0
Basically, the electron shells in an insulator are complete. That means they are not prone to donating any of their electrons and also cannot accept any further electrons from the material external to the insulator. As such insulators aren't waystations for electrons looking to move (conduct). There's a bit more to it. Consider, for example, Carbon (column IV) which, at least in diamond form, is an outstanding insulator. It's the CRYSTAL, the diamond, that has the aforementioned "shell completeness". Pure Silicon (also column IV) has the same characteristic behavior. You can change these pure crystals from insulators to semi-conductors and then conductors by adding increasing amounts of impurities to the crystal, such as atoms from Columns III and V. To carry this further, while Sodium (Na) is a conductor, PURE Sodium Chloride (NaCl, common salt) is an excellent insulator. (Again, with impurities added, it becomes a poorer insulator and better conductor.) It's the crystal's electron shell structure that's complete. HOWEVER, common salt, NaCl, is very soluble in water. So, while pure water is a poor conductor, a common salt solution becomes highly conductive. When salt crystals are dissolved copious amounts of imbalanced ions are ready to donate or accept electrons. More simply: The outer shell of a conductive atom has 3 or less electrons in its outer shell, semi-conductive atom has 4, and an insulating atom has 5 or more.
Wiki User
∙ 15y ago
Add your answer:
Earn +20 pts
Why the semiconductor behave like a insulator as a zero?
O K is absolute zero. At absolute zero, the electrons of the semi conductors are trapped and are immovable from their electron shell as they are in a low energy state. This makes the pure semiconductor an insulator. One must heat the semiconductor to give the electrons enough energy to move to free them from their electron shell, and thus conduct.
When did insulation paper on sockets become out dated?
The last I remember seeing cardboard lamp socket shell insulation was the late 50's or early 60"s. Going on the internet it looks like they can still be bought today for special applications. Once PVC became prevalent as an insulator in the electrical trade, the cardboard insulators were phased out.
Why intrinsic semiconductors behave like insulator at low temperature?
at low temperature its forbidden gap is very large so it act as a insulater.
What is 7 trillion electron volts in mains voltage?
They're different things. An "electron volt" is not the same as a "volt". An "electron volt" is an amount of energy. It's the work you have to do in order to lift one electron to a place that's 1 volt more negative, and also the amount of energy that one electron loses when it falls to a place that's 1 volt more positive. "1 joule" of energy is the amount of energy you pay for if you use 1 watt for 1 second, and that's about 6,250,000,000,000,000,000 electron volts of energy. If you use 1,000 watts for 1 hour, you pay for 1 kilowatt-hour of energy. That's about 22,500,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 electron volts of energy, or 3.6 million joules. It costs around 15¢ to 25¢ in most places. The "7 trillion electron volts" in the question is something like the amount of energy that you'd have to pay for if you used 1 watt for 0.00000112 second. It's not much.
What is the Difference between dielectric and insulator?
The difference between dielectric and insulator lies in its field of application.Dielectrics are used to store the electric charges, while insulators are used to block the flow of electric charges ( they more or less act like a wall).While all dielectrics are insulators (they don't allow the flow of electric charges through them) all insulators aren't dielectric because they can't store charges unlike dielectrics.
Why the semiconductor behave like a insulator as a zero?
O K is absolute zero. At absolute zero, the electrons of the semi conductors are trapped and are immovable from their electron shell as they are in a low energy state. This makes the pure semiconductor an insulator. One must heat the semiconductor to give the electrons enough energy to move to free them from their electron shell, and thus conduct.
Is an electron capture like beta decay?
Yes, when a proton in the nucleus captures an electron from the innermost shell (K shell) it is considered a form of antibeta decay.
What element that has 1 electron?
Hydrogen has 1 electron in its outer shell. other elemnts also have just one electron in their outer shell, the alkali metals, group1; lithium, sodium potassium, rubidium, caesium, frankium the coinage metals, group 11; copper, silver, gold
How many electrons would be expected in the outer most shell of an atom with an atomic number of 10?
Given what we know about electron structure, we would expect there to be 8 electrons in the outer shell of an atom with the atomic number of 10. And that's how many there are. Element 10 is neon, and like all noble or inert gases, it has a full outer shell.There are only two electron shells for all the elements up through element 10 (neon). The first shell will only accept 2 electrons. That's the s shell, and it's the outer shell (and the only shell) for helium (the lightest inert gas). The next 8 electrons will fill the second electron shell, which is the p shell. That means element 10 (the inert gas neon) will have a full s shell (2 electrons) and a full p shell (8 electrons).
How can metal elements achieve a stable electron-shell structure like those of the noble gases?
Covalent bonding
Would like two examples of an electric insulator?
polythene and perspex
Why does a lithium atom develop a positive charge?
Lithium only needs to lose one electron (and thus become positive) to achieve the same electron configuration as Helium which is extremely stable. The other option would be to gain 7 electrons to become like Neon which would be very energetically unfavorable.
What type of element is most stable and chemically inactive?
It can be chemically inactive if the outer electron shell, or ring, has 8 electrons on it. For example, most of the noble gases have 8 electrons on the outer electron shell, such as neon.I think...It really is when the outer shell of the atom is complete:In case of the first shell it would need 2electrons to be complete.In case of the second shell it would need 8 electrons to be complete.In case of the third shell it would need 18 electrons to be complete.In case of the fourth shell it would need 32 electrons to be complete.that's what I think it is. Hope it's useful ! :)
Argon is the last element in the period.What does this tell you in about argon?
Argon, like all of the "noble" gases, has a full electron shell.
Why are the alkali metals and the hologens very reactive?
Alkali metals have only 1 electron in their outermost (ultimate) shell. This means the atom needs energy to loose only one electron to have a completely filled outermost shell. Other atoms with 2 or 3 electrons would have needed more than twice or thrice the energy than these to loose electrons. Hence alkali metals are highly reactive compared to others. Like alkali metals, who need to LOOSE 1 electron to have a completely filled outermost shell, halogens need to GAIN 1 electron to have a completely filled outermost shell. With the same theory mentioned above, they are highly reactive.
How many electrons are in the outermost energy level of a sodium atom?
There's only one. Because of this it is very easy for sodium to lose that one electron so that it can have a full electron shell like that of neon. Sodium's first shell has two electrons, and it's second shell has 8 electrons.
What does the Shell model look like for Potassium Chloride?
A shell model is an electron configuration. The shell model for Potassium has two electrons on the first ring, eight on the second ring, eight on the third ring, and one on the fourth ring.
