Chapter 4

Atoms and Light

(Sections 4.1– 4.7)
Sections 4.1 and 4.7 are for self-
study.
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This presentation contains some High

School Review material and will not be
covered in class. You do not have to
memorize the dates of the discoveries
and the descriptions of the experiments.

Elena Smirnova
 Chapter 4 Atoms and Light
3

4.1 Characteristics of Atoms

Key Points: Atoms have mass and occupy volume.
Atoms contain a positive nucleus and negative
electrons

The images are used with

permissions of:
John Wiley & Sons Canada Ltd.

Elena Smirnova
 Why do we need to study this material?
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Substances are in their simplest identifiable

form at the atomic, ionic, or molecular level.
Further division produces a loss of
characteristic properties.

Elena Smirnova
Why do we need to study this material?
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 All the explanations of chemical phenomena are

expressed in terms of atoms.
 The structure of atoms can be understood in
terms of quantum mechanics, the theory of
matter, in which the properties of particles and
waves merge together.

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 4.1 Characteristics of Atoms
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 Atoms:
Matter possesses mass,
so atoms possess mass
(recognized in John Dalton’s time).
Atoms are simple units of matter,
and molecules are units of matter
consisting of combinations of atoms.

Elena Smirnova
 Dalton’s Theory (Review)
A Summary of Dalton’s Atomic Theory:
1) An element is composed of tiny, indivisible,
indestructible particles called atoms.
2) All atoms of an element are identical and have the same
properties.
3) Atoms of different elements combine to form
compounds.
4) Compounds contain atoms in small whole number ratios.
5) Atoms can combine in more than one ratio to form
different compounds.
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Elena Smirnova
 Dalton’s Atomic Theory

 The first two parts of Dalton’s theory were later proven

incorrect.
 Proposals 3, 4, and 5 are still accepted today.
 Dalton’s theory was an important step in the further
development of atomic theory.
 Dalton’s postulate that atoms are indivisible was
disproved about a century ago.

Elena Smirnova
 4.1 Characteristics of Atoms
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 Atoms:
Contain positive nuclei

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 Ernest Rutherford’s Experiment
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In 1911 Ernest Rutherford in England conducted the

following experiment:
A thin foil of gold was bombarded with a stream of fast-
moving positive ions of helium (alpha particles).
Rutherford observed that most of the particles pass
through the foil with little or no deflection.
However, a small number of the alpha particles were
deflected significantly from their pass and a few even
came straight back.

Elena Smirnova
Ernest Rutherford’s Experiment
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Elena Smirnova
 Rutherford’s Conclusions
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 Atom is mostly empty space because almost all the

particles went straight through.
 Atom contains a dense particle that was small in
volume compared to the atom but large in mass because
of the few particles that bounced back.
 This dense particle was positively charged because of
the large deflections of some of the particles.
Rutherford called this positively charged mass the
nucleus of the atom.

Elena Smirnova
 4.1 Characteristics of Atoms
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 Atoms:
Contain electrons

Elena Smirnova
 Cathode Ray Tubes
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In 1897 the British physicist Sir J.J.Thomson performed

the following experiment:
the air was evacuated from a sealed glass tube which
contained a positive (anode) and a negative (cathode)
electrodes from a high voltage source.

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 Cathode Ray Tubes
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cathode anode

Elena Smirnova
 Discovery of Electrons
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When the high voltage current was turned on, the glass
tube emitted a greenish light, caused by the interaction
of the glass with cathode rays.
The cathode rays move toward the anode through a hole to
form a beam.
Although cathode rays are not directly visible, the beam is
seen when it falls on a luminescent card placed inside of
the glass tube.

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 Cathode ray typically travel in a straight line, but in a

magnetic field the path is bent, indicating that the

particles are charged.

 Beam can be observed to bent according to the voltage

applied to the conducting plates placed above and below

the luminescent card.

Elena Smirnova
 In an electric field the path bents toward the
positive plate.
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 Thomson also demonstrated that the characteristics of

cathode rays are independent of the material making

up the cathode.

 He concluded that a cathode ray consist of a beam of

negatively charged particles or electrons and that

electrons are constituents of all matter.

Elena Smirnova
 Thomson’s Results
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 The charge/mass of these particles was -1.76 × 108 C/g
implied that the cathode ray particle was about 2000
times lighter that hydrogen atom, the lightest known
atom.
 Thomson could not obtain the mass and the charge
separately.
 In 1909 the US physicist Robert Millikan found the
charge on the electron to be 1.60210-19 coulomb (C) ,
which is a unit of electric charge.

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 Atoms themselves have no net electric charge, so they

must contain positive charges that counterbalance the

negative charge of the electrons.

 Each element has a unique positive charge

associated with its nucleus.

 Different elements have different number of protons and

electrons.
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 4.1 Characteristics of Atoms
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• Atoms:
 attract one another

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The atoms, ions and molecules in the condensed phases

(liquid and solid) “stick together”.

The magnitude of these forces at a particular

temperature determines the physical state of a
compound.

The, so called, intermolecular forces will be

discussed in Chapter 8.
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 4.1 Characteristics of Atoms
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 Atoms:
 combine to form molecules

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All the elements of the periodic table, except for

some noble gases, interact with other elements to form

compounds.

Chemical bonding will be discussed in Chapters 6 and

7.

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 Subatomic Particles
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Reconsidered

 Based on the heaviness of the nucleus, Rutherford

predicted that it must contain neutral particles in

addition to protons.

 Neutrons, n0, were discovered about 30 years later by

James Chadwick.

Elena Smirnova
 Summary

An atom is an electrically neutral, spherical entity

composed of a positively charged central nucleus
surrounded by one or more negatively charged electrons.
If the nucleus is 1 cm, the atom is 100 m!
 Summary

The nucleus contributes 99.97 % of atom’s mass and is

incredibly dense: 1014 g/cm3.

The electrons move rapidly through the available

atomic volume, held there by the attraction of the
nucleus.
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Elena Smirnova
 Summary
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An atomic nucleus consists of protons and neutrons.

Thus, the positive charge of the nucleus results from the
combined charges of its protons.

The number of protons in the nucleus of an atom of

any element is equal to the atomic number of that

element in the periodic table.

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 Isotopes are atoms of the same element whose nuclei

contain different numbers of neutrons.

 Protons and neutrons, the elementary particles that

make up the nucleus, are collectively called nucleons.

 Electrons are found outside the nucleus in certain energy

levels. In these levels the electrons are dispersed at a

relatively great distance from the nucleus.

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If the number of electrons in an atom does not equal the

number of protons, the atom is positively or negatively
charged and exists as an ion.

The proton, neutron and electron are stable and long

lived and are the most important in chemistry.

Elena Smirnova
 Example 4 – 1 Atomic Volumes
Example of a “backwards
32
reasoning” solution

Compare the following solution with the one given in the

textbook.

The density of lithium, the lightest metal, is 0.534 g/cm3.

Estimate the volume occupied by a single atom in solid

lithium.
You can think about problems in reverse to help sort out
a strategy. Going backwards:
Elena Smirnova
 Example 4 – 1 Atomic Volumes
An alternative solution
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 Volume of a single atom = Volume of the Avogadro’s

number of atoms/Avogadro’s number

(the volume of the Avogadro’s number of atoms is called

a Molar volume);

 Volume of a single atom = Molar volume /Avogadro’s

number

Elena Smirnova
 Example 4 – 1 Atomic Volumes
An alternative solution
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 Volume can be found from density

 = Density = mass/volume

Since the density, , is an intensive property, it is

also equal to the mass of one mole of lithium (or the

molar mass of Li) divided by the Molar volume of

lithium:  = 0.534 g/cm3 = 6.941 g/mol/Molar volume

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 From this step we can determine the Molar volume:

Vmolar = 6.941 g/mol/0.534 g/cm3 = 13.00 cm3/mol

Now we can complete the first step:

Volume of a single atom =

13.00 cm3/mol/6.022 1023 atom/mol =

2.16 10─23 cm3/atom

Elena Smirnova
Review: Which of these atoms has the greatest
number of neutrons in its nucleus?
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56-25=31 57-27=30 55-26=29

56-28=28 28-14=14 (Mn does!)

Elena Smirnova