CLASSIFICATION OF MATTER

(ELEMENTS, COMPOUNDS, MIXTURES)

Substances and Mixtures

Substances are composed of pure elements or chemically bonded elements,

whereas mixtures are composed of nonbonded substances.

Key Points
 Matter can be broken down into two categories: pure substances and mixtures. Pure
substances are further broken down into elements and compounds. Mixtures are physically
combined structures that can be separated into their original components.
 A chemical substance is composed of one type of atom or molecule.
 A mixture is composed of different types of atoms or molecules that are not chemically
bonded.
 A heterogeneous mixture is a mixture of two or more chemical substances where the various
components can be visually distinguished.
 A homogeneous mixture is a type of mixture in which the composition is uniform and every
part of the solution has the same properties.
 Various separation techniques exist in order to separate matter, including include distillation,
filtration, evaporation, and chromatography. Matter can be in the same phase or in two
different phases for this separation to take place.

Key Terms
 mixture: Something that consists of diverse, nonbonded elements or molecules.
 element: A chemical substance that is made up of a particular kind of atom and cannot be
broken down or transformed by a chemical reaction.
 substance: A form of matter that has constant chemical composition and characteristic
properties. It is composed of one type of atom or molecule.

Chemical Substances

In chemistry, a chemical substance is a form of matter that has constant

chemical composition and characteristic properties. It cannot be separated
into components without breaking chemical bonds. Chemical substances can
be solids, liquids, gases, or plasma. Changes in temperature or pressure can
cause substances to shift between the different phases of matter.

An element is a chemical substance that is made up of a particular kind of

atom and hence cannot be broken down or transformed by a chemical
reaction into a different element. All atoms of an element have the same
number of protons, though they may have different numbers of neutrons and
electrons.

A pure chemical compound is a chemical substance that is composed of a

particular set of molecules or ions that are chemically bonded. Two or more
elements combined into one substance through a chemical reaction, such as
water, form a chemical compound. All compounds are substances, but not all
substances are compounds. A chemical compound can be either atoms
bonded together in molecules or crystals in which atoms, molecules, or ions
form a crystalline lattice. Compounds made primarily of carbon and hydrogen
atoms are called organic compounds, and all others are called inorganic
compounds. Compounds containing bonds between carbon and a metal are
called organometallic compounds.

Chemical substances are often called “pure” to set them apart from mixtures.
A common example of a chemical substance is pure water; it always has the
same properties and the same ratio of hydrogen to oxygen whether it is
isolated from a river or made in a laboratory. Other chemical substances
commonly encountered in pure form are diamond (carbon), gold, table salt
(sodium chloride), and refined sugar (sucrose). Simple or seemingly pure
substances found in nature can in fact be mixtures of chemical substances.
For example, tap water may contain small amounts of dissolved sodium
chloride and compounds containing iron, calcium, and many other chemical
substances. Pure distilled water is a substance, but seawater, since it
contains ions and complex molecules, is a mixture.

Chemical Mixtures

A mixture is a material system made up of two or more different substances,

which are mixed but not combined chemically. A mixture refers to the physical
combination of two or more substances in which the identities of the individual
substances are retained. Mixtures take the form of alloys, solutions,
suspensions, and colloids.
 Heterogenous Mixtures

A heterogeneous mixture is a mixture of two or more chemical substances

(elements or compounds) where the different components can be visually
distinguished and easily separated by physical means. Examples include:

 mixtures of sand and water

 mixtures of sand and iron filings
 a conglomerate rock
 water and oil
 a salad
 trail mix
 mixtures of gold powder and silver powder

Interactive: Oil and Water: Explore the interactions that cause water and oil to separate from a
mixture.

Homogenous Mixtures

A homogeneous mixture is a mixture of two or more chemical substances

(elements or compounds) where the different components cannot be visually
distinguished. Often separating the components of a homogeneous mixture is
more challenging than separating the components of a heterogeneous
mixture.

Distinguishing between homogeneous and heterogeneous mixtures is a

matter of the scale of sampling. On a small enough scale, any mixture can be
said to be heterogeneous because a sample could be as small as a single
molecule. In practical terms, if the property of interest is the same regardless
of how much of the mixture is taken, the mixture is homogeneous.
 A mixture’s physical properties, such as its melting point, may differ from
those of its individual components. Some mixtures can be separated into their
components by physical (mechanical or thermal) means.

Elements and Compounds

An element is a material that consists of a single type of atom while a

compound consists of two or more types of atoms.

Key Points
 Elements are the simplest complete chemical substances. Each element corresponds to a
single entry on the periodic table. An element is a material that consists of a single type of
atom. Each atom type contains the same number of protons.
 Chemical bonds link elements together to form more complex molecules called compounds. A
compound consists of two or more types of elements held together by covalent or ionic bonds.
 Elements cannot be divided into smaller units without large amounts of energy. Compounds,
on the other hand, can have their bonds broken with practical amounts of energy, such as the
heat from a fire.
 Matter can be broken down into two categories: pure substances and mixtures. Pure
substances are further broken down into elements and compounds. Mixtures are physically
combined structures that can be separated back into their original components.

Key Terms
 element: Any one of the simplest chemical substances that cannot be changed in a chemical
reaction or by any chemical means. Made up of atoms that all have the same number of
protons.
 chemical bond: Any of several attractive forces that serve to bind atoms together to form
molecules.
 compound: A substance made from two or more elements. Consists of a fixed ratio of
chemically bonded atoms. Has unique properties that are different from the properties of its
individual elements.

Elements

A chemical element is a pure substance that consists of one type of atom.

Each atom has an atomic number which represents the number of protons
that are in the nucleus of a single atom of that element. The periodic table of
elements is ordered by ascending atomic number.

The chemical elements are divided into the metals, the metalloids, and the
nonmetals. Metals, typically found on the left side of the periodic table, are
 often conductive to electricity
 malleable
 shiny
 sometimes magnetic

Aluminum, iron, copper, gold, mercury and lead are metals.

In contrast, nonmetals, found on the right side of the periodic table (to the right
of the staircase), are

 typically not conductive

 not malleable
 dull (not shiny)
 not magnetic

Examples of elemental nonmetals include carbon and oxygen.

Metalloids have some characteristics of metals and some characteristics of

nonmetals. Silicon and arsenic are metalloids.

As of November 2011, 118 elements have been identified (the most recently
identified was ununseptium in 2010). Of these 118 known elements, only the
first 98 are known to occur naturally on Earth. The elements that do not occur
naturally on Earth are the synthetic products of man-made nuclear reactions.
80 of the 98 naturally occurring elements are stable; the rest are radioactive,
which means they decay into lighter elements over timescales ranging from
fractions of a second to billions of years.
Hydrogen and helium are by far the most abundant elements in the universe.
However, iron is the most abundant element (by mass) in the composition of
the Earth, and oxygen is the most common element in the layer that is the
Earth’s crust.

Although all known chemical matter is composed of these elements, chemical

matter itself constitutes only about 15% of the matter in the universe. The
remainder is dark matter, a mysterious substance that is not composed of
chemical elements. Dark matter lacks protons, neutrons, or electrons.

Compounds

Pure samples of isolated elements are uncommon in nature. While the 98

naturally occurring elements have all been identified in mineral samples from
the Earth’s crust, only a small minority of them can be found as recognizable,
relatively pure minerals. Among the more common of such “native elements”
are copper, silver, gold, and sulfur. Carbon is also commonly found in the form
of coal, graphite, and diamonds. The noble gases (e.g., neon) and noble
metals (e.g., mercury) can also be found in their pure, nonbonded forms in
nature. Still, most of these elements are found in mixtures.
 When two distinct elements are chemically combined—i.e., chemical bonds
form between their atoms—the result is called a chemical compound. Most
elements on Earth bond with other elements to form chemical compounds,
such as sodium (Na) and chloride (Cl), which combine to form table salt
(NaCl). Water is another example of a chemical compound. The two or more
component elements of a compound can be separated through chemical
reactions.

Chemical compounds have a unique and defined structure which consists of a

fixed ratio of atoms held together in a defined spatial arrangement by
chemical bonds. Chemical compounds can be

 molecular compounds held together by covalent bonds

 salts held together by ionic bonds
 intermetallic compounds held together by metallic bonds
 complexes held together by coordinate covalent bonds

Pure chemical elements are not considered chemical compounds, even if they
consist of diatomic or polyatomic molecules (molecules that contain only
multiple atoms of a single element, such as H2 or S8).