ATOMIC STRUCTURE

Although the idea of the atom was first suggested by Democritus in the fourth century
BC, his suppositions were not useful in explaining chemical phenomena, because there
was no experimental evidence to support them. It was not until the late 1700's that early
chemists began to explain chemical behavior in terms of the atom. Joseph Priestly,
Antoine Lavoisier, and others set the stage for the foundation of chemistry. They
demonstrated that substances could combine to form new materials. It was the English
chemist, John Dalton, who put the pieces of the puzzle together and developed an
atomic theory in 1803.

Dalton's atomic theory contains five basic assumptions:

 All matter consists of tiny particles called atoms. Dalton and others
imagined the atoms that composed all matter as tiny, solid spheres in various
stages of motion.
 Atoms are indestructible and unchangeable. Atoms of an element cannot
be created, destroyed, divided into smaller pieces, or transformed into atoms
of another element. Dalton based this hypothesis on the law of conservation
of mass as stated by Antoine Lavoisier and others around 1785.
 Elements are characterized by the weight of their atoms. Dalton
suggested that all atoms of the same element have identical weights.
Therefore, every single atom of an element such as oxygen is identical to
every other oxygen atom. However, atoms of different elements, such as
oxygen and mercury, are different from each other.
 In chemical reactions, atoms combine in small, whole-number ratios.
Experiments that Dalton and others performed indicated that chemical
reactions proceed according to atom to atom ratios which were precise and
well-defined.
 When elements react, their atoms may combine in more than one whole-
number ratio. Dalton used this assumption to explain why the ratios of two
elements in various compounds, such as oxygen and nitrogen in nitrogen
oxides, differed by multiples of each other.

John Dalton's atomic theory was generally accepted because it explained the laws of
conservation of mass, definite proportions, multiple proportions, and other
observations. Although exceptions to Dalton's theory are now known, his theory has
endured reasonably well, with modifications, throughout the years.

In 1897, J.J. Thomson discovered the electron by experimenting with a Crookes, or

cathode ray, tube. He demonstrated that cathode rays were negatively charged. In
addition, he also studied positively charged particles in neon gas. Thomson realized that
the accepted model of an atom did not account for negatively or positively charged
particles. Therefore, he proposed a model of the atom which he likened to plum
pudding. The negative electrons represented the raisins in the pudding and the dough
contained the positive charge. Thomson's model of the atom did explain some of the
electrical properties of the atom due to the electrons, but failed to recognize the positive
charges in the atom as particles.

In 1911, Ernest Rutherford, a former student of J.J. Thomson, proved Thomson's plum
pudding structure incorrect. Rutherford with the assistance of Ernest Marsden and Hans
Geiger performed a series of experiments using alpha particles. Rutherford aimed alpha
particles at solid substances such as gold foil and recorded the location of the alpha
particle "strikes" on a fluorescent screen as they passed through the foil. To the
experimenters’ amazement, although most of the alpha particles passed unaffected
through the gold foil as expected, a small number of particles were deflected at an
angle, and a few ricocheted straight back. Rutherford concluded that the atom consisted
of a small, dense, positively charged nucleus in the center of the atom with negatively
charged electrons surrounding it. The discovery of the nucleus is considered to
be Rutherford's greatest scientific work.

In 1913, Neils Bohr, a student of Rutherford's, developed a new model of the atom. He
proposed that electrons are arranged in concentric circular orbits around the nucleus.
This model is patterned on the solar system and is known as the planetary model. The
Bohr model can be summarized by the following four principles:

1. Electrons occupy only certain orbits around the nucleus. Those orbits are stable
and are called "stationary" orbits.
2. Each orbit has an energy associated with it. The orbit nearest the nucleus
has an energy of E1, the next orbit E2, etc.
3. Energy is absorbed when an electron jumps from a lower orbit to a higher
one and energy is emitted when an electron falls from a higher orbit to a lower
orbit.
4. The energy and frequency of light emitted or absorbed can be calculated
by using the difference between the two orbital energies.

In 1926 Erwin Schrödinger, an Austrian physicist, took the Bohr atom model one step
further. Schrödinger used mathematical equations to describe the likelihood of finding
an electron in a certain position. This atomic model is known as the quantum
mechanical model of the atom. Unlike the Bohr model, the quantum mechanical model
does not define the exact path of an electron, but rather, predicts the odds of the
location of the electron. This model can be portrayed as a nucleus surrounded by an
electron cloud. Where the cloud is most dense, the probability of finding the electron is
greatest, and conversely, the electron is less likely to be in a less dense area of the
cloud. Thus, this model introduced the concept of sub-energy levels.

Until 1932, the atom was believed to be composed of a positively charged nucleus
surrounded by negatively charged electrons. In 1932, James Chadwick bombarded
beryllium atoms with alpha particles. An unknown radiation was produced. Chadwick
interpreted this radiation as being composed of particles with a neutral electrical charge
and the approximate mass of a proton. This particle became known as the neutron.
With the discovery of the neutron, an adequate model of the atom became available to
chemists.

Since 1932, through continued experimentation, many additional particles have been
discovered in the atom. Also, new elements have been created by bombarding existing
nuclei with various subatomic particles. The atomic theory has been further enhanced
by the concept that protons and neutrons are made of even smaller units called quarks.
The quarks themselves are in turn made of vibrating strings of energy. The theory of the
composition of the atom continues to be an ongoing and exciting adventure.