Atoms and Molecules

Each isotope of an atom shares the same atomic number (Z) whereas it differs from the other by its number of neutrons, it has a different mass number (A).

Then each atom contains a set of several isotopes. Moreover, each isotope in an atom has a specific relative abundance in nature. We'll see later the implication of this parameter in the calculation of atomic mass.

In the JPL, atoms and isotopes are thus evaluated differently. Atomic objects are evaluated in a set context compared with isotopes. But both objects implement the same interface JPLIAtom

A molecule is an assembling of atoms. In JPL, molecules can be neutral or charged.

We tried to respect the nomenclature of molecular designation with groups of atom followed by their number of occurrences. We defined a grammar that describe what is an atom or a molecule.

Each query is transmitting through a string that represents a chemical formula.

• Formula := Begin-avg-accuracy ? Group-element+Charge End-avg-accuracy?
• Begin-avg-accuracy := '<'
• End-avg-accuracy := '>'
• Group-element := Element | Group
• Group := '(' Element ')' Number-of-groups
• Number-of-groups := [0-9]+
• Element := Atom-name Number-of-mass? Number-of-atoms
• Atom-name := [A-Z][a-z]?
• Number-of-mass := '[' [0-9]{1,3} ']'
• Number-of-atoms := -?[0-9]+
• Charge := '(' [0-9]* [+-] ')'

We define a single entry point to access atoms and molecules.

The public static method JPLChemicalFacade.getMolecule(String formula) returns a molecule or throws a parse exception if the given formula is not recognized.

Atoms and isotopes are also accessible from this class through static methods getAtom(String name), getIsotope(String name, int massNumber) or getElement(String element).

Through those static methods we ensure to control their instanciation. And as such, every instance of atoms, isotopes and molecules are unique.

Atoms and isotopes express a slight difference concerning their mass evaluation in the JPL.

• Each mass of atom has been averaged over all its isotopes.
• Each mass of isotope is directly evaluated.

The presence of isotopes at their natural abundances makes it essential to define whether our molecular mass value is an "average" value, equivalent to taking the average of all isotopic masses considering their relative abundance, or a "monoisotopic" value, the mass of the most abundant isotope.

When considering the mass of molecule we have to decide a priori what kind of atom or isotope we have.

Any formula is implicitly evaluated in a monoisotopic context. That means the returned molecule will be composed of isotopes only ! See below for an average evaluation.

For instance CH3 is evaluated as C[12]H[1]3. A call to getMass() on this molecule will returns the sum of all isotopic mass.

To define a mass average context, you will have to surround your formula with diamonds '<' and '>'. For instance <CH3> specify that each molecular element will correspond to the specific atom (and not the isotope). You can see all the grammar above.

CH3, H2O, C2H6OH, OH(-), H3O(+), CH2, O[16]H(-), CH3(CH2)2O(CH2)3OH(-), <C[13]2H-3ON-1(2+)>