Question

How do atoms become ions?

Answer 1

Hint: An ion is formed when the isolated gaseous atom either gains the electrons or loses the electrons and forms negative and positive ions respectively. Now you can easily answer the given statement.

Complete step by step answer:
Atoms are the smallest particles of an element. An atom consists of a large number of particles i.e. electrons, protons and neutrons.
The center of the atom is occupied by a large solid mass which is known as the nucleus of the atom. The electrons revolve around the nucleus in fixed orbits.
The protons and neutrons are present inside the nucleus and the number of electrons present in an atom depends upon the number of protons present in the nucleus.
Now considering the statement as;
Ions are formed when atoms lose or gain the electrons. So, thus ions are of two types;- positively charged ions and negatively charged ions.
In other words, we can say that when an isolated gaseous atom gains electrons, it results in the formation of the negatively charged ions. Such ions formed carry the negative charge due to the presence of one extra electron in their octet.
On the other hand, when an isolated gaseous atom loses electrons, it results in the formation of positively charged ions. Such ions formed carry the positive charge due to the absence of electrons in their octet.

Note: Protons are the positively charged particles of the atom, electrons are the negatively charged particles of the atom and neutrons are the neutral particles of the atom i.e., they do not carry any charge.