Why are electrons so important for a chemical change to happen?

Answer 1

All chemical changes are driven by only one force, which is the electromagnetic force described by Coulomb's Law. Atoms contain two kinds of electrically charged particles, positively charged protons and negatively charged electrons. Only the attraction between protons and electrons causes chemical bonds to form. Electrons are attracted not only to the protons in the nucleus of their own atom, but also to the protons in the nuclei of other atoms. Without electrons, we would just have nuclei which would all repel each other, since they are all positively charged. There would then be no chemical bonds, just individual atomic nuclei.