Page 35 - Miracles Within the Molecule

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ner and bor row the need ed
amount of cap i tal from anoth er
part ner. Thus a last ing busi ness
agree ment is arrived at. When the
avail a ble cap i tal grows, the num -
ber of even tu al part ners may rise.
The exchange among atoms
may be com pared to this. We have
already men tioned elec trons'
orbits. The num ber of elec trons in
Atoms achieve a sta ble struc ture only
an atom's out er most orbit always when the num ber of elec trons in their
outer shell reach es 8. The neon is a very
is eight. If atoms have fewer elec - sta ble atom with eight elec trons in its out -
trons than eight, they need to er most orbit.
estab lish part ner ships in which
they share elec trons, and in this
way, mol e cu les can pos sess a sta ble struc ture. To form com pounds (i.e,
part ner ships), atoms must either donate elec trons from their out er most
orbit around the nucle us to anoth er atom, or else bor row one or more
elec trons from that atom. Following this exchange, the elec tron-donat -
ing atom will have a pos i tive charge and the receiv ing atom a neg a tive
one. Since oppo sites attract, these two atoms will not split apart from
one anoth er. In this way is formed what's known as an ionic bond, and a
mol e cule results.
For the trans fer of a large num ber of elec trons in exchan ges
between atoms, a con sid er a ble amount of ener gy is nec es sa ry. For that
rea son, the most eco nom i cal part ner ship is deter mined. For exam ple, a
chlo rine atom has seven elec trons in its outer orbit. Instead of lend ing
seven elec trons to anoth er atom, it will be enough to receive one elec -
tron from anoth er atom in order to com plete its "cap i tal." The most
appro pri ate atom to donate an elec tron is sodi um, because of the sin gle
extra elec tron it pos sess es in its outer shell. When sodi um lend ing its
one spare elec tron to the chlo rine atom, the sodi um chlo ride mol e cule is

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