Home > Polyatomic molecule
Polyatomic molecules are molecules in chemistry that consist only of atoms of a single element. Most are nonmetals; in fact, most nonmetals form polyatomic molecules. The majority are diatomic. These elements are so reactive that they will bond with themselves if they cannot bond with anything else. Do not forget that these elements may exist as atoms in other compounds!
These are the most widely accepted polyatomic molecules:
- H2
- N2
- O2, O3 and O4 (O3 is also known as ozone, and O4 spontaneously decomposes into the diatomic form)
- F2
- Cl2
- Br2
- I2
- At2 (theoretically; this element's compounds have not been investigated because of its radioactivity)
- S8
- P4 Because these two elements can (at least in theory) form complex macromolecules with endless numbers of atoms in them, they can also be considered polyatomic molecules.
- CAlternative meaning: Carbon (computing Carbon is a chemical element in the periodic table that has the symbol C and atomic number 6. An abundant nonmetallic, tetravalent element, carbon has several allotropic forms: diamonds (hardest known mineral). Bindix
- SiSilicon is the chemical element in the periodic table that has the symbol Si and atomic number 14. A tetravalent metalloid, silicon is less reactive than its chemical analog carbon. It is the second most abundant element in the Earth's crust, making up 25x (highly unstable) These two do not actually come in varieties with a predictable number of atoms, so an x is used. For silicon and carbon, the 2 molecule form is explosively unstable (because a quadruple covalent bondCovalent bonding is a form of chemical bonding characterized by the sharing of one or more pairs of electrons, by two atoms, in order to produce a mutual attraction, which holds the resultant molecule together. Atoms tend to share electrons in such a way is unstable because of the bending of orbitals), so the only form would be either some complex lattice (eg. a diamondAlternate meanings: Diamond (disambiguation Diamond is one of the natural allotropes of carbon (the main allotrope being graphite; see also allotropes of carbon). The hardest of naturally occurring materials, diamonds cut into multi-faceted shapes are amo) or a cycloalkene or cyclosilene with only double bonds, or some other form with alternating single and triple bonds.
