Department of Chemistry

CHEM 1008

Chapter 2: Atoms and Elements

Instructor: Dr. Emily M.W. Tsang

E-mail: chetsang@ust.hk
Department of Chemistry, HKUST
Outline
• 2.1 Atom: Fundamental Building Blocks of Matter
• 2.2 Early Ideas on Atoms
• 2.3 Dalton’s Atomic Theory
• 2.4 Discovery of Electrons
• 2.5 The Nuclear Atom
• 2.6 The Properties of Protons, Neutrons, and Electrons
• 2.7 Elements: Atomic Number
• 2.8 History of the Periodic Table
• 2.9 Modern Periodic Table
• 2.10 Ions: Losing and Gaining Electrons
• 2.11 Isotopes: When the Number of Neutrons Varies
• 2.12 Atomic Mass: The Average Mass of an Element’s Atoms

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CHEM 1008 – Introductory Chemistry
2.1 Atom: Fundamental Building Blocks of Matter
• All matter is made up of atoms.
• An atom is the smallest identifiable unit of
an element.
• Element: a substance composed of only one
type of atoms and cannot be further broken
down into simple substances.
• ~91 different elements found in nature
• ~20 elements are synthetically made by
scientist.
• Many atoms exist not as free particles but
as groups of atoms bound together to form
molecules.
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CHEM 1008 – Introductory Chemistry
2.2 Early Ideas on Atoms
• Early Greek philosophers, Leucippus (~500 BC) and
Democritus (460-370 BC), theorized that matter was
ultimately composed of atoms.
• The word “atoms” came from the Greek word
“atomos”, which literally means small, indivisible
particles.
• It was suggested that if you divided matter into
smaller and smaller pieces, you would eventually
come down to the tiny, indestructible atoms.
• Unfortunately, the early Greek ideas of atoms were
not widely accepted.
• It was overlooked for over 2000 years.
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CHEM 1008 – Introductory Chemistry
2.3 Dalton’s Atomic Theory (1808)
• Dalton formulated the first widely accepted atomic theory:
• Each element is composed of tiny indestructible particles called atoms.
• All atoms of a given element have the same mass and other properties that
distinguish them from the atoms of other elements.
• Atoms combine in simple, whole-number ratios to form compounds

Billiard Ball Atomic Model Scanning tunneling microscope (STM) image of xenon atoms.
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CHEM 1008 – Introductory Chemistry
2.4 Discovery of Electrons
• In 1904, J.J. Thomson (1856-1940)
discovered the existence of electrons
through his cathode ray tube experiment.
• Electrons are negatively charged, and much
smaller and lighter than atoms.
• His experiments proved that atoms are, in
fact, destructible.

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CHEM 1008 – Introductory Chemistry https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBgIMRV895w
J.J. Thomson’s Atomic Model
• Atoms were known to be neutral, thus Thomson proposed that the
negatively-charged electrons were held within a positively charged
sphere.
• Thomson’s atomic model is also known as the “Plum Pudding Model”.

Negative
electron

Sphere cloud of
positive charge

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2.5 The Nuclear Atom
• In 1909, Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937),
performed an experiment to verify the
Plum Pudding Model proposed by J.J.
Thomson.
• Rutherford directed, tiny, positively
charged alpha particles at a thin sheet of
gold foil.
• Alpha particles are ~7000 times more
massive than electrons and carry a
positive charge.
• The alpha particles acted as probes of
the gold atom’s structure.
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CHEM 1008 – Introductory Chemistry
Observations from the Gold Foil Experiment

Empty spaces

A heavy and dense core

packed with positive charges
If Thomson’s plum pudding model
However, the actual results revealed that
have been correct, it was expected
most of the alpha particles pass through
that alpha particles should pass
directly, but some are actually deflected by
through the gold foil with minimum
a sharp angle.
deflection
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CHEM 1008 – Introductory Chemistry
 Rutherford’s Nuclear Atomic Model
• The positive charges within an atom are contained in a tiny core called the nucleus.
• The nucleus contains positively charged protons and neutral particles called neutrons.
• The dense nucleus makes up 99.9% of the mass of the atom but occupies only a small
fraction of its volume.
• Most of the volume of the atom is empty space through which the tiny, negatively
charged electrons are dispersed.
• The electrons outside the nucleus are balanced by the protons inside the nucleus

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CHEM 1008 – Introductory Chemistry
2.6 The Properties of Protons, Neutrons, and
Electrons
• Atomic mass unit (amu or u) is
defined as one-twelfth (1/12) of the
mass of a single carbon-12 atom (6
protons and 6 neutrons).
• Neutral has no electrical charge.
• Proton and electron both have
electrical charge with equal
magnitude but opposite in sign.
• Opposite electrical charges attract
and cancel out each other.
• Same charges repel each other.

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CHEM 1008 – Introductory Chemistry
2.7 Elements: Atomic Number
• An element is defined by its number
of protons in the nucleus, which is
also known as its atomic number (Z).
• In the periodic table, elements are
listed according to their atomic
number and represented using their
chemical symbol (a one- or two-letter
abbreviations).
• Some chemical symbols are based on
the elements’ Latin or Greek names.
• Some elements are named based on
their chemical properties, some are
named after countries or scientists.
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CHEM 1008 – Introductory Chemistry
2.8 History of the Periodic Table
• Dmitri Mendeleev is often credited as the
“father of the periodic table”.
• In Mendeleev’s time, chemists had discovered
~65 elements along with their relative masses,
chemical activity and physical properties.
• In 1869, Mendeleev noticed that when elements
are listed in order of increasing relative mass,
certain sets of properties recur periodically (a
repeating pattern is observed).
• In Mendeleev’s periodic table, elements were
arranged with increasing relative mass and those
with similar properties were aligned in the same
vertical columns.
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CHEM 1008 – Introductory Chemistry
2.9 Modern Periodic Table
• Elements are listed in order of
increasing atomic number (Z).
• Elements can be broadly
classified into:
• Metals: good conductors of heat
and electricity, malleability,
ductility, lose electrons when
under chemical reactions.
• Nonmetals: poor conductors of
heat and electricity, gain
electrons upon chemical
reactions.
• Metalloids (semiconductors):
intermediate electrical
conductivity (controllable).
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CHEM 1008 – Introductory Chemistry
Modern Periodic Table
• Main-group elements have
properties that are more
predictable based on their
position in the periodic table.
• Transition elements (or transition
metals) have properties that are
less predictable based on their
position in the periodic table.
• Each column, labelled by a group
number, is a family or group of
elements with similar properties.

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CHEM 1008 – Introductory Chemistry
2.10 Ions: Losing and Gaining Electrons
• Ions: atoms or molecules with a net electrical charge due to the lost
or gain of electrons.

• Note: the magnitude of the charge of an ion is usually written before the sign of
the charge (i.e., 2+, 3+, 2–, etc.)

• Cations are positively charged ions (i.e., Na+, Ca2+)

• Anions are negatively charged ions (i.e., F–, O2–)
• Cations and anions always occur together so that the substance is charge-neutral.
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CHEM 1008 – Introductory Chemistry
Ions and the Periodic Table
• For main-group elements, the type of ions (or charge)
they tend to form can be predicted based on their
position in the periodic table.
• The group number provides the number of valence
electrons for that group of elements (only exception
is helium)
• Valence electrons are the outermost electrons in an
atom and dictate its chemical properties.
• Main-group elements tend to form ions that have the
same number of valence electrons as the nearest
noble gas (either in forward or backward direction).
• Oxygen (O) tends to ionize to O2– by gaining two additional
electrons for a total of 8 valence electrons (same as Neon)
• Magnesium (Mg) tends to ionize to Mg2+ by losing two
valence electrons for a total of 8 valence electrons (same as
Neon).
• Similarly, Group 1 tends to form 1+ ions, Group 2
forms 2+ ions, Group 17 forms 1 – ions and so on.
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CHEM 1008 – Introductory Chemistry
2.11 Isotopes: When the Number of Neutrons Varies
• Atoms of a given element always have the same number of protons,
however, their number of neutrons can vary.
• Isotopes: atoms with the same number of protons but different
numbers of neutrons.
• Thus, the atoms of a given element do not always have the same
mass (contrary to what John Dalton originally proposed).
• In nature, each element has a fixed percentage abundances of its
various isotopes.

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CHEM 1008 – Introductory Chemistry
Isotope: Mass Number
• Isotopes are often represented as:

Mass number (A) = Number of protons + Number of Neutrons

= Atomic Number (Z) + Number of Neutrons

• Another common notation for isotopes is:

• The atomic number (Z) is ignored because by knowing the chemical symbol, the
atomic number can be deduced.
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CHEM 1008 – Introductory Chemistry
2.12 Atomic Mass: The Average Mass of an Element’s Atoms
Atomic mass
• The atomic mass of each
element found in the periodic
table is the average mass
calculated based on the percent
natural abundances of the
various isotopes.
• For example, Neon (20.18 amu)
is obtained by:

Atomic mass = (0.9048 x 19.99 amu) +

(0.0027 x 20.99 amu) +
(0.0925 x 21.99)
= 20.18 amu

Atomic Mass = ∑ (Fraction of Isotope i x Mass of isotope i) 20

CHEM 1008 – Introductory Chemistry