TAMARAH V. ROMERO 8 HOOKE CHEMISTRY ASSIGN.

4 03/12/2024

ATOMIC THEORY
Atomic theory is the scientific theory that matter is composed of particles called atoms.
The concept that matter is composed of discrete particles is an ancient idea, but gained
scientific credence in the 18th and 19th centuries when scientists found it could explain
the behaviors of gases and how chemical elements reacted with each other. By the end of
the 19th century, atomic theory had gained widespread acceptance in the scientific
community.
The term "atom" comes from the Greek word atomos, which means "uncuttable". John
Dalton applied the term to the basic particles of the chemical elements under the
mistaken belief that chemical atoms are the fundamental particles in nature; it was
another century before scientists realized that Dalton's so-called atoms have an
underlying structure of their own. Particles which are truly indivisible are now referred
to as "elementary particles.”

ATOMIC STRUCTURE
The atomic structure of an element refers to the constitution of its nucleus and the
arrangement of the electrons around it. Primarily, the atomic structure of matter is
made up of protons, electrons and neutrons. The protons and neutrons make up the
nucleus of the atom, which is surrounded by the electrons belonging to the atom. The
atomic number of an element describes the total number of protons in its nucleus.

Neutral atoms have equal numbers of protons and electrons. However, atoms may gain
or lose electrons in order to increase their stability, and the resulting charged entity is
called an ion. Atoms of different elements have different atomic structures because they
contain different numbers of protons and electrons. This is the reason for the unique
characteristics of different elements.

ATOMIC MODELS
In the 18th and 19th centuries, many scientists attempted to explain the structure of the
atom with the help of atomic models. Each of these models had its own merits and
demerits and was pivotal to the development of the modern atomic model. The most
notable contributions to the field were by the scientists such as John Dalton, J.J.
Thomson, Ernest Rutherford and Niels Bohr, and Erwin Schrödinger. Their ideas on the
structure of the atom are discussed in this subsection.
 DALTON’S ATOMIC THEORY

The English chemist John Dalton suggested that all matter is made up of atoms, which
were indivisible and indestructible. He also stated that all the atoms of an element were
exactly the same, but the atoms of different elements differ in size and mass.

Chemical reactions, according to Dalton’s atomic theory, involve a rearrangement of

atoms to form products. According to the postulates proposed by Dalton, the atomic
structure comprises atoms, the smallest particle responsible for the chemical reactions
to occur.

The following are the postulates of his theory:

● Every matter is made up of atoms.

● Atoms are indivisible.
● Specific elements have only one type of atom in them.
● Each atom has its own constant mass that varies from element to element.
● Atoms undergo rearrangement during a chemical reaction.
● Atoms can neither be created nor destroyed but can be transformed from one form to
another.

Dalton’s atomic theory successfully explained the Laws of the Chemical Reactions,
namely, the Law of conservation of mass, the Law of constant properties, the Law of
multiple proportions and the Law of reciprocal proportions.

THOMSON’S ATOMIC MODEL

According to the postulates of Thomson's atomic model, an atom resembles a sphere of

positive charge with electrons (negatively charged particles) present inside the sphere.
The positive and negative charge is equal in magnitude and therefore an atom has no
charge as a whole and is electrically neutral. The English chemist Sir Joseph John
Thomson put forth his model describing the atomic structure in the early 1900s.

Thomson's atomic model resembles a spherical plum pudding as well as a watermelon.

It resembles a plum pudding because the electrons in the model look like the dry fruits
embedded in a sphere of positive charge just like a spherical plum pudding.
 RUTHERFORD’S ATOMIC THEORY

Rutherford, a student of J. J. Thomson, modified the atomic structure with the

discovery of another subatomic particle called “Nucleus”. His atomic model is
based on the Alpha ray scattering experiment.

Rutherford’s Structure of Atom

● The nucleus is at the centre of an atom, where most of the charge and mass is
concentrated.
● The atomic structure is spherical.
● Electrons revolve around the nucleus in a circular orbit, similar to the way
planets orbit the sun.

BOHR’S ATOMIC THEORY

Neils Bohr put forth his model of the atom in the year 1915. This is the most widely used
atomic model to describe the atomic structure of an element which is based on Planck’s
theory of quantization. The Bohr Model is a model of an atom. The model was proposed
by physicist Niels Bohr in 1913. In this model, the electrons travel around the nucleus of
an atom in distinct circular orbits, or shells. The model is also referred to as the
planetary model of an atom.

● The electrons inside atoms are placed in discrete orbits called “stationery orbits”.
● The energy levels of these shells can be represented via quantum numbers.
● Electrons can jump to higher levels by absorbing energy and move to lower
energy levels by losing or emitting their energy.
● As long as an electron stays in its own stationery, there will be no absorption or
emission of energy.
● Electrons revolve around the nucleus in these stationary orbits only.
● The energy of the stationary orbits is quantised.

SCHRODINGER’S ATOMIC MODEL

It is known as the "Quantum-Wave Model" and was proposed by Erwin Schrödinger, in
1926, based on the studies of De Broglie, Bohr and Sommerfeld. His model conceives of
electrons as undulations of matter, that is, it describes the wave behavior of the electron.
Schrödinger suggested that the movement of electrons in the atom corresponded to
wave-particle duality, and consequently electrons could move around the nucleus as
standing waves.

SUBATOMIC PARTICLES

Protons

● Protons are positively charged subatomic particles. The charge of a proton is 1e, which
corresponds to approximately 1.602 × 10-19
● The mass of a proton is approximately 1.672 × 10-24
● Protons are over 1800 times heavier than electrons.
● The total number of protons in the atoms of an element is always equal to the atomic number
of the element.

Neutrons

● The mass of a neutron is almost the same as that of a proton, i.e., 1.674×10-24
● Neutrons are electrically neutral particles and carry no charge.
● Different isotopes of an element have the same number of protons but vary in the number of
neutrons present in their respective nuclei.

Electrons

● The charge of an electron is -1e, which approximates to -1.602 × 10-19

● The mass of an electron is approximately 9.1 × 10-31.
● Due to the relatively negligible mass of electrons, they are ignored when calculating the mass
of an atom.

ATOMIC STRUCTURE OF ISOTOPES

Nucleons are the components of the nucleus of an atom. A nucleon can either be a
proton or a neutron. Each element has a unique number of protons in it, which is
described by its unique atomic number. However, several atomic structures of an
element can exist, which differ in the total number of nucleons.
These variants of elements having a different nucleon number (also known as the mass
number) are called isotopes of the element. Therefore, the isotopes of an element have
the same number of protons but differ in the number of neutrons.

The atomic structure of an isotope is described with the help of the chemical symbol of
the element, the atomic number of the element and the mass number of the isotope. For
example, there exist three known naturally occurring isotopes of hydrogen, namely,
protium, deuterium and tritium.

ATOMIC STRUCTURES OF SOME ELEMENTS

Hydrogen - The most abundant isotope of hydrogen on the planet Earth is protium.
The atomic number and the mass number of this isotope are 1 and 1, respectively.

Structure of Hydrogen Atom: This implies that it contains one proton, one electron
and no neutrons (Total number of neutrons = Mass number – Atomic number)

Carbon - Carbon has two stable isotopes – 12C and 13C. Of these isotopes, 12C has
an abundance of 98.9%. It contains 6 protons, 6 electrons and 6 neutrons.

Structure of Carbon Atom: The electrons are distributed into two shells, and the
outermost shell (valence shell) has four electrons. The tetravalency of carbon enables it
to form a variety of chemical bonds with various elements.

Oxygen - There exist three stable isotopes of oxygen – 18O, 17O and 16O. However,
oxygen-16 is the most abundant isotope.

Structure of Oxygen Atom: Since the atomic number of this isotope is 8 and the
mass number is 16, it consists of 8 protons and 8 neutrons. 6 out of the 8 electrons in an
oxygen atom lie in the valence shell.
 Discovery of the Proton
In 1909, Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937) performed a series of experiments studying the
inner structure of atoms using alpha particles. Rutherford knew that alpha particles are
significantly more massive than electrons and positively charged. Using the
plum-pudding model for reference, Rutherford predicted that particles in an alpha beam
would largely pass through matter unaffected, with a small number of particles slightly
deflected. The particles would only be deflected if they happened to come into contact
with electrons. According to the plum pudding model, this occurrence would be very
unlikely. In order to test his hypothesis, Rutherford shot a beam of alpha particles at a
thin piece of gold foil. Around the gold foil Rutherford placed sheets of zinc sulfide.
These sheets produced a flash of light when struck by an alpha particle. However, this
experiment produced results that contradicted Rutherford's hypothesis. Rutherford
observed that the majority of the alpha particles went through the foil; however, some
particles were slightly deflected, a small number were greatly deflected, and another
small number were thrown back in nearly the direction from which they had come.

The Discovery of the Neutron

In 1933, James Chadwick (1891-1974) discovered a new type of radiation that consisted
of neutral particles. It was discovered that these neutral atoms come from the nucleus
of the atom. This last discovery completed the atomic model.

Discovering Electrons

The first cathode-ray tube (CRT) was invented by Michael Faraday (1791-1867). Cathode
rays are a type of radiation emitted by the negative terminal, the cathode, and were
discovered by passing electricity through nearly-evacuated glass tubes. The radiation
crosses the evacuated tube to the positive terminal, the anode. Cathode rays produced
by the CRT are invisible and can only be detected by light emitted by the materials that
they strike, called phosphors, painted at the end of the CRT to reveal the path of the
cathode rays.

https://byjus.com/jee/atomic-structure/ . https://chem.libretexts.org/ , https://www.wikipedia.org/