Almost everyone saw an advertisement for the so-called "Chizhevsky chandelier", from which negative ions in the air increase quantitatively. However, after school, not everyone remembers the very definition of a concept. Ions are charged particles that have lost their neutrality characteristic of normal atoms. And now a little more.
"Wrong" atoms
As you know, the number in the table of the great Mendeleev is related to the number of protons in the nucleus of an atom. Why not electrons? Because the number and completeness of electrons, although it affects the properties of an atom, it does not determine its fundamental properties associated with the nucleus. There may not be enough electrons, or there may be too many. Ions are just atoms with the “wrong” number of electrons. Moreover, paradoxically, those with a lack of electrons are called positive, and an excess is called negative.
A little bit about the names
How do ions arise? This is a simple question - there are only two ways of education. Either the chemical path or the physical one. The result can be a positive ion, which is often called a cation, and a negative, respectively, anion. A single atom or a whole molecule, which is also considered an ion of a special polyatomic type, can have a deficit or excess charge.
The pursuit of stability If there is ionization of a medium, for example, a gas, then in it there are quantitatively proportional ratios of electrons and positive ions. But such a phenomenon is rare (during a thunderstorm, near a flame), gas in such an altered state does not exist for long. Therefore, in general, air ions capable of reaction are close to the earth - a rarity. Gas is a very fast changing environment. As soon as the action of ionizing factors ceases, the ions meet with each other and again become neutral atoms. This is their normal condition.
Aggressive fluid
Ions in large quantities can be found in water. The fact is that water molecules are particles in which the electric charge is distributed unevenly throughout the molecule; they are dipoles with a positive charge on the one hand and a negative charge on the other.
And when a soluble substance appears in water, water molecules at their poles electrically act on the added substance, ionizing it. A good example is seawater, in which many substances exist in a form such as ions. This is known to people for a long time. In the atmosphere above a certain point of ions there are a lot of ions, this shell is called the ionosphere.
Solar radiation destroys stable atoms and molecules. Particles in the ionized state can give
unusual colors to the whole substance. An example - bright unusual colors of precious stones.
Ions are the basis of life, because the basic process of obtaining energy from ATP is impossible without the creation of electrically unstable particles, the cellular respiration itself is based on the interactions of ions and many chemical processes catalyzed by enzymes, only due to ionization. It is not surprising that a person takes some substances in this state inside. A classic example is useful silver ions.