Kinetic Particle Theory- A brief intro

Kinetic particle theory! Haha curious much about what KPT is about? Read on, no one's stopping you!:)

A theory is supposition or a system of ideas intended to explain something, so naturally there has to be assumptions and limitations of a certain theory. Therefore, all kinetic particle theories should have assumptions, limitations and obviously the theory.

The kinetic particle theory explains the particle behaviour like arrangement and forces of attraction between the particles of 3 states of matter, namely gas, liquid and solids using assumptions. It is represented by the kinetic particle model, which explains the motion and arrangement of the particles in the 3 states of matter.

That's it for now:)

Today we learnt about crystallization. It is used to separate a dissolved solid from a solution. You need a saturated solution (it's not the same as concentrated!) to carry out crystallization.

What is a saturated solution? It contains the maximum amount of solute dissolved in a given volume of solvent at a particular temperature. However, a concentrated solution is a solution that contains lots of solute dissolved in it.

One way to do crystallization is 'seeding'. A small crystal from your solute is suspended from  a thread in a saturated solution. The crystals will then grow in size as the solute crystallizes out from the saturated solution which is evaporating slowly.

Chromatography!

We did chromatography for our practical yesterday! It was really cool and an enriching experience haha. Watching the different colors go up the paper was really cool.

Basically, chromatography a type of separation technique. Paper chromatography is used to separate a mixture of solutes (solutes= a component in a solution, disolved in a solvent) with different solubility and degree of absorption. A solvent moves over an absorbent medium to separate the solutes. 

As a result, solutes with a better degree of absorption will not travel up the paper (or the absorbent medium used) as high as a solute with a not so good absorption.

Things that can be separated using chromatography= Eg. Dyes in ink or a mixture or sugars (the practical we did was the dye one^^)

So how did we carry out the chromatography? First, you draw a pencil line from the edge of the paper, roughly about 1.5cm- 2cm. Then, using a capillary tube, dip it into your dye. Do not hold it there too long or else your ink drop will be too big. Next, place a drop of the ink on the line in the middle. Let it dry for a bit before repeating the step so that your drop of ink will be more concentrated.

Prepare your solvent. In this case, I used distilled water. About 1.5cm of solvent was put in a boiling tube (as the boiling tube was the right size for my chromatography paper). Try not to let any solvent go to the side of the tube. It should just be at the bottom or else it might affect your experiment. 

Dip the chromatography paper into the solvent. The pencil mark should be above the water surface. The solvent will then "run up" the paper.

The principles of paper chromatography: 

• As solvent travels up the paper, the dyes are dissolved. 
• Some dyes are more soluble so they travel up the paper more quickly then others.
• Some dyes are less soluble, thus they are absorbed more strongly and quickly into the paper.
• Thus you can tell what colors the dye is made out of.

What caused the separation of dyes?

1. The solubility of the dyes in the solvent

2. The tendencies of the dyes to be absorbed.

3. Hence identical dyes will travel the same distance along the paper.

Retention Factor! :) (Symbol= Rf) 

Unknown substances separated can be identifyied by Rf values. How do you find the Rf value? Easy! Take the distance moved by the substance and divide it over the distance moved by the solvent! (Note that you measure the distance the substance moves from the pencil line)

Chromatography is really useful, especially when you wan to separate and identify compounds in a mixture. Chromatography is even used in crime cases! They use chromatography for things like blood samples and stuff like that:) So cool right?

Pictures of my experiment now!:D

I used green food dye:)

Capillary tube!

Lil Blob

Close up of experiment!

From far

End product:) Do you see the pink?:D

Atomic Structure:
Sub-Atomic Particles

Neutrons, Protons, and Electrons are sub-atomic particles of an atoms. Protons and neutrons are found inside the nucleus of an atom. The electron circles around the atoms in what is called shells.

Protons have a positive charge of +1, neutrons are neutral and electrons have a negative charge of -1. Therefore the proton number and the electron number is equal. Eg. Nitrogen's proton number is seven. Thus the electron number is 7 as well.

Symbols=
Proton-> p
Electron-> e
Neutron-> n
Proton & Nucleon number-> Z

Today I learnt how to light a bunsen burner during chemistry class. Here's how!

1. Wear your safety goggles.
2. Connect rubber tube to gas tap.
3. Make sure there is no hole in the bunsen burner. If there is a gap, close it.
4. Slowly turn on the gas tap.
5. Check that you hear a sound coming from the bunsen burner.
6. Hold the flame igniter right at the tip of the bunsen burner. Make sure that it is not locked.
7. Press the flame igniter to light up the bunsen burner.
8. When a flame comes out, it should look mainly orange. 
9. As you turn the thing to create a hole, the flame should turn blueish and almost invisible.
10. When you want to turn of the bunsen burner, close the gap first.
11. Then switch off the tap carefully.

Different areas of the flame will have different temperatures. The part right a the tip of the bunsen burner itself is the least hottest. The one in the middle is the hottest and the top part of the flame is in between.

January 11

What we have started learning->

The Periodic Table

Classification is important, especially so in the Periodic Table. If it was not classified properly like what the Table looks like now, everything would be very messy and disorganized. It'll would be hard to look for a certain atom/ element/ compound.

I learned other things while doing the group work exercise:

• Look at the size of the particles to determine if it comes from the same type of substance
• How do you know which atoms are gases? Those that are very spaced out and are all over the place 
• Particles of the same size can have different densities.
• Atoms that look like mickey mouse are water elements:D