ATOMIC STRUCTURE

Subatomic particles and

descriptions of the atom
Subatomic particles and descriptions of the atom
• Atoms consist of three types of
sub-atomic particle:
• the proton
• ● the neutron
• ● the electron.
• The masses of these sub-atomic
particle is measured in atomic
mass unit, amu.
• 1 amu = 1.660539 × 10–24 g
Why to use Relative atomic mass?
 The atomic number, Z
• The atoms of each element have an • For example:
individual atomic number, Z: • ● Z for oxygen, O, is 8. Therefore
•
The atomic number is the number
●
the oxygen atom has 8 protons
of protons in the nucleus of an and 8 electrons.
atom of an element. Different • ● Z for copper, Cu, is 29. Copper
elements have different atomic
atoms have 29 protons and 29
numbers.
electrons.
• For a neutral atom the number of
electrons equals the number of
protons,
 The mass number, A
• The mass of the atom is
concentrated in the nucleus,
which contains both protons
and neutrons.
• The mass number, ‘A’, is the
number of protons + the
number of neutrons in the
nucleus of an atom.
• Example
• Z for Fluorine, F, is 9. Therefore
Fluorine has 9 protons and 9
electrons.
• A for Fluorine-19 is 19.
• Therefore Fluorine-19 has 19- 9
= 10 neutrons.
ISOTOPES
Mass Spectrometer
Some Interesting Facts about Scale of Atom
• The nucleus occupies a tiny volume of the atom and the
diameter of an atom is approximately 100000 times the
diameter of the nucleus.
• Atoms themselves are extremely small. The diameter of most
atoms is in the range 1 × 10-10 to 5 × 10-10 m. The unit used to
describe the dimensions of atoms is the picometre, (pm): 1
pm = 10-12 m
• In X-ray crystallography a commonly used unit for atomic
dimensions is the angstrom, symbol Å:
 WORKED EXAMPLE
• 1 Å = 10-10 m
• For example, the atomic radius of the Fluorine atom is quoted in
section 9 of the Data booklet as 60 × 10-12 m (60 pm). To convert this
to Å we can use dimensional analysis, using the conversion factors
given above:
 Models of the atom and electron arrangements
• The Bohr theory of the atom is a basis
for writing electron arrangements. An
electron arrangement gives the number
of electrons in each shell or orbit, for
example:
• electron arrangement of H: 1
• electron arrangement of P: 2, 8, 5
• electron arrangement of Ca: 2, 8, 8, 2
• Electron arrangements are a very useful
tool for explaining and predicting the
chemical properties of an element.
 Energy levels, sublevels, orbitals, and electron spin
• The Bohr model introduced the idea of a
main energy level, described by n, which is
called the principal quantum number. This
can have positive integer values 1, 2, 3, etc.
In the quantum mechanical model, as n
increases, the mean position of an electron
is further from the nucleus. The energies of
the orbitals also increase as n increases.
Each main energy level or shell can hold a
maximum number of electrons given by 2n2
•.
• So the electron capacity for n = 1
is 2, for n = 2 is 8, for n = 3 is
18. That is why we have two
elements in the first row of the
periodic table, eight elements in
the second, etc.
 ATOMIC STRUCTURE

•Questions
• 1 What is the number of protons, electrons, and neutrons in boron-11?
• A. 5 protons, 5 electrons, and 11 neutrons
• B. 5 protons, 5 electrons, and 10.81 neutrons
• C. 5 protons, 5 electrons, and 6 neutrons
• D. 11 protons, 11 electrons, and 5 neutrons
Questions for practice
Periodic Table