ATOMIC THEORY AND THE

EVOLUTION OF THE
DISCOVERY OF AN ATOM
 List of atomic theories
1.Ancient Greek Beliefs
• All the matter is made up of tiny units called atoms, this was first
proposed by Leucippus and Democritus, the fifth century B.C., that
all matter is made up of tiny units called atoms.
• They tell that these were solid particles without internal structure, and
came in a variety of shapes and sizes. Moreover, they also made some
intangible qualities such as taste and color.
2. Dalton`s Atomic Theory
• English chemist John Dalton subsequently made on
the Greek notion of atoms in 1808.
• He postulated that matter is made of atoms, which
are small indivisible particles.
• He also proposed that while all atoms of one element
are identical, they are totally different from those that
make up other elements.
 3. J.J. Thomson`s Theory
• In 1904, English physicist Joseph J. Thomson proposes the “plum pudding”
theory of the divisible atom. He does so after discovering electrons in 1897.
• His model suggested that atoms consist of a big positively-charge sphere
studded with negatively charged electrons “corpuscles” like fruit in a plum
pudding.
• He put forward that the charge of the positive sphere`s charge is equal to the
negative charges of the electrons. Today we call the positive charged particles
protons and the negative one`s electrons.
4. Rutherford`s Hypothesis
● In 1911, Ernest Rutherford (British physicist) proposed a
nuclear model on atoms.
● An atom in which a nucleus exists.
● In the past, he discovered the part of activity such as the movement
of protons and electrons within the central part of the atom.
● He further hypothesized that the number of protons and electrons
are equals in an atom.
 5. Bohr`s Theory
• In 1913, Danish physicist Niels Bohr proposed a planetary model,
which states that electrons revolve about the nucleus just as the
planets orbit the sun. when the electrons are in orbit, they posses
“constant energy”.
• When these atoms grasp the energy and move into a higher orbit,
this theory refers to them as “excited” electrons. At the time of
returning to their original orbit, they leave this energy as
electromagnetic radiation.
6. Einstein, Heisenberg and Quantum Mechanics
● As far as the earlier theories are concerned, the atom consists of
a central and heavy nucleus centered by a number of electrons.
Earlier theories used to treat electrons, and other tiny particles as
fixed solid “lumps.”
● On the other hand, modern quantum theory specifies them as
statistical “clouds”. Moreover, one can measure their speed
exactly along with their speed exactly along with their locations.
However, we can`t do them at the same time.
 Reintroducing the Atom

English chemist John Dalton brought back

Democritus` ancient idea of the atom. He was
able to demonstrate that atoms actually do
exist, something that Democritus had only
guessed.
Dalton`s Experiments
● He investigated pressure and other properties of gases, which from he
inferred that gases must consist of tiny, individual particles that are in
constant , random motion.
● He researched the properties of compounds, which are substances that
consist of more than one element. He showed that a given compound is
always comprised of the same elements in the same whole-number ratio
and that different compounds consist of different elements or ratios. This
can happen, Dalton reasoned, only if elements are made of separate
discrete particles that cannot be subdivided .
 Atomic Theory
Dalton`s atomic theory consists of three basic ideas:
● All substances are made of atoms. Atoms are the smallest particles of matter.
They cannot be divided into smaller particles, created or destroyed.
● All atoms of the same element are alike and have the same mass. Atoms of
different elements are different and have different mass.
● Atoms join together to form compounds, and a given compound always
consists of the same kinds of atoms in the same proportions.
 The billiard Ball Model
• Dalton thought atoms were the smallest particles of matter, he envisioned them as
solid, hard spheres, like billiard “pool” balls, so he used wooden balls to model them.

• Individual atoms are extremely small; even the largest atom has an approximate
diameter of only 5.4 x 10-10 m. with that size, it takes over 18 million of these atoms,
lined up side by side, to equal the width of your little finger (about 1 cm).
• Dalton`s atomic theory has been largely accepted by the
scientific community, with the exception of three changes.
We know now that,
(1) an atom can be further subdivided,
(2) all atoms of an element are not identical in mass, and
(3) using nuclear fission and fusion techniques, we can
create or destroy atoms by changing them into other
atoms.
• The word atom comes from a Greek word that means “indivisible”,
atoms themselves are composed of smaller parts called subatomic
particles.
• The first part to be considered was the electron, a tiny subatomic
particle with a negative charge. It is often represented as e - .
• Later, two larger particles were discovered . The proton, a subatomic
particle with a positive charge, is a more massive (but still tiny)
subatomic particle with a positive charge, represented as p+ . The
neutron is a subatomic particle with about the same mass as a proton
but no charge. It is represented as either n or n 0. .
 Properties of the Three Subatomic Particles
Name Symbol Mass Mass Charge
(approx.;g) (approx.;amu)

Proton p+ 1.673x10-24 1.0073 +1

Neutron n,n0 1.675x10-24 1.0087 none

Electron e- 9.109x10-28 5.486x10-4 -1

1 amu=1.660539x10-24 or one-twelfth of the mass of a carbon-12 atom.

Electrons are much smaller than protons or neutrons. If an electron was the mass
of a penny, a proton or a neutron would have the mass of a large bowling ball.
 How are these subatomic
particles arranged in atoms?
● Experiments by Ernest Rutherford
in England in the 1910’s pointed to
a nuclear model with atoms that
has the protons and neutrons in a
central nucleus with the electrons
in orbit about the nucleus.
Electronic Structure of Atoms
● In 1913, the Danish scientist Niels Bohr
suggested that the electron in a hydrogen
atom could not have any random energy,
having only certain fixed values of energy
that were indexed by the number n (now
called a quantum number).
● Bohr suggested that the energy of the
electron in hydrogen was quantized because
it was in a specific orbit; much like the
steps on a staircase does not have half or
quarter stairs or the keys on a piano don’t
have notes in between, there are no energy
levels in between each orbit.
● Later researchers generalized Bohr`s ideas into a new theory
called quantum mechanics, which explains the behavior of
electrons as if they were acting as a wave, not as particles.
● Quantum mechanics predicts two major things: (1)
quantized energies for electrons of all atoms (not just
hydrogen) and (2) an organization of electrons within atoms.
● Electrons are no longer thought of as being
randomly distributed around nucleus or restricted
to certain orbits (in that regard, Bohr was wrong).
Instead, electrons are collected into groups
(shells) and subgroups (subshells) that explain
much about the chemical behavior of the atom.
In the quantum-mechanical model of an atom, which is the
modern and currently accepted model, the locations of electrons
in the atom are described by four quantum numbers, not just the
one predicted by Bohr. The first three quantum numbers identify
approximately where electrons are in an atom. The fourth
quantum number describes the electron and whether it is spin up
or down (clockwise or counterclockwise).
 Electron Arrangements: Shells, Subshells, and Orbitals

Electrons are organized according to their energies into sets

called shells (labelled by the principle quantum number, n).
Generally, the higher the energy of a shell, the farther it is (on
average) from the nucleus. Shells do not have specific, fixed
distances from the nucleus, but an electron in a higher-energy
shell will spend more time farther from the nucleus than does an
electron in a lower-energy shell.
Shells are further divided into subsets of electrons called subshells,
labeled by type as s, p, d, or f. The first shell has only one subshell, s.
The second shell has two subshells, s and p; the third shell has three
subshell, s, p, and d, and the fourth shell has four subshells, s, p, d, and f.
Within each subshell, electrons are arranged into different numbers of
orbitals, and s subshells is made up of one s orbital, a p subshell has two
p orbitals, a d subshell, five d orbitals, and an f subshell, seven f orbitals.
Each orbital has a different shape and orientation
around the nucleus however, rather than representing
an orbit, as the name suggests, orbitals define a
boundary for the region of space where a given
electron is most likely to be found. Lastly, a single
orbital can hold up to two electrons each with a
different spin.
Electrons orbitals. (a) The lone s orbital in
an s subshell is spherical in distribution. (b)
The three orbitals have two lobes, shaped
kind of like dumbbells, each is oriented
around the nucleus along a different axis. (c)
The five d orbitals have four lobes, except for
the dz2 orbital, which is a “dumbbell + torus”
combination. They are all oriented indifferent
directions
 Electron Configurations
We use numbers to indicate which shell an electron is in. The first shell,
closest to the nucleus and with the lowest-energy solutions, is shell 1. This
first shell has only one subshell, which is labeled 1s and can hold a
maximum of two electrons. We combine the shell and subshell labels when
referring to the organization of electrons about a nucleus and use a
superscript to indicate how many electrons are in a subshell.
Thus, because a hydrogen atom has its single
electron in the s subshell of the first shell, we
use 1s1 to describe the electron arrangement or
distribution of electrons in hydrogen. This
structure is called an electron configuration
and is unique to hydrogen.
Helium atoms have 2 electrons. Both electrons fit into
the 1s subshell because s subshells contain one s orbital
which can hold up to 2 electrons; therefore, the electron
configuration for helium atoms is 1s2.
The 1s subshell can hold a maximum of 2
electrons, so the electron configuration for a
lithium atom, which has three electrons,
cannot be 1s3. Two of the lithium electrons can
fit into the 1s subshell, but the third electron
must go into the second shell and the lower
energy orbital, which is the 2s orbital.
The shell diagram for a lithium atom. The shell closest to the
nucleus (first shell) has 2 dots representing the 2 electrons in
1s, while the outermost shell (2s) has 1 electron.
There are a set of general rules that are used to figure out the electron
configuration of an atomic species: Aufbau Principle, Hund`s Rule and
the Pauli-Exclusion Principle.
● Rule 1 (Aufbau Principle): Electrons occupy the lowest-energy
orbitals (closest to the nucleus) possible, starting with 1s, then 2s, 2p,
and continuing on to higher energy (further away from the nucleus).
Shells increase in energy in order from 1 to 2 to 3, and so on. Within
these shells, an s subshell is the lowest energy followed by p, then d,
then f.
● Rule 2 (Hund`s Rule): When electrons occupy degenerate orbitals
(i.e. same shell and subshell), they must first singly occupy (half-
fill) each empty orbital in a subshell before double occupying
(completely filling) them. Furthermore, the most stable
configuration results when the spins are parallel (i.e. all spin up or
all spin down). For example, all three p orbitals in a p subshell will
have one electron before a single p orbital contains two electrons.
● Rule 3 (Pauli-Exclusion Principle): Each electron
is described within a unique set of four quantum
numbers (a unique address). Therefore, if two
electrons occupy the same orbital, they must have
different spins. This is the reason all orbitals can
hold a maximum of two electrons.
Continuing on the periodic table to the next largest atom, beryllium,
with 4 electrons, the electron configuration is 1s22s2. Now that the 2s
subshell is filled, electrons in larger atoms, starting with boron, begin
filling the 2p subshell, which can hold a maximum of six electrons.
The next six elements progressively fill up the 2p
subshell:
 B: 1s22s22p1
 C: 1s22s22p2
 N: 1s22s22p3
 O: 1s22s22p4
 F: 1s22s22p5
 Ne: 1s22s22p6
 Noble Gas Configuration
The electron configuration of sodium is 1s22s22p63s1.
The first ten electrons of the sodium atom are the
inner-shell electrons and the configuration of just
those ten electrons is exactly the same as the
configuration of the element Neon (Z=10).
This provides the basis for a shorthand
notation for electron configurations called
the noble gas configuration, which atom
consists of the elemental symbol of the last
noble gas prior to that atom, followed by the
configuration of the remaining electrons.
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