Inorganic Chemistry Comprehensive Examination Flashcards

A complete set of vocabulary flashcards covering the key concepts, scientists, and definitions for Inorganic Chemistry as found in the Comprehensive Examination reviewer.

Chemistry

The field of chemistry specifically concerned with the characteristics, composition, and transformation of matter.

Organic Chemistry

The branch of chemistry that focuses primarily on carbon-containing compounds.

Inorganic Chemistry

The study of all elements and their compounds except for hydrocarbons and their derivatives.

Physical Chemistry

The branch of chemistry that studies the properties of matter, changes that occur in matter, and the relationships between matter and energy.

Analytical Chemistry

The branch of chemistry whose primary focus is the identification of the composition of materials.

Biochemistry

The study of the chemistry of living things.

Theoretical Chemistry

The branch of chemistry that uses mathematics and computers to design and predict the properties of new compounds.

Covalent bonds

The type of bonding that is highly characteristic of organic compounds.

Matter

Anything that has mass and takes up space.

Mass

The amount of matter present in an object, usually measured directly using a balance.

Intensive properties

Properties that are independent of the amount of substance present in a sample, such as density, and exist at the molecular level.

Extensive properties

Properties that depend entirely on the amount of substance present in a sample, such as mass, volume, and surface area.

Density

The intensive property yielded by the ratio of mass to volume.

Chemical property

A characteristic of a substance that describes the way it undergoes or resists change to form a new substance, such as flammability.

Characteristic properties

Properties like boiling point, melting point, and solubility that do not change with changes in mass or volume and belong to the substance itself.

Solids

A state of matter possessing a definite shape and a definite volume, with particles described as tightly packed and vibrating about fixed positions.

Liquids

A state of matter that has an indefinite shape but a definite volume.

Gases

A state of matter characterized by having no definite shape and no definite volume.

Plasma

An ionized gas that conducts electricity and, like gases, has indefinite shape and indefinite volume.

Physical change

A change in the appearance of matter that does not alter its chemical composition or inherent identity.

Chemical change

A change in matter described as a change from the inside or chemical composition, often indicated by the production of an odor, fizzing, or a precipitate.

Precipitate

A solid that falls out of solution during a chemical reaction.

Law of Conservation of Mass

Attributed to Antoine Lavoisier, it states that in ordinary chemical and physical changes, mass is not created or destroyed; it is only transformed.

Pure substance

Matter whose composition does not change from one sample to another, resulting in all samples showing the same intensive properties.

Mixture

Matter whose composition may vary from one sample to another.

Elements

Pure substances that cannot be decomposed into simpler substances by chemical reactions.

Compounds

Substances composed of molecules that have two or more different kinds of atoms.

Homogeneous mixture

A mixture that has a completely uniform composition throughout.

Heterogeneous mixture

A mixture containing regions within the sample that display distinct characteristics.

Atomos

The term used by Democritus around 400 B.C.E. for small, indivisible particles that make up all matter.

Atomic Theory (1803)

The theory proposed by John Dalton stating that atoms of different elements differ in mass and properties.

Solid Sphere Model

Also known as the Bowling Ball Model, it was the nickname given to John Dalton's atomic model.

Canal rays

Also known as positive rays or anode rays, discovered by Eugene Goldstein in 1886; their mass depends on the gas used in the discharge tube.

Electron

A negatively charged subatomic particle discovered by J.J. Thomson in 1897 using a Cathode Ray Tube.

Plum Pudding Model

Also known as the Blueberry Muffin Model, it was proposed by J.J. Thomson in 1904 and describes electrons as 'blueberries' in a positive medium.

Nucleus

A tiny, dense, positively charged center of an atom discovered by Ernest Rutherford.

Bohr Model

Also known as the Planetary Model, it features a central nucleus orbited by electrons in defined energy level shells.

Proton

The positive particle identified by Ernest Rutherford in 1917 as the nucleus of Hydrogen during artificial nuclear reactions with Nitrogen gas.

Neutron

A subatomic particle discovered by James Chadwick in 1932 that acts to hold protons in place within the nucleus.

Atomic Number ($Z$)

The value representing the number of protons in the nucleus of an atom.

Mass Number ($A$)

The value representing the total number of protons and neutrons in an atom.

Nucleons

The collective term for protons and neutrons.

Diatomic molecule

A molecule containing exactly two atoms.

Homoatomic Molecules

Molecules in which all constituent atoms are of the exact same element.

Heteroatomic Molecules

Molecules composed of two or more different kinds of atoms.

Isotopes

Atoms with the same atomic number but different mass numbers, exhibiting similar chemical properties but different physical properties.

Allotrope

Different structural forms of the same element in the same physical state.

Triads

Groups of three elements with similar properties, such as Lithium, Sodium, and Potassium, developed by Johann Dobereiner.

Law of Octaves

A concept proposed by John Newlands after noticing similarities between every eighth element.

Henry Moseley

Scientist who in 1913 introduced the modern concept of ordering the periodic table by atomic number rather than atomic mass using X-ray experiments.

Glenn T. Seaborg

Scientist in the 1940s who proposed placing the Lanthanides and Actinides in two separate rows below the main table.

Group

A vertical column in the periodic table containing elements with similar chemical properties.

Main group elements

The eight 'A' groups of the periodic table, also known as representative elements.

Alkali Metals

The elements in Group IA, excluding Hydrogen.

Halogens

The elements designated in group VIIA.

Metals

Elements generally located to the immediate left of the staircase line on the periodic table.