenge You will be tested on this material in the week beginning 12 th September 2016 9
The MOLE Counting atoms and molecules Chemists are able to count atoms and molecules of different elements and compounds by weighing them. This is because atoms of different elements have different masses. We call the mass of an atom, the relative atomic mass, Ar. This is defined as the average mass of all the atoms of an element relative to the mass of the carbon-12 isotope which is given exactly the mass of 12. The mole is a number. It is equal to the number of atoms in 12g of the carbon 12 isotope. All relative atomic and molecular masses are compared to the mass of the carbon 12 isotope. So for all atoms and molecules, the atomic/molecular mass in grams always contains 1 mole of particles. This mass is often referred to as the molar mass, relative atomic mass or relative molecular mass. The number of particles in one mole of a substance is called Avogadro s Constant and is equal to 6 x 10 23. Equal numbers of moles always contain the same number of particles and so the mole can be used as a link between chemical equations showing number of particles (stoichiometry) and reacting quantities (ie. masses of substances). The link between mass and number of moles can be written as: n = m m n = number of moles Mr n Mr m = mass in grams (g) Mr = relative molecular mass Let s start of simply Formula mass Work out the formula mass of the following: You will be tested on this material in the week beginning 12 th September 2016 10
Moles calculations Exercise 1 Calculate the number of moles in the following: Exercise 2 Calculate the mass of the following: You will be tested on this material in the week beginning 12 th September 2016 11
Reacting Masses Try using what you know about moles to answer the following questions. You will be tested on this material in the week beginning 12 th September 2016 12
Reacting masses Challenge Try these as a bit more of a challenge: You will be tested on this material in the week beginning 12 th September 2016 13
Percentage Yields Percentage Yield Calculations We have seen how to work out how much product should be produced in a reaction using relative molecular mass (mole) calculations. This is called the theoretical yield. In reality, some product is always lost during the process of making the product so we never actually get the full amount. The amount of product actually made in an experiment is called the actual yield. We can calculate the actual yield as a percentage of the theoretical yield as follows: Percentage yield = actual yield x 100 theoretical yield Now try these: You will be tested on this material in the week beginning 12 th September 2016 14
You will be tested on this material in the week beginning 12 th September 2016 15
Percentage composition Percentage composition Sometimes the mass of an element in a compound can be given as a percentage. This can be worked out quite easily. Example. Calculate the % by mass of magnesium and oxygen in Magnesium Oxide. [Ar (Mg) = 24, Ar (O) = 16] (i) First work out the Relative molecular mass of Magnesium oxide MgO Mr = 24 + 16 = 40 (ii) Next, work out how much of the total relative formula mass of the compound comes from each element Total mass = 40 Mass of magnesium = 24 Mass of oxygen = 16 (iii) Now, work out for each element the fraction of the total mass of the compound as a percentage: % composition = Mass of element x 100 Total mass of compound So for Magnesium Oxide (MgO) Magnesium = ( 24/40 ) x 100 = 60% Oxygen = ( 16/40 ) x 100 = 40% You will be tested on this material in the week beginning 12 th September 2016 16
Now try these: Empirical Formula Calculating empirical and molecular formula using composition by mass. Analysis of compounds will give the composition of the constituent elements by mass. To find the simplest ratio of the different elements, the different atomic masses have to be taken into account. Example: A hydrocarbon was found to have a molecular mass of 58 and to contain 82.76% carbon by mass. The following steps find the number of moles of the different elements (=mass/molar mass.) this is then used to find the ratio of different elements by dividing by the smallest value a whole number ratio is then obtained. (It may be necessary to multiply all the values obtained by another number to obtain a whole number ratio. If 0.2, 0.4, 0.6 appears, multiply all by 5, if 0.25 or 0.75 appears, multiply all by 4, if 0.33 or 0.66 appears multiply all by 3, and if 0.5 appears multiply all by 2) The mass of the empirical formula is compared with the molecular mass to determine how many empirical formulae make up the molecular formula. The molecular formula is then derived. Element Analysis Ar n=m/m Ratio Whole number ratio Carbon 82.76% 12.0 82.76/12.0 = 6.90/6.90 = 2 6.90 1.0 Hydrogen 100-82.76 = 17.24% 1.0 17.24/1.0 = 17.24 17.24/6.90 = 2.5 5 Empirical formula = C2H5 Mass = (2x12) + (5x1) = 29 Number of empirical formulae in the molecular formula = 58/29 = 2 Therefore, molecular formula = 2 x empirical formula = C4H10 You will be tested on this material in the week beginning 12 th September 2016 17
Try these ratio questions: Empirical formula: You will be tested on this material in the week beginning 12 th September 2016 18
Do you know your Salt? At A level we expect you to know the 4 reactions of acids that produce salts. In the space below, write out the general word equations for these reactions and then add an example of a specific reaction with an acid to get the salt. + + + + + + + You will be tested on this material in the week beginning 12 th September 2016 19
You will be tested on this material in the week beginning 12 th September 2016 20
Places to visit 1. Go outdoors! Have you actually spent any time observing the geology of the area you live in? What rocks or minerals are found in your area? Does your area have a history of extracting minerals? If so what were they, what were they used for, how did they obtain them? Are there any working or remains of mineral extraction industries? 2. Are there any chemical or chemistry based businesses in your area? A big ask, but one that could be really beneficial to you, write them a letter explaining that you are taking A level chemistry and you want to see how chemistry is used in industry and you would like to visit / have some work experience. You never know this could lead to great things!!!! 3. You could also try writing to / searching for your nearest university to see if they are running any summer schools for chemistry they are usually free and give you the opportunity to experience the laboratories in a university. 4. Science museums. You could visit your nearest science museum. They often have special exhibitions that may be of interest to you. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/list_of_science_museums#united_kingdom 5. Somerset Earth Science Centre: http://www.earthsciencecentre.org.uk 6. The UK Association for Science and Discovery Centres (ASDC) This association brings together over 60 major science engagement organisations in the UK. http://sciencecentres.org.uk/centres/weblinks.php 7. Chemguide www.chemguide.co.uk 8. Doc Brown s http://www.docbrown.info/ 9. Knock Hardy www.knockhardy.org.uk You will be tested on this material in the week beginning 12 th September 2016 21
Chemical formula Beginners You will be tested on this material in the week beginning 12 th September 2016 22
Intermediate You will be tested on this material in the week beginning 12 th September 2016 23
Challenge You will be tested on this material in the week beginning 12 th September 2016 24
Formula mass Moles Exercise 1 Exercise 2 You will be tested on this material in the week beginning 12 th September 2016 25
Reacting masses Reacting masses Challenge Percentage Yields Percentage composition You will be tested on this material in the week beginning 12 th September 2016 26
Ratios a) 5:2 b) 4:3 c) 3:8 d) 3:2 e) 5:3 f) 2:5 g) 5:3 h) 7:4 Empirical formula a) NH 3 b) C 2H 5 c) Al 2O 3 d) NaHCO 3 e) H 3PO 4 f) Na 2CO 3 Do you know your salt? You will be tested on this material in the week beginning 12 th September 2016 27