Project Type
Poster
Publication Date
4-12-2022
Department or Program
Chemistry and Physics
College
College of Arts and Sciences
Faculty Mentor #1
Giancarlo, Leanna
Abstract
An atom is made up of a positively charged nucleus, consisting of non-charged neutrons and a number of positively charged protons, and of negatively charged electrons, the number of which is equivalent to the protons. The attractive force between the positive and negative charges fluctuates with the quantity of subatomic particles; binding energy is the energy required to overcome this attractive force to remove an electron from its orbital. In diatomic molecules, the binding energy is between the two atoms themselves rather than just between the nucleus and electrons for a singular atom. The relationship between binding energies of the atoms within the first three periods of the periodic table and the corresponding number of electrons present was investigated. Additionally, the same relationship was also investigated within the diatomic elements, H2, N2, O2, F2, and Cl2. This was accomplished through use of the General Atomic and Molecular Electronic Structure System (GAMESS) computational program. Using various parameters, including basis set, multiplicity, Hartree-Fock method, and calculating for single point energy, the binding energy of each of the atoms in the first three periods of the periodic table and the aforementioned five diatomic elements was determined. An inverse exponential decay was found between the binding energy of the atoms, with an increased number of electrons equating to a more negative energy (kcal/mol). Due to GAMESS measuring the binding energy between the nucleus and the first 1s orbital electron, these results indicate that as the number of electrons increases, it becomes more difficult to remove the 1s electron. The diatomic elements saw a similar inverse exponential decay between binding energy and electron count.