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The attraction of low-energy free protons to any electrons present in normal matter (such as the electrons in normal atoms) causes free protons to stop and to form a new chemical bond with an atom. Such a bond happens at any sufficiently "cold" temperature (that is, comparable to temperatures at the surface of the Sun) and with any type of atom.
The electrons are negatively charged, and this opposing charge is what binds them to the nucleus. If the numbers of protons and electrons are equal, as they normally are, then the atom is electrically neutral as a whole. If an atom has more electrons than protons, then it has an overall negative charge and is called a negative ion (or anion ...
When the number of electrons and the number of protons are equal, their charges cancel each other and the object is said to be electrically neutral. A macroscopic body can develop an electric charge through rubbing, by the triboelectric effect. [133] Independent electrons moving in vacuum are termed free electrons. Electrons in metals also ...
At a microscopic level, the constituent "particles" of matter such as protons, neutrons, and electrons obey the laws of quantum mechanics and exhibit wave–particle duality. At an even deeper level, protons and neutrons are made up of quarks and the force fields that bind them together, leading to the next definition.
All commonly observable matter is composed of up quarks, down quarks and electrons. Owing to a phenomenon known as color confinement, quarks are never found in isolation; they can be found only within hadrons, which include baryons (such as protons and neutrons) and mesons, or in quark–gluon plasmas.
Electrons are assigned to subshells in order of increasing value of n + l. For subshells with the same value of n + l, electrons are assigned first to the subshell with lower n. A version of the aufbau principle known as the nuclear shell model is used to predict the configuration of protons and neutrons in an atomic nucleus. [1]
It is the force that binds electrons to atoms, and it holds molecules together. It is responsible for everyday phenomena like light , magnets , electricity , and friction . Electromagnetism fundamentally determines all macroscopic, and many atomic-level, properties of the chemical elements .
A Proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) is a chemical reaction that involves the transfer of electrons and protons from one atom to another. The term was originally coined for single proton, single electron processes that are concerted, [1] but the definition has relaxed to include many related processes.