vrus Posted September 30, 2005 Share Posted September 30, 2005 Can ions exist on their own ? ( In terms of stripping off or adding electrons to elements ) Will they combine with things in the air ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
insane_alien Posted September 30, 2005 Share Posted September 30, 2005 well if the ion is on its own then there wont be any air to combine with it would be in a vacuum. yes they can exist on their own Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vrus Posted October 1, 2005 Author Share Posted October 1, 2005 Can you give me an example of them existing on their own ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mezarashi Posted October 1, 2005 Share Posted October 1, 2005 Can you give me an example of them existing on their own ? There's no reason why ions can't "exist on their own". They won't interact "specially" with the air. The question's a little ambigious but I'll take it as whether you can find ions in nature. Ions are charged, meaning that they will tend to be attracted to other things around. There necessarily needs to be opposite ions to counter this. In nature, you find ions dissolved in water as the disassociation of a neutral molecule. It would be rather difficult to find large amounts of ions elsewhere because of charge buildups. In the laboratory of course this isn't a problem. Charged ions are used all the time like in mass spectroscopy or for wafer milling like in focused ion beam systems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vrus Posted October 3, 2005 Author Share Posted October 3, 2005 So these ions are'nt dangerous to us ? I mean what about alpha radiation, it is basically a Helium ion and if it penetrates, its trouble ! Thats the example i couldn't understand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
insane_alien Posted October 3, 2005 Share Posted October 3, 2005 if you were bombarded by a suficient amount of ions it could kill you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akcapr Posted October 4, 2005 Share Posted October 4, 2005 nice- ive got anew idea for my laser gun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mezarashi Posted October 4, 2005 Share Posted October 4, 2005 So these ions are'nt dangerous to us ? I mean what about alpha radiation, it is basically a Helium ion and if it penetrates, its trouble ! Thats the example i couldn't understand. No, ions floating around are not "dangerous", although the effect of prolonged exposure to rather unnatural substances is unknown to me. What makes alpha particles dangerous is that when they are produced, they are usually come with high kinetic energy. High kinetic energy means they are able to penetrate atomic nuclei and thus mess up your cell's DNA, which will eventually kill you in sufficient doses. An ion gun for example will probably kill you as well if you touch it at the wrong place... that's because they are usually charged at say in the thousands if not sometimes millions of electron volts. It's the transfer of energy that's scary, not the ion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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