Atoms: Particles, Protons, Neutrons And Electrons

Atoms have three subatomic particles, protons, neutrons and electrons. The atom, the smallest unit of matter which means it’s the smallest thing that takes space and has mass is so small it would take a million of atoms to cross this dot. Knowing they’re incredibly tiny, the electrons having a single negative charge; they move around the nucleus where the protons with a single positive charge and the neutron who does not have a charge are packed. Electrons are only ones that are involved with the chemical activity of an atom, thus, the more electrons an atom has the more energy it will possess. Electrons aren’t just moving around the nucleus, they move around by levels called electron shells. The first level can hold two electrons, the second and third can hold up to eight electrons.

So when an atom has three electrons, it would had completed its first shell but will have an incomplete second shell holding just one electron.

Making this atom want to interact with other atoms in order to be stable. Atoms want their shells as full as they can be. For example, a Helium atom has two protons, two neutrons and two electrons; this atom is neutral and happy because it has two electrons which fill perfectly the first level. However, Hydrogen is not happy, it has one neutron, one proton and one electron which makes it a neutral charge also yet it has not completed its first level with just that one electron in the shell that fit two. Hydrogen thus is seeking for that electron its missing. To make this happen, Chemical bonding is the way atoms are able to take or give up electrons. They can either share the electrons or transfer them. Normally, when atoms do this it ends up holding them really close, this attraction is called chemical

bonds.
One type of Chemical bond is the Ionic Bonds, when a sodium atom and a chloride atom meet, they notice that they can be so happy if sodium transfers that one electron that is alone in its third level shell to the chlorides incomplete third outer shell which is missing one electron. Before Sodium transfers that electron to chloride, both atoms are electrically neutral for having their normal amount of subatomic particles. After sodium transfers that electron to chloride, sodium and chloride are now ions because an electron is one negative charge so sodium has more protons than electrons by one making sodium (Na +) and Chloride gain of one electron moved it to (Cl -). Both atoms have now a completed outer shells and are happy as atoms can be, opposites attract making them be an ionic bond.
In the other hand, Covalent bonds do not transfer electrons but share one or more pairs of electrons with another atom. This bond is the most powerful, it holds atoms so close that this is how atoms are hold in a molecule; a bunch of atoms stuck together. Oxygen has eight electrons so it has its first shell complete but its second incomplete, thus oxygen needs two more electrons to complete the second shell. When two oxygen atoms meet, they realize they can share their outer shell with six electrons so their outer shell is full. In this case, this two atoms share two pairs of electrons. Because they share electrons, they are closer than any other chemical bond, their outer shells are so close they connect. The number of covalent bonds an atom can form is the electrons that atom needs to complete its outer shell. So another example can be Hydrogen, with only one electron in its first level shell needs another electron to be full so when it meets another hydrogen atom, this two atoms share their one electron and complete their first level outer shell.
Chemical Bonding is when two atoms are attracted because they transfer or share their electrons in order for them to fill their outer shells. Ionic bonds transfer electrons, in contrast, Covalent bonds share and end up connecting more than Ionic bonds.