Chapter 3: Building Blocks of Matter

Enhanced Introductory College Chemistry

by Gregory Anderson; Caryn Fahey; Jackie MacDonald; Adrienne Richards; Samantha Sullivan Sauer; J.R. van Haarlem; and  David Wegman;

Chapter Contents

Except where otherwise noted, this OER is licensed under CC BY 4.0

Please visit the web version of Enhanced Introductory College Chemistry to access the complete book, interactive activities and ancillary resources.

In this chapter, you will learn about

  • Elements and ions
  • Chemical symbols
  • The periodic table
  • Ionic and molecular compounds
  • Chemical formulas

To better support your learning, you should be familiar with the following concepts before starting this chapter:

  • Numeracy
Two photos are shown. The first image shows a man holding a round, reflective disc held inside of a protective, clear container. The second image shows a round disc covered in metallic chips which is behind a protective covering.
Figure 3a: Purity is extremely important when preparing silicon wafers. The CEO of VLSI Research, Don Hutcheson, shows off a pure silicon wafer (left). A silicon wafer covered in Pentium chips is an enlarged version of the silicon wafers found in many electronics used today (right). (credit left: modification of work by Intel Free Press, CC BY 2.0; credit right: modification of work by Naotake Murayama, CC BY 2.0)

The development of the periodic table in the mid-1800s came from observations that there was a periodic relationship between the properties of the elements. Chemists, who have an understanding of the variations of these properties, have been able to use this knowledge to solve a wide variety of technical challenges. For example, silicon and other semiconductors form the backbone of modern electronics because of our ability to fine-tune the electrical properties of these materials. This chapter explores important properties of representative metals, metalloids, and nonmetals in the periodic table.

Attribution & References

Except where otherwise noted, this page is adapted by Adrienne Richards from “Chapter 20 Introduction” In General Chemistry 1 & 2 by Rice University, a derivative of Chemistry (Open Stax) by Paul Flowers, Klaus Theopold, Richard Langley & William R. Robinson and is licensed under CC BY 4.0. ​Access for free at Chemistry (OpenStax)​ . / Updates for Canadian copyright compliance and student comprehension.

License

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Enhanced Introductory College Chemistry Copyright © 2023 by Gregory Anderson; Caryn Fahey; Jackie MacDonald; Adrienne Richards; Samantha Sullivan Sauer; J.R. van Haarlem; and David Wegman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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