Element and compounds both are pure chemical substances found in nature. The most significant distinction between an element and a compound is that an element is a substance made up of the same form of atoms, while a compound is made up of multiple elements in particular proportions. Example of the element includes iron, copper, hydrogen, and oxygen, while the example of compounds includes water and salt.
What is an Element?
An element is a material made up of just one form of an atom. A good example is that of the hydrogen atom. The hydrogen atoms have a single proton as well as a single electron. As the number of protons in an atom increases, the element form changes as well.
What is Compound?
A compound refers to substances that form due to a combination of two or more elements that is different from one another. This combination of elements takes place in such a way that the atoms belonging to different types of elements are together by chemical bonds. Such bonds form because of electrons sharing among the particles of the atom. So here this article gives the information about the element and compound to better understand this topic.
Difference between Element And Compound:
- Element is pure substances that are composed of only one type of atom particles, while the compound is substances that are formed by two or more different types of elements that are united chemically in fixed proportions.
- Element is nearly 118 elements of which nearly 94 occur naturally on earth, while the compound is almost endless.
- Some of the examples of elements are iron, copper and gold, etc. While a few examples of compounds are NaOH, NaCl etc.
- Element is classified as either metal, nonmetal, or metalloids, while the compound is classified according to their bonds which can be ionic, molecular, or metallic.
- Elements are represented by symbols and numbers. For example, sodium is represented by Na, while the compound is represented by its chemical formula. For example, the salt is represented by the formula of NaCl.
- Elements can be distinguished by their atomic number, distinguished by their fixed ratio of a different element.
- The element cannot be broken down by chemical reactions. Compounds can be easily separated into simpler substances by some of the chemical reactions.
- As only one type of atom makes up an element, all the properties of that atom are represented by its atom, in the case of compounds, the same type of molecules make up the compounds.