PHYSICAL SCIENCE REVIEWER

Lesson 2.1: The concept of an atom in an ancient time

The subatomic particles

Protons- positively charged

Electrons- negatively charged

Neutrons- neutrally charged

Early days of the atomic theory

5th century BC, Greek philosopher hypothesized about the composition of matter, some ideas were
accepted than others.

Democritus(460 BC-370 BC)- everything is made up of smallest particles known as atomos

Leucippus (5th century BCE) -Teacher of Democritus. Pioneer of the ideas of composition and change in
matter.

Aristotle (384-322 BC) – goes against the idea of atom goes to ex nihilo. Limits the power of god

ATOMISM

 Matter is composed of atomos and void

 Atomos may combine to form clusters in void
 Change can happen when some atoms collide with each other in the void

Atomism Revisited

 The idea of atom was given importance during the renaissance

 John Dalton formulated his atomic theory based on the atomos
 Other researchers and experiments were conducted afterwards
 Scientific inquiries are very hard to answer in the ancient era because of the lack of appropriate
tool

 Ancient Greek philosophers were the first to suggest the concept of the atom.
 Democritus and Leucippus were the first Greek scholars who believed in atomis and
pioneered the study of the composition of and changes in matter
 According to atomism, nature is composed of two basic principles: atom and void
 The idea of atomism was set aside because of the ideas of prominent natural philosophers like
Plato about nature elements.
 However, the Greeks’ concept of atoms and even Aristotle’s arguments were rediscovered and
revived after being proven to be true.
Lesson 2.2: Discovery of the subatomic particles.

The atomos of Democritus

 Solid
 Indestructible
 Collides with each other
 Can form clusters

Modification of Democritus’ Atomic model

 There are smaller subatomic particles

 Two types of subatomic particle
 Two types of the smaller particles are found at the center
 The particles are very small and the atom is mostly space

Thomson’s Plum Pudding Model

 Atom is divisible into charged particles
 Is made of massive mass into positive charge
 Electrons are negatively charged particles that are embedded on the body of the atom.

Rutherford’s Nuclear Model

positive and negatively charged particles

the nucleus at the center of an atom and where the mass of an atom is concentrated

they move around the nucleus

All matter is made up of indivisible particles called atomos, this idea is widely known in Ancient Greece
as atomism

John Dalton imagined later on, on his sphere model an atom to be extremely small and indivisible

Ernest Rutherford developed the nuclear model of an atom. All the positively charged are in the
nucleus while all electrons are orbiting around it.

James Chadwick proved the existence of neutrons. which are neutral particles in the nucleus of
atom

by bombarding alpha particles on beryllium.

Lesson 2.3: Bohr model of the atom

The atomic models so far…

 Daltons Sphere model

 Thomson’s Plum pudding model
 Rutherford’s Nuclear model
The problems of the nuclear model

The eventual crash by the electrons due to:

 Emitted radiation, continuous centripetal acceleration, increasing electrostatic force.

Another model was conceptualized…

Niels Bohr proposed his model for the atom which will answer questions about stability and spectral
data

Bohr model of the atom, explains the stability of the atom:

○ presence of fixed circular orbits or energy levels

○ ground state will have the electrons in constant energy
○ light energy can be absorbed and be emitted by electrons

Electrons can Interact with Energy

○ are originally at its ground state

○ Can absorb energy and become excited. It can also jump to higher level when excited
○ Can relax and go back to it’s ground state. This will give off energy that has a specific
wavelength and color.

Bohr Model Identified the Presence of Orbitals

Spectral lines was able to identify the presence of orbitals.spectroscopic data were described
as follows:

○ sharp – s orbital
○ principal – p orbital
○ diffused – d orbital
○ fundamental – f orbital

the model cannot explain phenomena observed when there are electrons.
It cannot paired spectral lines given by atoms with more electrons.

1. The principles of quantum chemistry established new concepts that founded Bohr’s atomic model.
2. In Bohr’s atomic model, the electrons are positioned in fixed orbits and revolve around the nucleus.
These
orbits are also called energy levels because they have fixed energies.
3. Bohr’s atom is stable. The electrons in the allowed orbits do not radiate energy, which prevents the
electrons from being pulled by the nucleus.
4. Electrons can move between energy levels. The energy level at which the electron normally resides is
called the ground state. In a process called promotion or excitation, an electron moves to a higher
energy level, called the excited state, when sufficient energy is acquired.
5. The electron goes back to its ground state by relaxation, and energy is released in the form of light.
6. Bohr’s atomic model cannot explain the spectral characteristics of larger atoms

Lesson 4.1: Counting Valence Electrons

 The Periodic Table of Elements
• Valence electrons are electrons located in the outermost shell of the atom.
• These electrons participate in the formation of chemical bonds.
• The periodic table provides information on the element such as its mass number and atomic
number.

The periodic table can be divided into different partitions. the representative elements,
transition metals, lanthanides, and actinides.

Representative elements (or main group)

○ Elements are those in s-and p- blocks

○ The elements here have an s and p subshell as outermost shell
○ Valence electrons are those electrons present in the shell having the highest principal
quantum,n.

Transition metals
○ are those in the d-block elements in the block have their subshells being filled.
○ They are elements belonging to group 3 and 12
○ Their electrons behave differently

The inner transition metal

○ These elements are found under the main body of the periodic table referred to as rare
earth metals.
○ These may vary in oxidation states and all are radioactive
○ Lanthanides are elements that have their f4 orbital being filled
○ Actinides are elements that have their 5f orbitals being filled.

Lesson 4.2: Lewis structure of molecules

Lewis structures;

Gilbert Newton Lewis was an American physical chemist who proposed the idea of covalent bonding
and the importance of the electron pair bonding.
○ He devised the use of electron- dot symbols

Electronegativity and Lewis structures

Electronegativity is the ability of an atom to attract electrons towards it’s two density cloud

Non-metals have high electronegativity values which make them very resistive in totally transferring their electrons

Octet rule and covalent bonds

○ The octet rule states that an element must gain, lose or share electrons to attain eight electrons
in its valence shell during chemical bonding.
○ A covalent compound id formed when two atoms share electrons to achieve stability
○ Nonmetals participate in the formation of covalent bonds since they have high ionization
energies and negative electron affinities

Formation of multiple bonds

○ Nonmetals participate in the formation of covalent bonds since they have high ionization
energies and negative electron affinities
○ One way to reinforce octet rule in these atoms is to form multiple bonds such as double bonds
and triple bonds

Exception to the octet rule

○ Atoms possessing less than eight electrons such as hydrogen, boron and beryllium follows
reduced electron requirements.
○ Atoms possessing odd number of electrons do not meet the octet requirements.
○ Atoms possessing more than eight electrons exhibit hypervalency where the elements go even
higher than ten.
Lesson 4.3: Predicting shapes through VSEPR theory

Valence-Shell Electron Pair Repulsion (VSEPR) model

○ The three-dimensional shape of a molecule can be predicted using its Lewis structure together
with valence-shell electron pair repulsion (VSEPR) model
○ It is also referred to as the electron domain (ED) model.
○ The atoms are spatially arranged in molecules in angles of 90°, 109.5°, 120°, and 180°.
○ The angles predicted by VSEPR resulted from the differences in their repulsion strength:
lone pair - lone pair repulsion > lone pair - bonding pair repulsion > bonding pair - bonding pair
repulsion
○ Electrons can also be present as nonbonding pairs or even a single unpaired electron.
○ The ED model can predict the shape of molecules with nonbonding electrons

Molecular Geometry
○ If all the electrons around the central atom are bonded, then the molecular geometry is the
same as the ED geometry.
○ However, when there is at least one lone pair around the central atom, the molecular geometry
is just a derivative of the ED geometry

Lesson 4.4: Practice Examples

Counting valence electrons:

1. Identify what is required to find the problem.

2. Identify the given problem.
3. Determine the group number of element.
4. Determine the group of valence electrons from it’s group number.

Drawing the valence electrons:

1. Determine the number of valence electrons in each constituent element of the compound.
2. Determine the total number of valence electrons present in the covalent compound.
3. Draw the skeleton structure of the molecule.
4. Distribute the valence electrons to form the Lewis structure.
5. Draw multiple bonds if necessary.