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Im doing a piece of hmwk on calcium oxide and things i need to include are Physical propertes such as hardness,melting point, boiling point, conduction of heat and electricity. Then i need to explain why this is. E.G. Why does calacium oxide have a high melting poitn??
29 June 2011
You need to look at the structure and properties of the material. Calcium oxide is a solid at room temperature. The bond between Ca 2+ and O 2- is very strong. For calcium oxide to melt, it requires a lot of energy to break these bonds, hence a high melting point. The hardness comes from the crystalline structure of CaO. You will also find that the structure of CaO makes it a poor conductor of both heat and lectricity
29 June 2011
take a look at a diagram of the structure of CaO and you will get an idea why it's atoms are not easily excited into conducting heat. The molecules are really densely packed together - there's not much 'room' for them to move about.
29 June 2011
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