ATOMIC STRUCTURE

ATOM
⚫ smallest particle of matter
⚫ tiny, discrete, very small particles
⚫ indivisible, indestructible and maintain their identity throughout physical and chemical changes

SUBATOMIC PARTICLES OF AN ATOM

ELECTRON
- e-
- relative charge is -1
- NEGATIVELY CHARGED particle
PROTON
- p+
- relative charge is +1
- POSITIVELY CHARGED particle
NEUTRON
- n or n0
- no charge particle

Four observations form for the nuclear atom as described by Rutherford:

1. All the protons and neutrons in an atom are found at the center of the atom in the nucleus.
2. The number of protons PLUS the number of neutrons equals the MASS NUMBER OF THE ATOM. (Protons +
Neutrons = Atomic Mass Number)
3. An atom is electrically neutral. The NUMBER OF PROTONS is EQUAL to the NUMBER OF ELECTRONS in an
atom. (Protons = Electrons)
**If the number of electrons in an atom does not equal to the number of protons, the atom is either positively or
negatively charged and it exists as an ION.
4. Electrons are found outside the nucleus in certain energy levels.

Definition of Terms:
Nucleus - small, dense region at the center of an atom containing nearly all the mass of the atom - the protons and
neutrons; it has a positive electrical charge.
Energy Levels - series of areas outside the nucleus of an atom in which the electrons are located.
Atomic Number - the number of protons in an atom of any particular element.
Mass Number - the number of protons plus neutrons in an atom.
Isotope - any atom having the same atomic number as (number of protons), but a different mass number (number of
neutrons and protons) from another atom of the same element.
Valence Electrons - also called valence energy level electrons; the electrons in the highest principal energy level in the
preceding diagrams of the atom.

ATOMIC THEORY TIMELINE

The atomic theory has changed over time as new technologies have become available.
In the early 1900’s Niels Bohr introduced the concept of energy levels, where the electrons orbited similar to
the way the planets orbit the sun.

In 1926, Erwin Schrodinger used the new quantum theory to write and solve mathematical equations to describe
electron location. Today’s model comes from the solutions to Schrodinger’s equations.

In an atom, principal energy levels (n) can hold electrons. These principal energy levels are assigned values in
order of increasing energy (n=1,2,3,4….) Within each principal energy level, electrons occupy energy sublevels.
There are as many sublevels as the number of the energy level (level 1 has 1 sublevel, level 2 has 2 sublevels)
There are four types of sublevels these are: s, p, d and f. Inside the sublevels are atomic orbitals that hold the
electrons. Every atomic orbital can hold two electrons.
ORBITAL SHAPES

S has one orbital, P has three, D has five, and F has seven. How many electrons can each one hold?
 ELECTRONIC CONFIGURATION

In the atom, electrons and the nucleus interact to make the most stable arrangement possible. The ways that
electrons are arranged around the nucleus of an atom is called the electron configuration.
For example, the electron configuration for Helium is: 1s²

1= the energy level

S= the sublevel
2= the number of electrons

Example: The electron configuration for Oxygen is: 1s²2s²2p⁴

What do you get when you add up the superscripts from Oxygen’s electron configuration?

1s²2s²2p⁴
So, when we add the superscripts we will get 8. This number is what we called the atomic number.

So far, we have only been working with elements in the S and P sublevel sections on the periodic table.
When you write electron configurations for elements in the D sublevel section, the energy level is one number
less than the period the element is in. Why does this happen? To put it simply, the D sublevel is very large and
complicated. It overlaps with the other sublevels, so just know it’s one number less than what the periodic table
shows. For example, the electron configuration for Iron is: 1s²2s²2p⁶3s²3p⁶4s²3d⁶. What do you get when you
add up the superscripts from Iron’s electron configuration?

1s²2s²2p⁶3s²3p⁶4s²3d⁶ is equal to 26. We get a number of 26.

 LEWIS DOT STRUCTURES

In 1916, American physical chemist Gilbert Newton Lewis (1875-1946) discovered the covalent bond and
developed a method of representing bonding between non-metals using simple diagrams called Lewis Dot
Structures. Lewis dot structures are the elements chemical symbol, with the valence electrons arranged
uniformly around the four sides of the symbol. Lewis dot structures for the first few non-metals are shown in
figure 1.

Figure 1. Lewis dot structures for the first few non-metals.

In Lewis dot structures, some dots are single, representing single electrons, while others are double representing
pairs of electrons. We can predict the number of bonds each element forms by counting the number of single
electrons in the Lewis dot structure. Boron can form 3 bonds, carbon can form 4 bonds, nitrogen can form 3,
oxygen can form 2 bonds, fluorine forms 1 bond, and neon doesn’t form any bonds because it has no single
electrons, only pairs.

When one element shares a single electron with another element having a single electron, the shared pair of
electrons is a chemical bond. For example, hydrogen (having only 1 electron) can share this electron with
fluorine to make hydrogen fluoride (HF). The Lewis dot structure of this compound is:

Figure 1.1. Lewis dot structures of hydrogen fluoride.

For clarity, the electron from hydrogen is colored red. The chemical bond is composed of one (black) electron
from fluorine and one (red) electron from hydrogen.

In water, two hydrogen atoms are connected to an oxygen atom, and the Lewis dot structures of this compound
is:

Figure 1.2. Lewis dot structures of water.

Before anyone gets wrong ideas; the electrons aren’t permanently fixed to one particular side of the chemical
symbol. We can always distribute the electrons in any fashion that is convenient or pleasing to us, provided that
we keep them either as single electrons or as pairs of electrons (no groups of 3 or more electrons).
We could always draw the water molecule as:

Figure 1.3. Alternate Lewis dot structure of water.