PS2 Structure of Atom

Structure of an Atom
Atom – the tiniest particles of an element that retains the chemical properties of that elements.
All atoms are made up of the nucleus and electrons. At the center of an atom is the nucleus, which is
composed of protons and neutrons. These two units are collectively called nucleons. The nucleus is orbited by
the atom’s electrons.
After the discovery of X-ray in 1895 by Wilhelm Rontgen, Antoine Becquerel started studying the
fluorescent properties of some substances. He accidentally learned that the darkening of thickly wrapped
photographic plates occurs exposing them to a uranium compound. One of his students, Marie Curie,
proposed the term radioactivity to describe the ability of a material to undergo spontaneous emission of
particles or radiation. Later on, it was found out that three types of ray are produced by the radioactive decay
of materials – alpha, beta and gamma rays.
John Joseph Thomson (1897)

 He presented that electrons have a negative charge.
 He proposed the “Plum Pudding” model of an atom
 Plum – negatively charged electrons

 Pudding – positive charged
 Plum pudding explained the neutrality of an atom.
 It was short-lived and was immediately disproved as more information regarding the atom and its
nature and composition was unearthed.
Ernest Rutherford (1911)
 Gold Foil Experiment
 He used a gold foil in measuring the scattering alpha particles

 He noticed that the most of the alpha particles passed through the foil with little or no deflection; a
few were deflected at wide angles.
 He concluded that most atom is empty, which allowed most of the particles to pass through the foil.
 The Gold Foil experiment in summary that the nucleus is very dense, very small, and positively charged.
 He concluded that the electrons are located outside the nucleus.
Protons and Neutrons

Proton
 The positively charged particle in the nucleus
 The magnitude of the charged of each proton is the same as that of an electron, which is 1.6022 x 10−19
coulombs
 Weighs as much as 1.67262 x 10−24 grams
James Chadwick (1932)

 He proved the presence of neutral subatomic particles, which he named neutrons
 His bombardment a thin sheet of beryllium with alpha particles that led to the emission of a very high-
energy radiation that did not deflect upon the passing through a magnetic field and is thus electrically
neutral.
 He found out that the radiation can knock off protons of a hydrogen atom from a paraffin target and
recoil the proton with great velocity.
 He believed that only particles that the greater in mass than a protons can recoil them from the target.
 He concluded that the radiation consisted of neutral particles that are slightly heavier than protons,
and that these particles are found in the nucleus, together with protons.
Electrons
 It surrounds the nucleus and negatively charged particles
 In series of experiments conducted by Robert Millikan (1900s), he found out that an electron has a
charge equal to -1.6022 x 10−19 coulombs
 The mass of an electron was calculated to be 9.10 x 10−28 grams
 It is considered 1840 times lighter than a proton.
 It is considered elementary particles, because they cannot broken down into smaller subunits.
 The equal number of protons and electrons make an atom electrically neutral and stable.
Niels Bohr (1913)
 He proved the stability of protons and electrons.

 He used the new model in which electrons stay in particular orbits where they do not lose or gain
energy.
 This model served as the beginning of quantum mechanics.
Atomic Number and Mass

Henry Gwyn Jeffreys Moseley
 He experimentally found that different metals bombardment with electrons produced varying
frequencies of X-rays.
 He attributed these results to the differences in the positive charge in the nucleus of the elements.
 He correlated the frequencies to the whole numbers, which he assigned to each element – the atomic
numbers.
Atomic Number
It serves as the identity of an atom. Given the symbol Z, the atomic number refers to the number of
protons in the nucleus of each atom element. In a neutral atom, the number of protons is equal to the number
of electrons. Therefore, the atomic number also indicates the number of electrons in a neutral atom.
Atomic Mass
Given the symbol A, is the total number of neutrons and protons present in the nucleus of an atom of
an element. All atomic nuclei contain both protons and neutrons.
An exception to this is hydrogen, which has one proton but no neutron.
atomic mass = number of protons + number of neutrons
= atomic number + number of neutrons
Dmitry Mendeleev (1869)

 He arranged the elements according to their atomic masses.
 He paved the way to the construction of the present periodic table.
Isotopes
 It is an atoms that have the same atomic number but different atomic masses.
 As an examples, hydrogen has protium, deuterium, and titrium as its isotopes
 It is an isotopes that were first forms of matter after the big bang.
Sample Problem:
The isotopes 40
20 Ca is produced during the stellar evolution. How many protons, neutrons, and electrons
are there in one atom of 40

20 Ca ?
Solution: The atomic number of 40

20 Ca is 20, which is equal to the number of protons. Since it is neutral
atom,
number of protons = number of electrons = 20
number of neutrons = A –Z = 40 -20 =20
Ions
 The isotopes form through nuclear reaction. From term itself, nuclear reactions mainly involve the
nucleus of a particles, which consists of the protons and the neutrons. There are reaction, however,
that involve only the electrons that are found outside the nucleus. These reactions are referred to as
chemical reactions.
 During a chemical reaction, the number of protons remains the same in the atomic nucleus, but the
electrons may be lost by an atom and gained by another. The loss or gain of one or more electrons
leads to the formation of an atom with a net positive or negative charge, respectively. These charged
atoms are generally called ions.
 Cation – a positively charged ion
 Anion – a negatively charged ion
 The charge (q) of an ion is written as a superscript at the right-hand side of the chemical symbol.
 A (+1) or a (-1) charge is normally written as just + of -, respectively.
 AZ X q
 The charge of an ion may be computed using the formula:
q = number of protons – number of electrons.

PS2 Structure of Atom

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Structure of an Atom

John Joseph Thomson (1897)

 Plum – negatively charged electrons

Ernest Rutherford (1911)

 Gold Foil Experiment

 He used a gold foil in measuring the scattering alpha particles

Protons and Neutrons

James Chadwick (1932)

Niels Bohr (1913)

 He proved the stability of protons and electrons.

Atomic Number and Mass

Dmitry Mendeleev (1869)

are there in one atom of 40

Solution: The atomic number of 40

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