Period 3 Oxide Essay

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Title: Investigating the properties of period 3 oxides Objective: To examine the oxides of period three elements and describe their structure and bonding. Introduction: Generally, there are here are three types of oxide which is the basic oxide, acidic oxide and amphotheric oxides. The metals have basic oxide, the semi-metals have amphotheric oxide and the non-metals have basic oxide. Structurally there are covalent or ionic compounds. In period 3 oxides, a few oxides are tested which is sodium peroxide, magnesium oxide, phosphorus (V) oxide, silicon (IV) oxide, sodium sulphite and concentrated sulphuric acid. All these oxides have their own physical and chemical properties. A Universal indicator is a pH indicator composed of a blend…show more content…
Na and Mg are electropositive so they lose electrons in reactions and oxygen atoms form oxide ions O2-. Oxide ions are strong bases because they can accept protons from water. So, sodium peroxide and magnesium oxide are basic. Al2O3 is amphoteric as it has reactions as both a base and an acid. Si, P, S and Cl are increasingly electronegative. They cannot form oxide ions from oxygen at all, so they behave as acids. The trend is from strongly basic oxides on the left-hand side to strongly acidic ones on the right, via an amphoteric oxide (aluminium oxide) in the middle. In addition, when going across the period 3 the acid-base nature of the oxides change from base to amphoteric and finally to become acid. This is because the less electronegative sodium has a weak Na-O bond and the oxygen is more easily given up to reacts with H+. Further along though, a strong S-O bond keeps this together and more H+ is generated. The amphoteric aluminium oxide has a bonding which is both ionic and covalent in nature. When these oxides are reacted with acids or bases, a neutralisation would occur with a salt and water produced. Aluminium oxide is amphoteric, meaning it react with both acid and…show more content…
The different of the chance will form a strong ionic bond between each other. For the non-metallic elements, they will share their electron valence with oxygen to form a stable octet state. However, the covalent bond was not as strong as ionic bond. Along the period 3, from the left the trend in structure is from the metallic oxides containing giant structures of ions, a giant covalent oxide (silicon dioxide) in the middle and molecular oxides on the right. Besides that, along the period 3 from left to right, there is increasing of acidity and decreasing of basicity, decreasing of metallic character, and decreasing of electronegativity difference. The trend in structure is from the metallic oxides containing giant structures of ions, a giant covalent oxide (silicon dioxide) in the middle and molecular oxides on the right. In the change of bonding, Na2O, MgO and Al2O3 have giant ionic bond while Al2O3 has giant molecular bond. But for P4O10, SO2 and Cl2O have simple molecular bond. The decreasing of metallic character is because of the increasing nuclear charge since metallic character is a measure of the ease of loss of electrons from the outer shell. Besides that, the change of formation of ionic bond to covalent

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