Air surrounds us, without oxygen, an important component of air, we would not be able to survive. However, nitrogen constitute a major part of the gasses we breathe in. Other than these two molecules, many others are also present, such as many pollutants like hydrogen cyanide, methane, carbon monoxide. All these particles can be represented with models created by the human mind. Therefore, in order to understand the phenomenon of pollution as well as the idea of breathing, it is very important to know the bases of chemistry.

First of all, it is essential to comprehend the idea that matter is made of atoms. In fact, gas molecules are constituted of elements, which are atoms. In my artwork, I represented them by little spheres or orbital shapes. These two types of representations are models among many others that are imagined by different scientists. They are all useful in different context. However, in my artwork, I chose to put the two mentioned ones because they are more aesthetically appealing thanks to their curvy shapes. Moreover, I wanted to put an emphasis on the fact that all models can be important and none is absolutely right or wrong, which is why I put more than one single representation.

The second idea to understand is that elements display periodicity. This is important because atoms do not bind with each other randomly. Therefore, I decided to put a grey grid and a line of circles with different sizes in the background as a base, one representing the periodic table, the other referring to the different radii of atoms. It is because of this basic idea that some type of molecules of gas exist while others do not. For example, periodicity explains why the oxygen we breathe in is O₂ instead of a one atom of oxygen. In fact, oxygen has 6 valence electrons. As atoms are more stable with a full valence shell, oxygen combine with each other and share electrons. Also, it is at this distance that the potential energy is lower.

This type of combination leads to a third important concept to understand; chemical bonds form when electrons pair. As explained previously, in order to have a full octet in the valence shell, atoms bind together by forming chemical bonds, they pair up electrons and share them. In my artwork, these are shown in three different ways. First, they are represented with little lines between the atoms. Second, they are depicted as two dots between two bigger spheres that are atoms. Finally, they are shown through zigzags between the orbital shapes.

As orbital shapes are mentioned, it is important to know that molecular shape is a crucial feature in chemistry. For instance, water, a component of air, is represented in my artwork with a bent shape. In fact, it is because there are two lone pairs of electrons for oxygen in this case. So, depending on the steric number and the shared paired of electrons, molecules have different shapes.

One can think that I barely represented residual forces between the molecules in my artwork. However, it is not the case. In fact, there is barely any residual forces between molecules in gas states, which allows them to float freely in the air. This is also the reason why my artwork is so spacious; to emphasize the idea that intermolecular force is barely present. Yet, I still represented a hydrogen bonding intermolecular force between the water molecules as these two water molecules in shades of blue depict a water droplet, which is liquid. Therefore, it would make sense that there is intermolecular force between them. It is also because of this strong force that water is liquid at room temperature.

All in all, my artwork is simply a representation of air. It is not how it truly looks like as the molecules of the different gases cannot be this big. Also, the percentage composition of the gases are not taken into account. It is because of this that I decided to use some a mixture of different tone as a background as I think it adds a feeling of fantasy to it.

References

Danet, Andrei. Leonardo da Vinci, University of Bucharest, n.d. web. 12 Dec. 2014.

United State Environment Protection Agency, EPA, n.d. web. 12 Dec. 2014.