Early Atomic Theory

Although the idea of the atom was first suggested by Democritus in

the fourth century BC, his suppositions were not useful in explaining
chemical phenomena, because there was no experimental evidence
to support them. It was not until the late 1700's that early chemists
began to explain chemical behavior in terms of the atom. Joseph
Priestly, Antoine Lavoisier, and others set the stage for the
foundation of chemistry. They demonstrated that substances could
combine to form new materials. It was the English chemist, John
Dalton, who put the pieces of the puzzle together and developed an
atomic theory in 1803.

Dalton's atomic theory contains five basic assumptions:

 All matter consists of tiny particles called atoms. Dalton and others
imagined the atoms that composed all matter as tiny, solid spheres in various
stages of motion.

 Atoms are indestructible and unchangeable. Atoms of an element cannot

be created, destroyed, divided into smaller pieces, or transformed into atoms
of another element. Dalton based this hypothesis on the law of conservation
of mass as stated by Antoine Lavoisier and others around 1785.

 Elements are characterized by the weight of their atoms. Dalton

suggested that all atoms of the same element have identical weights.
Therefore, every single atom of an element such as oxygen is identical to
every other oxygen atom. However, atoms of different elements, such as
oxygen and mercury, are different from each other.

 In chemical reactions, atoms combine in small, whole-number ratios.

Experiments that Dalton and others performed indicated that chemical
reactions proceed according to atom to atom ratios which were precise and
well-defined.

 When elements react, their atoms may combine in more than one whole-
number ratio. Dalton used this assumption to explain why the ratios of two
 elements in various compounds, such as oxygen and nitrogen in nitrogen
oxides, differed by multiples of each other.

John Dalton's atomic theory was generally accepted because it explained the laws of
conservation of mass, definite proportions, multiple proportions, and other
observations. Although exceptions to Dalton's theory are now known, his theory has
endured reasonably well, with modifications, throughout the years.

Modern Atomic Theory: Electrically Charged Particles

Approximately fifty years after John Dalton's proposal of the atom, evidence began to
accumulate which suggested that the atom might not be the solid sphere
that Dalton had envisioned. This evidence came in the form of the discovery of
electrically charged particles and radioactive materials. Based on these new
discoveries, Dalton's proposal of a solid, indestructible atom became unacceptable.
Listed below, are a few of the significant discoveries that were clues that led to the
development of the modern theory of the atom.

In the 1830's, Michael Faraday, a British physicist, made one of the most significant
discoveries that led to the idea that atoms had an electrical component. Faraday placed
two opposite electrodes in a solution of water containing a dissolved compound. He
observed that one of the elements of the dissolved compound accumulated on one
electrode, and the other element was deposited on the opposite electrode. It was clear
to Faraday that electrical forces were responsible for the joining of atoms in
compounds.

In 1879, Sir William Crookes studied the effects of sending an electric current through a
gas in a sealed tube. The tube had electrodes at either end and a flow of electrically
charged particles moved from one of electrodes. This electrode was called the cathode,
and the particles were known as cathode rays. The particles were first believed to be
negatively charged atoms or molecules. However, subsequent experiments showed that
these particles could penetrate thin sheets of material which would not be possible if the
particles were as large as atoms or molecules.

In 1895, Wilhelm Roentgen, experimenting with cathode rays, discovered new and
different kinds of rays. Roentgen discovered that if he directed these rays toward a
paper plate coated with barium platinocyanide, the plate became fluorescent. During
subsequent experiments, he found the rays created an image on a photographic plate.
These "new" rays were originally known as Roentgen rays. We know them today
as rays which are part of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Modern Atomic Theory: Radioactive Materials

In 1896, Henri Bequerel was studying the
fluorescent properties of uranium salts and
placed a piece of the uranium salt on top of a
photographic plate wrapped in black paper. He
discovered, upon development, that the plate
was exposed in the shape of the uranium
sample. Bequerel had discovered radioactivity.
The radiation emitted by the uranium shared
certain properties with x-rays and light.
Becquerel and two of his students, Marie and Bequerel's photographic plate

Pierre Curie, shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics for their studies in spontaneous
radiation.

Further experiments by other scientists showed that when the beam from a radioactive
ore was passed through a strong magnetic field, there were three kinds of radiation
emitted. These rays were named alpha, beta, and gamma by Ernest Rutherford. Alpha
radiation is a stream of positive particles composed of two protons and two neutrons
(helium nuclei), beta radiation is a stream of particles with negative charges now known
as electrons, and gamma radiation is part of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Based on the evidence of experiments in the latter part of the 19th century, it became
apparent that the atom was not a solid sphere, and was far more complex than
originally thought by the early Greek philosophers and John Dalton. A new model of the
atom would have to be developed to incorporate these new findings.

Modern Atomic Theory: Models

In 1897, J.J. Thomson discovered the electron by experimenting with a Crookes, or

cathode ray, tube. He demonstrated that cathode rays were negatively charged. In
addition, he also studied positively charged particles in neon gas. Thomson realized that
the accepted model of an atom did not account for negatively or positively charged
particles. Therefore, he proposed a model of the atom which he likened to plum
pudding. The negative electrons represented the raisins in the pudding and the dough
contained the positive charge. Thomson's model of the atom did explain some of the
electrical properties of the atom due to the electrons, but failed to recognize the positive
charges in the atom as particles.

In 1911, Ernest Rutherford, a former student of J.J. Thomson, proved Thomson's plum
pudding structure incorrect. Rutherford with the assistance of Ernest Marsden and Hans
Geiger performed a series of experiments using alpha particles. Rutherford aimed alpha
particles at solid substances such as gold foil and recorded the location of the alpha
particle "strikes" on a fluorescent screen as they passed through the foil. To the
experimenters’ amazement, although most of the alpha particles passed unaffected
through the gold foil as expected, a small number of particles were deflected at an
angle, and a few ricocheted straight back. Rutherford concluded that the atom consisted
of a small, dense, positively charged nucleus in the center of the atom with negatively
charged electrons surrounding it. The discovery of the nucleus is considered to be
Rutherford's greatest scientific work.

All atoms are made from three subatomic particles

Protons, neutron & electrons.

These particles have the following properties:

Particle Charge Mass (g) Mass (amu)

Proton +1 1.6727 x 10-24 g 1.007316

Neutron 0 1.6750 x 10-24 g 1.008701

Electron -1 9.110 x 10-28 g 0.000549

In the above table I have used a unit of mass called the atomic mass unit
(amu). This unit is much more convenient to use than grams for describing
masses of atoms. It is defined so that both protons and neutrons have a
mass of approximately 1 amu. Its precise definition will be given later.

The important points to keep in mind are as follows:

 Protons and neutrons have almost the same mass, while the electron
is approximately 2000 times lighter.
 Protons and electrons carry charges of equal magnitude, but
opposite charge. Neutrons carry no charge (they are neutral).

It was once thought that protons, neutrons and electrons were spread out
in a rather uniform fashion to form the atom (see J.J. Thompson’s plum
pudding model of the atom on page 42), but now we know the actual
structure of the atom to be quite different.
What does an atom look like?

Protons and neutrons are held together rather closely in the center of
the atom. Together they make up the nucleus, which accounts for nearly
all of the mass of the atom.

Electrons move rapidly around the nucleus and constitute almost the
entire volume of the atom. Although quantum mechanics are necessary to
explain the motion of an electron about the nucleus, we can say that the
distribution of electrons about an atom is such that the atom has a
spherical shape.

Atoms have sizes on the order of 1-5 � (1 angstrom = 1 � = 1 � 10-10 m)

and masses on the order of 1-300 amu.

To put the mass and dimensions of an atom into perspective consider the
following analogies. If an atom were the size of Ohio stadium, the nucleus
would only be the size of a small marble. However, the mass of that
marble would be ~ 115 million tons.

What holds an atom together?

The negatively charged electron is attracted to the positively charged

nucleus by a Coulombic attraction.

The protons and neutrons are held together in the nucleus by the strong
nuclear force.

How many electrons, protons and neutrons are contained in an atom?

Atoms in their natural state have no charge, that is they are neutral.
Therefore, in a neutral atom the number of protons and electrons are the
same. If this condition is violated the atom has a net charge and is called
an ion.
The number of protons in the nucleus determines the identity of the
atom. For example all carbon atoms contain six protons, all gold atoms
contain 79 protons, all lead atoms contain 82 protons.

Two atoms with the same number of protons, but different numbers of
neutrons are called isotopes.

How does the structure of the atom relate to its properties?

Chemical reactions involve either the transfer or the sharing of electrons

between atoms. Therefore, the chemical reactivity/ properties of an
element is primarily dependent upon the number of electrons in an atom
of that element. Protons also play a significant role because the tendency
for an atom to either lose, gain or share electrons is dependent upon the
charge of the nucleus.

Therefore, we can say that the chemical reactivity of an atom is

dependent upon the number of electrons and protons, and independent of
the number of neutrons.

The mass and radioactive properties of an atom are dependent upon the
number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus.

Note: The number of protons, neutrons and electrons in an atom

completely determine its properties and identity, regardless of how and
where the atom was made. So it is inaccurate to speak of synthetic atoms
and natural atoms. In other words a lead atom is a lead atom, end of
story. It doesn’t matter if was mined from the earth, produced in a
nuclear reactor, or came to earth on an asteroid.

What are Isotopes?

Let's imagine a pair of identical twins. These twins have the same temperament,
and since they're identical, it is very hard to tell them apart unless you examine
them closely. When it is time for their annual physical, the twins need to step on
a weighing scale, and when they do, one weighs slightly more than the other. In
terms of chemistry, we can say that these twins are like isotopes of each other.
Atoms and elements are made of protons, neutrons and electrons. The nucleus is
made of protons and neutrons, and the electrons surround the nucleus, as shown
in the illustration below. The sum of the number of protons and the number of
neutrons is equal to the atomic mass.

In a given element, the number of neutrons can be different from each other,
while the number of protons is not. These different versions of the same element
are called isotopes. Isotopes are atoms with the same number of protons but
that have a different number of neutrons. Since the atomic number is equal to
the number of protons and the atomic mass is the sum of protons and neutrons,
we can also say that isotopes are elements with the same atomic number but
different mass numbers.

Let us take a look at an example.

Isotopes of Hydrogen
The three are all isotopes of hydrogen. As you can see, they have the same
atomic number, or number of protons, (number at the lower left of the element)
but different atomic masses (number at the upper left of the element).

The number of neutrons can be calculated by calculating the difference between

the atomic mass and atomic number. We can see that for the isotopes of
hydrogen, they have varying number of neutrons. For protium, the number of
neutrons is zero; for deuterium, the number of neutrons is one; and for tritium,
the number of neutrons is two.

Going back to our comparison with identical twins, we can say that these three
isotopes of hydrogen are like identical triplets of each other - they may appear to
be identical outside, but they are different inside, and they also have different
names.

Isotopes of Carbon
A very popular element, carbon, also has isotopes. There are three isotopes of
carbon: carbon-12, carbon-13 and carbon-14. The numbers that are after the
carbon refer to the atomic mass.
The most common and abundant isotope of carbon is carbon-12. Looking at the
percentages below each carbon isotope, we see that almost 98.9% of the carbon
that is found is in the form of carbon-12. The least abundant form of carbon is
carbon-14, with an abundance of less than 0.0001%. If we calculate the number
of neutrons for each carbon isotope, we can see that they differ from each other.
For carbon-12, we have 6 neutrons; for carbon-13, we have 7 neutrons; and for
carbon-14, we have 8 neutrons.

You may notice if we look at the atomic masses of elements in the periodic table
that they are rarely ever whole numbers, just like for carbon where the atomic
mass is 12.011. This is because the atomic mass of carbon is based on the
average atomic masses of its isotopes and the abundance of each isotope.
Types of Isotopes
There are two main types of isotopes, and these are radioactive isotopes and
stable isotopes.

Stable isotopes have a stable combination of protons and neutrons, so they

have stable nuclei and do not undergo decay. These isotopes do not pose
dangerous effects to living things, like radioactive isotopes.

They are typically useful when performing experiments in the environment and in
the field of geochemistry. These isotopes can help determine the chemical
composition and age of minerals and other geologic objects. Some examples of
stable isotopes are isotopes of carbon, potassium, calcium and vanadium.