Rutherford’s Atomic Model: According to Rutherford’s Atomic Model, the positively

charged particles and the majority of the mass of an atom were said to be concentrated in a
small volume. He referred to this area of the atoms as the nucleus. Another idea put
forward by Rutherford’s model of an atom was that an atom’s nucleus should be
surrounded by negatively charged electrons. Rutherford also suggested that the electrons
circle the nucleus at the speed of light. He called these elliptical paths orbits.

Rutherford Gold Foil Experiment: To determine how electrons are arranged in an atom,
the Alpha (α) Particle Scattering Experiment was organized by Rutherford. Rapidly moving
α-particles were directed to bombard a thin sheet of gold.

 The gold foil was selected so as to obtain an extremely thin layer. The thickness of the
gold foil was about 1000 atoms.
 Doubly-charged helium ions are known as α-particles. Rapidly moving α-particles
possess a great deal of energy, as they have a mass of about 4 amu.

The hypothesis was that α-particles would be deflected by the sub-atomic particles in the
gold atoms. Rutherford didn’t expect to witness significant deflections as the α-particles
were considerably heavier than the protons. However, the experiment produced entirely
unanticipated results.

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Observations of Rutherford’s Gold Foil Experiment:

Rutherford observed the following from his α-particle scattering experiment:

1. A large percentage of alpha particles travelled through the gold film without being
deflected, indicating that the majority of space in an atom is empty. As a result, an
atom’s main portion must be empty.
2. The positive charge in an atom is concentrated in a relatively small volume and is not
dispersed evenly. When bombarded, the gold foil only deflected a small number of
alpha particles. They experienced extremely slight angles of deflection. So he arrived at
the stated conclusion.
3. Very few alpha particles had deflected back or at large angles. In addition, relatively
few particles had 180 o deflected. As a result, he came to the conclusion that the
positively charged particles only occupied a small portion of an atom’s overall volume.

Conclusion of Rutherford Gold Foil Experiment: Rutherford concluded the following

from his observations:

 Because a large proportion of the α-particles directed toward the gold sheet went
through it without any deflection, so, the majority of the space in an atom is vacant.
 Only a few α-particles were diverted off their route, suggesting that the atom’s positive
charge takes up relatively little space.
 Since a very tiny percentage of α-particles completely rebounded, this implied that the
atom’s mass and positive charge are concentrated in a small volume and not uniformly
distributed.

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Postulates of Rutherford Atomic Model: Here are the major postulates of Rutherford’s
atomic model based on observations and conclusions of the gold foil experiment:
 Positively charged particles make up an atom. The majority of an atom’s mass was
contained in a very small area. The nucleus of an atom was the term used to describe
this area of the atom. Later it was discovered that neutrons and protons make up the
atom’s extremely tiny and dense nucleus.
 The electrons that surround an atom’s nucleus are negatively charged particles. The
electrons rotate faster in a fixed circular path around the nucleus. Such a fixed circular
path is called the orbit.
 Since electrons are negatively charged and the tightly packed nucleus is positively
charged, an atom either has no net charge or is electrically neutral. The nucleus and
electrons are held together by a strong electric force of attraction.

Fig. Rutherford Atomic Model

Drawbacks of Rutherford’s Model of Atom: There are several limitations or drawbacks

of Rutherford’s atomic model, which are as follows:
 Rutherford’s Model predicts that electrons will orbit around the positively charged
nucleus, which is not anticipated to be stable. A charged particle in rapid motion along a
circular route, would lose energy continually and eventually collapse into the nucleus.
This causes an atom to be unstable, whereas we know that atoms are extremely stable.
 Because it merely postulated the existence of protons in the nucleus, the Rutherford
Model could not resolve the problem of atomic mass.

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 Rutherford’s Atomic Model doesn’t explain the arrangement of electrons in the atom,
which makes this model incomplete in this regard.

Bohr Atom Model: In 1913 one of Rutherford's students, Niels Bohr, proposed a model for
the hydrogen atom that was consistent with Rutherford's model and yet also explained the
spectrum of the hydrogen atom. The Bohr model was based on the following assumptions.

1. The electron in a hydrogen atom travels around the nucleus in a circular orbit.

2. The energy of the electron in an orbit is proportional to its distance from the nucleus. The
further the electron is from the nucleus, the more energy it has.

3. Only a limited number of orbits with certain energies are allowed. In other words, the
orbits are quantized.

4. The only orbits that are allowed are those for which the angular momentum of the electron
is an integral multiple of Planck's constant divided by 2. (mvr = nh/2π)

5. Light is absorbed when an electron jumps to a higher energy orbit and emitted when an
electron falls into a lower energy orbit.

6. The energy of the light emitted or absorbed is exactly equal to the difference between the
energies of the orbits.

According to the the Bohr model, hydrogen atoms absorb light when an electron is excited
from a low-energy orbit (such as n = 1) into a highter energy orbit (n = 3). Atoms that have
been excited by an electric discharge can give off light when an electron drops from a high-
energy orbit (such as n = 6) into a lower energy orbit (such as n = 1). The energy of the

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photon absorbed or emitted when the electron moves from one orbit to another is equal to the
difference between the energies of the orbits.

The change in energy, ΔE, then translates to light of a particular frequency being emitted
according to the equation E = hν. Recall that the atomic emission spectrum of hydrogen had
spectral lines consisting of four different frequencies. This is explained in the Bohr model by
the realization that the electron orbits are not equally spaced. As the energy increases further
and further from the nucleus, the spacing between the levels gets smaller and smaller.

Based on the wavelengths of the spectral lines, Bohr was able to calculate the energies that
the hydrogen electron would have in each of its allowed energy levels. He then
mathematically showed which energy level transitions correspond to the spectral lines in the
atomic emission spectrum

He found that the four visible spectral lines corresponded to transitions from higher energy
levels down to the second energy level (n = 2). This is called the Balmer series. Transitions
ending in the ground state (n = 1) are called the Lyman series, but the energies released are so
large that the spectral lines are all in the ultraviolet region of the spectrum. The transitions
called the Paschen series and the Brackett series both result in spectral lines in the infrared
region, because the energies are too small.

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The hydrogen spectrum contains many different spectral lines. These lines have different
wavelengths. In 1890, Rydberg gave the general formula to calculate the wavelengths of
these lines in a very simplified method.

The equation for the wavelengths of these spectral lines is described as: 1/λ = R(1/nf2–1/ni2)

Where, R stands for Rydberg’s constant = 109677 cm-1. nf and ni are final and initial energy
state.

The Balmer series requires that nf = 2. The first line in the series is taken to be for ni = 3, and
so the second would have ni = 4.
The calculation is a straightforward application of the wavelength equation. Entering the
determined values for nf and ni yields

1/λ = R(1/nf2–1/ni2) = (1.097×107 m−1)(1/22−1/42) = 2.057×106 m−1

Inverting to find λ gives, λ = 12.057×106 m−1 = 486×10−9 m = 486 nm

Wave properties of matter: Einstein in 1905 suggested that light shows dual character, i.e.
light behaves both as a material particle as well as a wave. This dual nature of light is clearly
illustrated by combining Plank’s expression for the energy of a photon, E = hν with Einstein
mass-energy relation E = mc2 (where c is the velocity of light) yields
mc2 = hν
or mc = hν/c
Introducing λ = c/ν, we get
λ = h/mc
λ = h/p, where p is the momentum of a photon.

de Broglie in 1924 extended Einstein’s view and said that the particle-wave dualism is not
restricted to light, but all moving particles like electrons, protons, neutrons, atoms, molecules
etc. also show dual character. According to him the wavelength λ of a particle of mass m
traveling with a velocity v is given by
h h

λ = ------ = ----- where p is the momentum of the particle.

mv p

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Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle: In 1927 Werner Heisenberg suggested a fundamental
principle of nature, which is known after his name as Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle.

According to this principle, it is not possible to determine simultaneously and precisely both
the position and momentum (or velocity) of a microscopic moving particle like electron,
proton etc. Mathematically this principle can be expressed as:
Δx × Δp ≥ ħ/2 = h/4π ………………………………(6)

where Δx and Δp are the uncertainties in the position and momentum of the particle, and h is
the Planck’s constant. The sign ≥ means that the product of Δx and Δp is equal or greater than
h/4π but never less than h/4π. The above relation shows Δx and Δp are inversely proportional
to each other, which means that if Δx is very small, Δp would be large. For example, if Δx =
0, then, Δp ≈ h/(4πΔx) = ∞.

In general, the relation (6) is written as:

Δx × Δp = h/4π …………………………………(7)

On putting Δp = m × Δv (m = mass of the particle and Δv = uncertainty in velocity) in

equation (7) we get,

Δx × (m × Δv) = h/4π ………………………….(8)

The Schrödinger’s wave equation: In 1926 Erwin Schrödinger developed a wave equation
to describe the wave motion of the electron, which simply involved the substitution of de
Broglie relationship into the general classical wave equation. This is referred to as wave
mechanical model of the atom.

If the electron wave is moving in any of the three axes x, y, z, its wave motion can be
described by the wave equation:

∂2ψ ∂2ψ ∂2ψ 8π2m

----- + ------ + ------ + ------- (E – V)ψ = 0

∂x2 ∂y2 ∂z2 h2

Where ψ represents the amplitude of the wave and is called the wave function, the total
energy (E) of an electron is the sum of the kinetic energy (K. E.) and potential energy (V).

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