We made 8 different solutions that you can see in the following picture.
We take a battery and a small light so we can see whether or not the solutions conduct current.
The solutions are put in small glasses.
How you can see on the picture above all of the solutions conduct current.
Some solutions conduct less current than others because if an atom is solved in water it can give or gain more easily electrons than if it is solid. Like NatriumChlorid Natrium it gives an electron because it has only one electron on the outer space and Chlorid gains one electron because in has seven on the outer space. Basically you can say that all the atoms that have 3 or less electrons on the outer space give their electrons in order to have a filled outer space and all the atoms that have 5 and more gain electrons until their outer space is filled. However, if an atom needs to give or gain 3 electrons it is kind of hard because the electron still wants to own the third electron and the other atom wants to get the electron. So both electrons "pull" that electron and then you have a positive or a negative charge. If an atom has 4 electrons on the outer space it it very hard to gain or give all the electrons because then there is a positive or negative charge, too.
For me the unit about ions will not be very hard because that was one of the first things we've learned in Germany. In Germany we are still working with ions so i don't have problems with it, also because it is one of the most important themes in chemistry I think.
The next step you could do to improve your knowing about ions is to make some compounds (theoretically) and write down which atom gains electrons and which atom gives electrons. Then you should also write down if the atom is charged positively or negatively.
By Andre Simons
