CSIR-CMERI Develops Solar Power Tree for Generation of Electricity from Solar

Energy [ Current Affairs ]

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Solar Power Tree launched by Union Ministry of Science and Technology and Earth
Sciences in New Delhi.
An innovative way to generate electricity by harnessing maximum solar energy in a
limited space.
Union Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences headed by Dr. Harsh
Vardhan.
Features:
1.CSIR-Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-CMERI) developed
Solar Power Tree.
2.Solar Power Tree can harnesses solar energy for producing electricity with an
innovative vertical procedure of solar cells.
3.It reduces requirement of land as compared to predictable Solar Photovoltaic layout.
4.It keeps the land attractiveness and is possible in both rural and urban areas.
5.In a conventional horizontal layout for generating 5 KW it requires 400 square feet of
land.
6.It takes only 4 square feet of land for installing a 5 KW Solar Power tree.
7.It harnesses more sunrays for one hour in a day as photovoltaic panels are placed at
higher height on an average.
8.Solar Power Tree harness up to 10 - 15 % more power in comparison to a
conventional layout on ground.
9.It has a battery back-up of 2 hours on full load.
10.It can give light even after sunset and facilitated with water spray at the top for selfcleaning of panels.
11.It help to increase the efficiency of the solar panels.
CMERI: It is a essential laboratory of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research
(CSIR).

Q. Why mercury is used in thermometer?

A. Mercury is used in thermometers as opposed to water because of a few simple
reasons.
1. While mercury is a liquid, it is doesn't have the same properties as water,
therefore it won't condensate at the top of the thermometer, making the reading of
temperature more accurate.
2. It relies on thermal expansion meaning the molecular bonds will expand with heat
and contract with cold. This is why the mercury fluctuates according to
temperature.
3. It's melting point is -38.83C (water is only 0 C) and doesn't boil until 356.73 C
(water boils at 100 C) which made mercury a better candidate to read temperature
since it's liquid stage goes a lot farther than water.
4. Mercury's silver appearance, makes it easy to read temperatures at just a glance.
Mercury is still used in some thermometers but because of its toxicity levels, it is
gradually being replaced by alcohol or electronic thermometers.

Concept:
Mercury is used in thermometers because it has high coefficient of expansion. Higher the
coefficient of thermal expansion, more sensitive is the material to change in temperature.
Hence, the slightest change in temperature is notable when it's used in a thermometer. So
it is good to measure the small changes in human body temperatures.
Thermal expansion is the tendency of matter to change in volume in response to a change
in temperature, through heat transfer.
The coefficient of thermal expansion describes how the size of an object changes with a
change in temperature. Specifically, it measures the fractional change in size per degree
change in temperature at a constant pressure. Several types of coefficients have been
developed: volumetric, area, and linear.
EXTRA POINTS:
A.also, mercury has a freezing point of -38.83 C and boiling point at 356.7 C, this gives a
very big range to measure temperatures for may general purposes, also it does not stick
to(wet) the capillary wall of the thermometers, and its easy to obtain in its elemental form.
B. It was used very much in thermometers, but now a days it is being phased out as it is
very harmful to humans in it vapor form.

Chemical Bonding and Molecular Structure

What Are Chemical Bonds, and Why Do They Form?
A chemical bond is the result of an attraction between atoms or ions. The types of bonds that a
molecule contains will determine its physical properties, such as melting point, hardness, electrical
and thermal conductivity, and solubility. How do chemical bonds occur? As we mentioned before,

only the outermost, or valence, electrons of an atom are involved in chemical bonds. Lets begin
our discussion by looking at the simplest element, hydrogen. When two hydrogen atoms approach
each other, electron-electron repulsion and proton-proton repulsion both act to try to keep the atoms
apart. However, proton-electron attraction can counterbalance this, pulling the two hydrogen atoms
together so that a bond is formed. Look at the energy diagram below for the formation of an HH

bond.
As youll see throughout our discussion, atoms will often gain, lose, or share electrons in order to
possess the same number of electrons as the noble gas thats nearest them on the periodic table. All
of the noble gases have eight valence electrons (s2p6) and are very chemically stable, so this
phenomenon is known as the octet rule. There are, however, certain exceptions to the octet rule.
One group of exceptions is atoms with fewer than eight electronshydrogen (H) has just one
electron. In BeH2, there are only four valence electrons around Be: Beryllium contributes two
electrons and each hydrogen contributes one. The second exception to the octet rule is seen in
elements in periods 4 and higher. Atoms of these elements can be surrounded by more than four
valence pairs in certain compounds.

Types of Chemical Bonds

Youll need to be familiar with three types of chemical bonds for the SAT II Chemistry exam: ionic
bonds, covalent bonds, and metallic bonds.
Ionic bonds are the result of an electrostatic attraction between ions that have opposite charges;
in other words, cations and anions. Ionic bonds usually form between metals and nonmetals;
elements that participate in ionic bonds are often from opposite ends of the periodic table and have
an electronegativity difference greater than 1.67. Ionic bonds are very strong, so compounds that
contain these types of bonds have high melting points and exist in a solid state under standard
conditions. Finally, remember that in an ionic bond, an electron is actually transferred from the
less electronegative atom to the more electronegative element. One example of a molecule that
contains an ionic bond is table salt, NaCl.
Covalent bonds form when electrons are shared between atoms rather than transferred from
one atom to another. However, this sharing rarely occurs equally because of course no two atoms
have the same electronegativity value. (The obvious exception is in a bond between two atoms of the
same element.) We say that covalent bonds are nonpolar if the electronegativity difference
between the two atoms involved falls between 0 and 0.4. We say they are polar if the
electronegativity difference falls between 0.4 and 1.67. In both nonpolar and polar covalent bonds,
the element with the higher electronegativity attracts the electron pair more strongly. The two bonds
in a molecule of carbon dioxide, CO2, are covalent bonds.

Covalent bonds can be single, double, or triple. If only one pair of electrons is shared, a single
bond is formed. This single bond is a sigma bond (s), in which the electron density is
concentrated along the line that represents the bond joining the two atoms.
However, double and triple bonds occur frequently (especially among carbon, nitrogen, oxygen,
phosphorus, and sulfur atoms) and come about when atoms can achieve a complete octet by sharing
more than one pair of electrons between them. If two electron pairs are shared between the two
atoms, a double bond forms, where one of the bonds is a sigma bond, and the other is a pi bond
(p). A pi bond is a bond in which the electron density is concentrated above and below the line that
represents the bond joining the two atoms. If three electron pairs are shared between the two nuclei,
a triple bond forms. In a triple bond, the first bond to form is a single, sigma bond and the next
two to form are both pi.
Multiple bonds increase electron density between two nuclei: they decrease nuclear repulsion while
enhancing the nucleus-to-electron density attractions. The nuclei move closer together, which means
that double bonds are shorter than single bonds and triple bonds are shortest of all.
Metallic bonds exist only in metals, such as aluminum, gold, copper, and iron. In metals, each
atom is bonded to several other metal atoms, and their electrons are free to move throughout the
metal structure. This special situation is responsible for the unique properties of metals, such as their
high conductivity.

Drawing Lewis Structures

1.

2.

3.
4.

5.

Here are some rules to follow when drawing Lewis structuresyou should follow these simple steps
for every Lewis structure you draw, and soon enough youll find that youve memorized them. While
you will not specifically be asked to draw Lewis structures on the test, you will be asked to predict
molecular shapes, and in order to do this you need to be able to draw the Lewis structureso
memorize these rules! To predict arrangement of atoms within the molecule
Find the total number of valence electrons by adding up group numbers of the
elements. For anions, add the appropriate number of electrons, and for cations, subtract
the appropriate number of electrons. Divide by 2 to get the number of electron pairs.
Determine which is the central atomin situations where the central atom has a
group of other atoms bonded to it, the central atom is usually written first. For example,
in CCl4, the carbon atom is the central atom. You should also note that the central atom
is usually less electronegative than the ones that surround it, so you can use this fact to
determine which is the central atom in cases that seem more ambiguous.
Place one pair of electrons between each pair of bonded atoms and subtract the
number of electrons used for each bond (2) from your total.
Place lone pairs about each terminal atom (except H, which can only have two
electrons) to satisfy the octet rule. Leftover pairs should be assigned to the central
atom. If the central atom is from the third or higher period, it can accommodate more
than four electron pairs since it has d orbitals in which to place them.
If the central atom is not yet surrounded by four electron pairs, convert one or
more terminal atom lone pairs to double bonds. Remember that not all elements form
double bonds: only C, N, O, P, and S!

Example
Which one of the following molecules contains a triple bond: PF3, NF3, C2H2, H2CO, or HOF?

Explanation
The answer is C2H2, which is also known as ethyne. When drawing this structure, remember the
rules. Find the total number of valence electrons in the molecule by adding the group numbers of its
constituent atoms. So for C2H2, this would mean C = 4
2 (since there are two carbons) = 8. Add to

this the group number of H, which is 1, times 2 because there are two hydrogens = a total of 10
valence electrons. Next, the carbons are clearly acting as the central atoms since hydrogen can only
have two electrons and thus cant form more than one bond. So your molecule looks like this: HC
CH. So far youve used up six electrons in three bonds. Hydrogen cant support any more electrons,
though: both Hs have their maximum number! So your first thought might be to add the remaining
electrons to the central carbonsbut there is no way of spreading out the remaining four electrons to
satisfy the octets of both carbon atoms except to draw a triple bond between the two carbons.
For practice, try drawing the structures of the other four compounds listed.

Example
How many sigma (s) bonds and how many pi (p) bonds does the molecule ethene, C 2H4, contain?

Explanation
First draw the Lewis structure for this compound, and youll see that it contains one double bond
(between the two carbons) and four single bonds. Each single bond is a sigma bond, and the double
bond is made up of one sigma bond and one pi bond, so there are five sigma bonds and one pi bond.

Exceptions to Regular Lewis StructuresResonance Structures

Sometimes youll come across a structure that cant be determined by following the Lewis dot
structure rules. For example, ozone (O3) contains two bonds of equal bond length, which seems to
indicate that there are an equal number of bonding pairs on each side of the central O atom. But try
drawing the Lewis structure for ozone, and this is what you get:
We have drawn the molecule with one double bond and one single bond, but since we know that the
bond lengths in the molecule are equal, ozone cant have one double and one single bondthe double
bond would be much shorter than the single one. Think about it again, thoughwe could also draw
the structure as below, with the double bond on the other side:
Together, our two drawings of ozone are resonance structures for the molecule.Resonance
structures are two or more Lewis structures that describe a molecule: their composite represents a
true structure for the molecule. We use the double-directional arrows to indicate resonance and also
bracket the structures or simply draw a single, composite picture.

Lets look at another example of resonance, in the carbonate ion

CO32-:
Notice that resonance structures differ only in electron pair positions, not atom positions!

Example
Draw the Lewis structures for the following molecules: HF, N2, NH3, CH4, CF4, and NO+.