[Tim Chard]

Tim Chard  asked the Naked Scientists:

Hello

I was wondering what would happen to an atom if you slowly took away all its electrons and there were no other electrons to fill their place?

Thanks

Tim

What do you think?

[RD]

(n) plasma ((physical chemistry) a fourth state of matter distinct from solid or liquid or gas and present in stars and fusion reactors; a gas becomes a plasma when it is heated until the atoms lose all their electrons, leaving a highly electrified collection of nuclei and free electrons)

http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=plasma

[Make it Lady]

Not the same as the stuff in your blood though!

[Bored chemist]

Also it's not usually though of as a requirement to lose all the electrons, just as long as most of the atoms have lost at least one. (indeed, by some definitions it's enough that at least some atoms get ionised)

However, it's perfectly possible to strip all the electrons off an atom. The more you take off the harder it is to remove the remaining ones.

[lyner]

Your resulting ion would pretty damn reactive -latch onto anything else it got near.
Alpha particles are a good example of this - they are very strongly ionising - but barely make it through an couple of cms of air.

[Onlyinterestednotdevoted]

Not the same as the stuff in your blood though!

I am very glad that is not in my blood.

[Chemistry4me]

It would be like a very very reactive free radicle except with no electrons