CHAPTER NUMBER 02

ATOMIC STRUCTURE
SLO NUMBER 2.1: LOCATION OF PROTRON NEUTRON AND ELECTRON
SLO 2.1.1: Describe the structure of an atom including the location of proton, electron,
and neutron.
ATOMS: Atoms are the basic units of matter and the defining structure of elements. The term "atom"
comes from the Greek word for indivisible, because it was once thought that atoms were the smallest
things in the universe and could not be divided. We now know that atoms are made up of three particles:
protons, neutrons and electrons.

SLO NUMBER 2.2: THEORIES AND EXPERIMENTS RELATED TO ATOMIC

STRUCTURE
SLO 2.2.1: Describe Rutherford’s Experiment and discovery of atomic nucleus.
EXPERIMENT: He bombarded α particles on 0.00004cm thick gold foil. α particles are emitted by
radioactive elements like radium and polonium. These are actually Helium nuclei, they can penetrate
through matter to some extent.
OBSERVATIONS:
1. Almost all the particles passed through the foil un-deflected.
2. Out of 2000 particles only a few were deflected at fairly large angles and few bounced back on hitting
the gold foil.
RESULT:
1. Most of the part of the atom is hollow and neutral so alpha particles passes straight without any
deflection.
2. All positive charge is present in center of atom so alpha particle are deflected at different angles by
repulsion from positively charged center known as nucleus.
3. Only very few particles bounced back it shows that the size of nucleus is very small as compared to
size of atom.
4. Electron revolves around nucleus.
5. Mass of electron is negligible so all mass of atom is present in nucleus.
6. Atom is electrically neutral so number of electron is equal to number of proton present in atom.

SLO 2.2.2: Discuss the defects of Rutherford’s Atomic Model.

DEFECTS OF RUTHERFORD’S ATOMIC MODEL:
1. According to classical theory of radiation, electron being the charged particles should release or
emit energy continuously and they should ultimately fall into nucleus.
2. If the electron emits energy continuously, they should form a continuous spectrum but in fact, line
spectrum was observed.

SLO 2.2.3: Discuss the defects of Bohr’s Atomic Model.

BOHR’S ATOMIC MODEL: According to Bohr’s model revolving electron in an atom doesn’t absorb or
emit energy continuously. The energy quantized as it revolves only in orbits of fixed energy called
energy level.
Postulates for Bohr’s model are,
1. The hydrogen atom consists of tiny nucleus and electrons are revolving around in one of circular orbits
of radius “r” around the nucleus.
2. Each orbit has a fixed energy that is quantized.
3. As long as electron remains in a particular orbit, it doesn’t radiate or absorb energy. The energy is
emitted or absorbed only when an electron jumps from one orbit to another.
4. When an electron jumps from lower orbit to higher orbit, it absorbs energy and when it jumps from
higher orbit to lower orbit it radiates energy. This change in energy, ΔE is given by followings Planck’s
equation:
ΔE = E2 – E1 = hV
Where, h is Planck’s constant equal to 6.63x10-34, and V is frequency of light.
5. Electron can revolve only in orbit of a fixed angular moment mvr, given as:
ℎ
mvr = n
2𝜋
where, n = 1, 2, 3, ………..

SLO NUMBER 2.3: ISOTOPES

SLO 2.3.1: Define Isotopes.
ISOTOPES: Isotopes are atoms with the same number of protons but that have a different number of
neutrons. OR An isotope is a form of a chemical element whose atomic nucleus contains a specific
number of neutron s, in addition to the number of proton s that uniquely defines the element. The
nuclei of most atom s contain neutrons as well as protons

SLO 2.3.4: Describe the importance of isotopes in various fields of life.

IMPORTANCE OF ISOTOPTES:

1. Isotopes of Phosphorus (P-32) and Strontium (Sr-90) are used for the skin cancer treatment.
2. Isotopes of Cobalt (Co-60) are used in the treatment of cancer like leukemia, bone cancer & etc.
3. Isotopes of Iodine (I-131) are used for the diagnosis of goiter in thyroid gland or presence of tumor
in human body.
4. Isotope of Carbon (C-14) is a radioactive isotope which used in the determination of carbon
containing objects (fossils), along with that it is also in the photosynthesis in form of CO 2 to
produce glucose.
5. Isotope of Uranium (U-235) are used to generate electric by carrying out controlled nuclear fission
reaction in nuclear reactor.

SLO NUMBER 2.4: SHELLS AND SUB-SHELLS

SLO 2.4.1: Distinguish between shells and sub shells.
SHELL: The electron in an atom revolves around the nucleus in one of the circular paths called shells.
Each shall is called energy level. They have given the name as K, L, M, N etc. Each shell have fixed
number of electrons, calculated by a formula 2n2.
SUB-SHELLS: Each shell is divided into sub-shells. The number of sub-shells in a shell is equal to its
“n” value. Each sub-shell is designated by s, p, d, f etc. The increasing order of energy of the sub-
shells is given as:
1s < 2s < 2p < 3s < 3p < 4s < 3d