COMPONENTS OF

MATTER
Atoms and the atomic theory
 LAW OF MASS CONSERVATION
• Antoine Lavoisier (1743–1794) showed the importance of oxygen in
combustion and demonstrated through experiments the mass of
combustion products equals the mass of starting reactants.
• This is known today as the Law of Conservation of Mass.
• Matter is neither created or destroyed in ordinary physical and
chemical changes
 LAW OF DEFINITE COMPOSITION
• Joseph Proust (1799)

• Pure substances have constant compositions

• Examples: Water(H: 11%, O: 89%), Table Salt(Na: 39%, Cl: 61%)

• Different samples of a pure chemical compound always contain the

same proportion of elements by mass.
 LAW OF MULTIPLE PROPORTIONS
• 1803 to 1808 John Dalton proposed
• Elements can combine in different ways to form different chemical
compounds, with mass ratios that are small whole-number multiples of
each other.
 DALTON’S ATOMIC THEORY
1. Elements are made up of tiny particle called atoms.
2. Each element is characterised by the mass of its atoms; all atoms of
the same element have the same mass but atoms of different
elements have different masses.
3. Chemical combination of elements to make different substances
occurs when atoms join together in small whole number ratios.
4. Chemical reactions only rearrange the way atoms are combined. The
atoms themselves are not changed
NUCLEAR ATOMIC MODEL
 ATOMIC STRUCTURE
• The atom has a small dense nucleus which
 is positively charged.
 contains protons (+1 charge).
 contains neutrons (no charge).

• The remainder of the atom

 is mostly empty space.
 contains electrons (–1 charge). 
PROPERTIES OF SUBATOMIC
PARTICLES
• Elements differ from one another
according to the number of
protons in the nucleus of the
atom, a value called the
element’s atomic number (Z).
• all atoms of a given element
contain the same number of
protons in their nuclei
• Atoms are electrically neutral:
number of protons=number of
electrons
• The total number of protons and
neutrons in an atom is called the
mass number, (A).
CHECKPOINT
How many protons, neutrons and electrons are in

a) Q ( A = 11, Z = 5)

b) R ( A = 41, Z = 20)

c) X ( A = 131, Z = 53)

d) T ( A = 29, Z = 14)
 ISOTOPES
• Isotopes are atoms with the same number of protons (atoms of the
same element) but different number of neutrons.
• The same atomic number (Z) but different mass numbers (A).
CHECKPOINT
1. Lithium-6 is 4% abundant and lithium-7 is 96% abundant. What is
the average mass of lithium?
2. Iodine is 80% 127I, 17% 126I, and 3% 128I. Calculate the average
atomic mass of iodine. 
3. The natural abundance for boron isotopes is 19.9% 10B and 80.1% 11B
Calculate boron’s atomic mass.
4. Hydrogen is 99% 1H, 0.8% 2H, and 0.2% 3H. Calculate its average
atomic mass.
• The atomic mass of an element is the average of the masses of its
naturally occurring isotopes weighted according to their abundance
• Example: The two naturally occurring isotopes of Silver, Ag exist in
the following proportions – 109(48%) and silver – 107 (52%).
Calculate the atomic mass of silver.
Atomic mass = (109 x 48) + (107 x 52)
100
= 108amu
RADIOACTIVITY
• Certain isotopes have unstable nuclei.
• All isotopes heavier than bismuth-209 are radioactive, even
though they may
• decay slowly and be stable enough to occur naturally.
• The nuclei may decay spontaneously with the emission of certain
types of radiation.
• This type of decomposition is a nuclear reaction (which is different
from a chemical reaction).

• A nuclear reaction involves a change in an atom’s nucleus, usually

producing a different element.
• A chemical reaction, by contrast, involves only a change in the way that atoms
are combined. A chemical reaction never changes the nuclei themselves or
produces a different element
 ALPHA(α)RADIATION
•  Common in heavy radioactive isotopes.
• Alpha particles consist of two protons and two neutrons:
  Beta ()Radiation
•  Beta radiation occurs when a neutron in the nucleus spontaneously
decays into a proton plus an electron, which is then ejected as a beta
particle,
 Positron Emission and Electron Capture
• Positron emission occurs when a proton in the nucleus changes into a
neutron plus an ejected positron (a positive electron).

• Electron capture is a process in which the nucleus captures one of the

surrounding electrons in an atom, thereby converting a proton into a
neutron.
NUCLEAR REACTIONS
BALANCING NUCLEAR REACTIONS
1. The sums of mass numbers (left superscripts) on each side must be
equal.
2. The sums of atomic numbers or nuclear charges (left subscripts) on
each side of the equation must be equal.
Examples:

U
238 He
4 + 234Th
92 2 90

Pb
214 0 b + 214 Bi
82 -1 83
CHECKPOINT
• Complete the following nuclear equations
226 222
88 Ra  + 86Rn

84 84
Br  + 36 Kr
35
49
Mn 49
Cr +
25 24
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
 1. The frequency, ν of electromagnetic
WAVE PROPERTIES radiation is the number of
waves/cycles that pass a point per
second(Hz)
2. Wavelength, λ is the distance between
any point on a wave and the
corresponding point on the next crest
(or trough) of the wave
3. The amplitude of a wave is the height
of the crest (or depth of the trough).
•  All waves in the EM spectrum travel at the same speed in a vacuum,
the speed of light.
PARTICULATE NATURE OF LIGHT
• Black
  body radiation, photoelectric effect and light emission from
electrically charged gas atoms

• Max Planck(1858-1947) discovered that the atoms of a solid vibrate

with energy of a definite frequency, depending on the solid.

where h is Planck’s constant, 6.63 x 10 -34 J.s and n = 1, 2, 3,...

• In this way the energy is said to be quantised – it cannot change

smoothly from one value to another, only in whole units at a time.
• Einstein proposed that light itself is particulate, quantized into tiny
“bundles” of energy, later called photons.
• Based on the theories of Einstein and Planck, Danish scientist Niels
Bohr in 1914 proposed a model of electronic structure to explain the
results of atomic spectra.
• Hot gases emit light, in the form of a line spectrum.
• An electron in an excited state can fall down an energy level, emitting
a photon.
• This will produce an emission spectrum
• Atoms can only emit radiation of specific energies.
• The sequence of lines is specific to an element.

E1

E2
 Bohr’s model of the atom

4
3

1 2 3 E
2 n
e
r
g
y
1

ENERGY LEVELS (SHELLS)

1. An electron can only have specific energy values in an atom, ENERGY LEVELS.
2. An electron can change energy only by going from one energy level to another.
 QUANTUM NUMBERS

Each electron in an atom is described by 4 different quantum numbers:

n, l, ml, ms

The first three (n, l and ml) describe an atomic orbital – a region of space where
there is a probability of >90% of finding an electron.They give the probability of
finding an electron at various points in space.

A fourth quantum number (ms) describes the spin of an electron.

Quantum Number 1
SHELLS

 PRINCIPAL QUANTUM NUMBER (n): is a positive integer (n = 1, 2, 3,…

) on which the size and energy level of the orbital primarily depend.
 Those orbitals with n= 3, for example, are said to be in the third shell.
 The energy of the electron in the orbital increases as the quantum number
increases.
Quantum Number 2
SUB-SHELLS

•   ANGULAR MOMENTUM QUANTUM NUMBER (): any

integer value from 0 to n-1
 Distinguishes orbitals of same n by giving them different shapes;
orbitals of same n but different are in different sub-shells:
s p d f g
0 1 2 3 4
• Example: 2p indicates shell 2 (energy), sub-level p (shape)
Quantum Number 3
ORBITALS
•   MAGNETIC QUANTUM NUMBER (m): values = - to +
 Distinguishes orbitals in same shell and subshell (i.e. energy and shape) by giving
them a different orientation in space .

 If = 0, then m = 0
 If = 1, then m = -1, 0, +1
 If = 2, then m = -2, -1, 0, +1, +2
Quantum Numbers
Quantum Number 4
•  Each orbital can accommodate two electrons with opposite spins.
 Electrons rotate either clockwise or anti-clockwise about an axis.
 The SPIN QUANTUM NUMBER (ms) is used to describe the
rotation of electrons.
for ↑ and for ↓
 Electron Configurations
• All of these ideas can be put together to start to write
electronic configurations for atoms…
• Orbital notation/diagram:

Spectroscopic notation:
1s2 2s2 2p1

[He] 2s2 2p1 Outer electrons, control chemical

properties
 Pauli Exclusion Principle
• “No two electrons in any one atom can have the same four
quantum numbers”
• An orbital can hold at most two electrons, and then only if the two
electrons in that orbital have opposite spins
 Hund’s Rule
“Electrons fill each orbital singly with spins parallel before pairing occurs”
 Aufbau Principle
• The Aufbau principle is a building up principle, which helps you to
write electronic configurations.

“When electrons are placed in orbitals, the energy levels are filled up in
order of increasing energy.”

• Write the electron configuration (orbital and spectroscopic) for:

helium, beryllium, oxygen, aluminium, calcium and bromine.
 Filling Orbitals
1s, 2s, 2p, 3s, 3p, 4s, 3d, 4p, 5s, 4d, 5p, 6s, 4f, 5d, 6p, 7s, 5f
Orbital energies
Energy depends on n and l

Different orbitals in the same

subshell have the same energy.
There is interaction among different
subshells in higher energy levels,
which lowers their energy and
explains the order of filling.