Atoms and Their

Structure

History of the Atom

Original idea (400 B.C.) came from
Democritus, a Greek philosopher
Democritus expressed the belief that all
matter is composed of very small, indivisible
particles, which he named atomos.

Whos Next?

John Dalton (17661844), an English

school teacher and
chemist, studied
the results of
experiments by
other scientists.

Daltons Atomic Theory

Dalton proposed his atomic theory of
matter in 1803.

Although his theory has been modified

slightly to accommodate new
discoveries, Daltons theory was so
insightful that it has remained
essentially intact up to the present time.

Daltons Atomic Theory

1. All matter is made of tiny indivisible
particles called atoms.
2. Atoms of the same element are
identical; those of different atoms are
different.

Daltons Atomic Theory, cont.

3. Atoms of different elements combine in
whole number ratios to form
compounds
4. Chemical reactions involve the
rearrangement of atoms. No new atoms
are created or destroyed.

Parts of the Atom

Because of Daltons atomic theory, most
scientists in the 1800s believed that the
atom was like a tiny solid ball that could
not be broken up into parts.
In 1897, a British physicist,
J.J. Thomson, discovered that this solidball model was not accurate.

Parts of the Atom

Thomsons experiments used a cathode
ray tube.
It is a vacuum tube - all the air has been
pumped out.

Thomsons Experiment
Voltage source

Vacuum tube
Metal Disks

Thomsons Experiment
Voltage source

At each end of the tube is a metal

piece called an electrode, which is
connected through the glass to a
metal terminal outside the tube.

Thomsons Experiment
Voltage source

When the electrodes are charged, rays

travel in the tube from the negative
electrode, which is the cathode, to the
positive electrode, the anode.

Thomsons Experiment
Voltage source

Because these rays originate at the

cathode, they are called cathode rays.

Thomsons Experiment
Voltage source

Thomsons Experiment
Voltage source

Thomsons Experiment
Voltage source

Thomsons Experiment
Voltage source

Thomsons Experiment
Voltage source

By adding an electric field,

Thomsons Experiment
Voltage source

Thomsons Experiment
Voltage source

Thomson found that the rays bent

toward a positively charged plate and
away from a negatively charged plate.

Thomsons Experiment
Voltage source

He knew that objects with like charges

repel each other, and objects with unlike
charges attract each other.

Thomsons Experiment
Voltage source

By adding an electric field he found that

the moving rays were negative.

Thomsons Experiment
Voltage source

Thomson concluded that cathode rays are

made up of invisible, negatively charged
particles referred to as electrons.

Cathode Ray Tube

Thomsons Model
From Thomsons
experiments,
scientists had to
conclude that atoms
were not just neutral
spheres, but
somehow were
composed of
electrically charged
particles.

Thomsons Model
Matter is not negatively charged, so
atoms cant be negatively charged
either.
If atoms contained extremely light,
negatively charged particles, then they
must also contain positively charged
particles probably with a much
greater mass than electrons.

Thomsons Model

J.J. Thomson said

the atom was like
plum pudding, a
popular English
dessert.

The Proton
In 1886, scientists discovered that a
cathode-ray tube emitted rays not only
from the cathode but also from the
positively charged anode.

Years later, scientists determined that

the rays were composed of positively
charged subatomic particles called
protons.

The Proton
At this point, it seemed that atoms were
made up of equal numbers of electrons
and protons.

Ernest Rutherford

In 1909, a team of
scientists led by Ernest
Rutherford in England
carried out the first of
several important
experiments that
revealed an arrangement
far different from the
plum pudding model of
the atom.

Rutherfords Experiment

The experimenters set up a leadshielded box containing radioactive

polonium, which emitted a beam of
positively charged subatomic particles
through a small hole.

Rutherfords Experiment

The sheet of gold foil was surrounded

by a screen coated with zinc sulfide,
which glows when struck by the
positively charged particles of the beam.

Lead
block

Polonium

Florescent
Screen

Gold Foil

What Rutherford Expected

The alpha particles to pass through

without changing direction very much.

Because he thought the mass was

evenly distributed in the atom.

What Rutherford Observed

How Rutherford Explained It

To explain the results of the experiment,
Rutherfords team proposed a new
model of the atom.
Because most of the particles passed
through the foil, they concluded that the
atom is nearly all empty space.

How Rutherford Explained It

Because so few
particles were
deflected, they
proposed that the
atom has a small,
dense, positively
charged central core,
called a nucleus.

 Alpha particles are deflected by it if they

get close enough to the nucleus.

Millikans Oil Drop Experiment

R.A. Millikan found the charge of an

electron to be -1.60 x 10-19 Coulombs in
his famous oil drop experiment.

The Nuclear Model of the Atom

The new model of the atom as pictured

by Rutherfords group in 1911 is shown
below.

Isotopes

In 1910, J.J. Thomson discovered that

neon consisted of atoms of two different
masses.

Isotopes
Atoms of an element that are chemically
alike but differ in mass are called
isotopes of the element.
Because of the discovery of isotopes,
scientists hypothesized that atoms
contained still a third type of particle that
explained these differences in mass.

Naming Isotopes

Put the mass number after the symbol

of the element.
Carbon 12.000000 amu
C-12
Carbon

-14.003242 amu

C-14

Lead

209.98418 amu

Pb-210

Lead

211.99188 amu

Pb-212

The Neutron
Calculations showed that such a particle
should have a mass equal to that of a
proton but no electrical charge.
The existence of this neutral particle,
called a neutron, was confirmed in the
early 1930s.
James Chadwick is given credit for
discovering the neutron.

Subatomic Particles

Name

Symbol Charge

Relative
mass

Electron

e-

-1

1/2000

Proton

p+

+1

Neutron

n0

Modern View of the Atom

The atom has two
regions and is 3dimensional.
The nucleus is at
the center and
contains the
protons and
neutrons.

Modern View of the Atom

The electron
cloud is the
region where you
might find an
electron and
most of the
volume of an
atom.

Atomic Number
The atomic number of an element is
the number of protons in the nucleus of
an atom of that element.
The number of protons determines
identity of an element, as well as many
of its chemical and physical properties.

Atomic Number
Because atoms have no overall
electrical charge, an atom must have as
many electrons as there are protons in
its nucleus.
Therefore, the atomic number of an
element also tells the number of
electrons in a neutral atom of that
element.

Masses
The mass of a neutron is almost the
same as the mass of a proton.
The sum of the protons and neutrons in
the nucleus is the mass number of that
particular atom.

Isotopes of an element have different

mass numbers because they have
different numbers of neutrons, but they
all have the same atomic number.

Information in the Periodic Table

The average atomic mass is the
weighted average mass of all the
naturally occurring isotopes of that
element.
The unit is the Atomic Mass Unit (amu).

Average Atomic Mass

You are NOT responsible for knowing

how to calculate average atomic mass,
although a detailed example follows.

Calculating Atomic Mass

Calculating Atomic Mass

Copper exists as a mixture of two
isotopes.
The lighter isotope (Cu-63), with 29
protons and 34 neutrons, makes up
69.17% of copper atoms.
The heavier isotope (Cu-65), with 29
protons and 36 neutrons, constitutes the
remaining 30.83% of copper atoms.

Calculating Atomic Mass

To determine the average atomic mass,

first calculate the contribution of each
isotope to the average atomic mass,
being sure to convert each percent to a
fractional abundance.

Calculating Atomic Mass

Mass contribution = mass of isotope x
abundance of isotope
For Cu-63:

Mass contribution = 62.930 amu x 0.6917 =

43.529 amu
For Cu-65:
Mass contribution = 64.928 amu x 0.3083 =
20.017 amu

Calculating Atomic Mass

The average atomic mass of the

element is the sum of the mass
contributions of each isotope.

Atomic mass Cu = mass contribution Cu-63 +

mass contribution Cu-65

Atomic mass Cu = 43.529 + 20.017 = 63.546 amu

Symbols

Elements can be represented by using

the symbol of the element, the mass
number and the atomic number.
Mass
number
Atomic
number

The mass number is the atomic mass

rounded to a whole number.

Symbols

Mass number is represented by the

letter A.
Mass
A
number
Atomic
Z
number

Atomic number is represented by the

letter Z.

Symbols Example

Determine the following for the

fluorine atom depicted below.
a) number of protons (9)
19

b) number of neutrons (10)

c) number of electrons (9)

d) atomic number (9)

e) mass number (19)

F
9

Symbols Problem

Determine the following for the

bromine atom depicted below.
a) number of protons (35)
80

b) number of neutrons (45)

c) number of electrons (35)

d) atomic number (35)

e) mass number (80)

Br
35

Symbols Problem

If an element has an atomic number

of 34 and a mass number of 78 what
is the
a) number of protons (34)

b) number of neutrons (44)

c) number of electrons (34)
d) complete symbol

78
34

Se

Symbols Problem

If an element has 91 protons and

140 neutrons what is the
a) atomic number (91)

b) mass number (231)

c) number of electrons (91)
d) complete symbol

231
91

Pa

Symbols Problem

If an element has 78 electrons and

117 neutrons what is the
a) atomic number (78)

b) mass number (195)

c) number of protons
d) complete symbol

(78)

195
78

Pt

End of Day 1