Introduction
Electricity is one of the today’s most useful sources of energy. Electricity is of utmost necessity in the modern world of sophisticated equipment and machinery. Electricity in motion is called electric current. Whereas the electricity that does not move is called static electricity.
Examples of static electricity
• Shock received from door knobs of a carpeted room.
• Attraction of tiny paper bits to the comb.
Structure of matter
Electricity is related to some of the most basic building blocks of matter that are atoms (electrons and protons). All matter is made of these electrical building blocks, and, therefore, all matter is said to be ‘electrical’.
Atom
Matter is defined as anything that has mass and occupies space. A matter is made of tiny, invisible particles called molecules. A molecule is the smallest particle of a substance that has the properties of the substance. Each molecule can be divided into simpler parts by chemical means. The simplest parts of a molecule are called atoms. Basically, an atom contains three types of sub-atomic particles that are of relevance to electricity. They are the electrons, protons and neutrons. The protons and neutrons are located in the centre, or nucleus, of the atom, and the electrons travel around the nucleus in orbits.
Atomic structure
The Nucleus
The nucleus is the central part of the atom. It contains the protons and neutrons in equlal numbrs shown in Fig 1.
Protons
The proton has a positive electrical charge. (Fig 1) It is almost 1840 times heavier than the electron and it is the permanent part of the nucleus; protons do not take an active part in the flow or transfer of electrical energy.
Electron
It is a small particle revolving round the nucleus of an atom (as shown in Fig 2). It has a negative electric charge. The electron is three times larger in diameter than the proton. In an atom the number of protons is equal to the number of electrons.
Neutron
A neutron is actually a particle by itself, and is electrically neutral. Since neutrons are electrically neutral, they are not too important to the electrical nature of atoms.
Energy shells
In an atom, electrons are arranged in shells around the nucleus. A shell is an orbiting layer or energy level of one or more electrons. The major shell layers are identified by numbers or by letters starting with ‘K’ nearest the nucleus and continuing alphabetically outwards. There is a maximum number of electrons that can be contained in each shell. Fig 3 illustrates the relationship between the energy shell level and the maximum number of electrons it can contain.
Electron distribution
The chemical and electrical behaviour of atoms depends on how completely the various shells and sub-shells are filled. Atoms that are chemically active have one electron more or one less than a completely filled shell. Atoms that have the outer shell exactly filled are chemically inactive. They are called inert elements. All inert elements are gases and do not combine chemically with other elements.
Metals possess the following characteristics :
• They are good electric conductors.
• Electrons in the outer shell and sub-shells can move more easily from one atom to another.
• They carry charge through the material.
The outer shell of the atom is called the valence shell and its electrons are called valence electrons. Because of their greater distance from the nucleus, and because of the partial blocking of the electric field by electrons in the inner shells, the attracting force exerted by nucleus on the valence electrons is less. Therefore, valence electrons can be set free most easily. Whenever a valence electron is removed from its orbit it becomes a free electron. Electricity is commonly defined as the flow of these free electrons through a conductor. Though electrons flow from negative terminal to positive terminal, the conventional current flow is assumed as from positive to negative.
Conductors, insulators and semiconductors
Conductors : A conductor is a material that has many valance electrons permitting electrons to move through it easily. Generally, conductors have many valence shells of one, two or three electrons. Most metals are conductors. Some common good conductors are Copper, Aluminium, Zinc, Lead, Tin, Eureka, Nichrome, are conductors, where as silver and gold are very good conductors
Insulators : An insulator is a material that has few, if any, free electrons and resists the flow of electrons. Generally, insulators have full valence shells of five, six or seven electrons. Some common insulators are air, glass, rubber, plastic, paper, porcelain, PVC, fibre, mica etc.
Semiconductors : A semiconductor is a material that has some of the characteristics of both the conductor and insulator. Semiconductors have valence shells containing four electrons. Common examples of pure semiconductor materials are silicon and germanium. Specially treated semiconductors are used to produce modern electronic components such as diodes, transistors and integrated circuit chips.
