DALTON’S ATOMIC THEORY

POSTULATES

 Matter consists of indivisible atoms.

 All the atoms of a given element have identical properties including identical ass. Atoms

of different elements have different masses.

 Chemical reactions involve the reorganization of atoms. Atoms are neither created nor

destroyed in a chemical reaction.

 Compounds are formed when atoms of different elements combine in a fixed ratio.

DRAWBACKS

 Atom is no longer indivisible. It consists of protons, neutrons and electrons.

 This theory failed to explain the nature of the forces that bind the atoms in a compound.

 The theory said that atoms of different elements had different masses. But isotopes of

an element are atoms that belong to the same element (their atomic number is same)

but their masses are different.

 The theory also said that atoms of different elements have different masses. This is not

true in the case of isobars, such as Calcium (Mass no. = 40) and Argon (Mass no. = 40)

 The theory failed to explain Gay Lussac’s Law of Combining Volumes.

 It did not make any distinction between the ultimate particle that has independent

existence during a chemical reaction (atom) and the particle that can exist

independently (molecule).