Your initial post in the discussion this week consists of two parts. First, choose a molecule used in healthcare, industry, or found in a natural source and discuss the importance of this molecule. Be sure to include at least one outside source, and make sure to follow APA citation guidelines.
The electron configuration of an atom determines the number of electrons available to participate in bonding with another atom. One method of depicting the valence electrons that an atom has is through the Lewis structure. For the second part of your initial post, pick an element from the periodic table of elements. Identify the valence electrons and the orbitals in which they reside.
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One molecule used in healthcare is penicillin, which is a group of antibiotics derived from the fungus Penicillium. The importance of penicillin lies in its ability to inhibit bacterial cell wall synthesis, which makes it effective in treating various bacterial infections. According to a study by Jones, E., & Fillmore, D. J. (2013), penicillin works by binding to the enzymes responsible for building the bacterial cell wall, thereby preventing the synthesis of the cell wall and leading to cell death.
Reference:
Jones, E., & Fillmore, D. J. (2013). Penicillin and derivatives. In Comprehensive Heterocyclic Chemistry III (pp. 1–28). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-008095843-906700-X
For the second part of the initial post, let's consider carbon (C) from the periodic table of elements. Carbon is located in group 14 of the periodic table, and its electron configuration is 1s^2 2s^2 2p^2. Thus, carbon has 4 valence electrons. These valence electrons reside in the 2s and 2p orbitals. The 2s orbital can hold a maximum of 2 electrons, while each of the three 2p orbitals (2px, 2py, and 2pz) can hold 2 electrons each, bringing the total to 4 valence electrons.
Reference:
Dresselhaus, M. S., Dresselhaus, G., & Jorio, A. (2012). Group IV: Select Group IV. In Group IV Elements, IV-IV and III-V Compounds. Part a - Lattice Properties (Vol. 41B, pp. 217–321). Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-044453799-90210-2