Birth of Chemistry:

Understanding Atom
Lecture 8
 Alchemistry: (from Arabic: al-kīmiyā)

a medieval chemical science and speculative philosophy

aiming to achieve the transmutation of the base metals
into gold, the discovery of a universal cure for disease,
and the discovery of a means of indefinitely prolonging
life.
Democritus (460-370BC) a Greek philosopher, was the first person to use the
word atom or atomos (in Greek). It means indivisible or unbreakable. He
believed that atoms were too small to be seen.

According to him “The world consists of an infinite number of minute

particles, whose different characteristics and combinations account
for the different properties, and qualities of everything in the world,
animate as well as inanimate”.

Aristotle and Plato favored the earth, fire, air, and water approach to
the nature of matter.
Because of their position, nobody believed Democritus at that time.

It took 2000 years before the atomic theory was accepted

 Concept of atom in ancient India

At about the same time that Democritus and others were developing some basic ideas of atoms in Greece,
Indian philosophers were thinking about similar issues. As with the Greeks, the Indian philosophers were
thinkers not experimentalists. So, they developed theories of fundamental objects by logic. They concluded
that some fundamental building blocks—atoms—existed.

One of the earliest philosophers (about 600 BCE) was Kanada, the founder of the Vaisesika School. 
Atoms in this school of thought were indestructible and thus could not be divided into smaller objects.
 They were so small that they could not be perceived by humans. Instead, the atoms combined, and it
took a combination of at least three atoms to be apparent. Atoms of the four fundamental substances
—earth, air, fire, and water—had other properties such as color, odor, flavor, and touch.  Earth and
water also had weight.

Dean Zollman
In classical Indian philosophy two Sanskrit words are used for the atom, the
smallest impartite physical entity: "aṇu" and "paramāṇu." On the existence of
such atoms, the classical Indian philosophers were divided.
Dalton’s model
In the early 1800s, the English chemist John Dalton performed a
number of experiments that eventually led to the acceptance of the
idea of atoms.

Dalton came from a poor family, not enough money for higher
education. Initially, he worked as a school teacher and later in the
University of Manchester.
 Dalton and birth of modern chemistry

Dalton also used his theory to explain the Law of Constant Composition, discovered in 1806 by
Joseph Proust. The Law states that for a given compound, the weights of the elements making up the
compound are always in a fixed weight ratio. In water for example, the weight ratio of hydrogen to
oxygen in the compound water is always 1 : 8 (1 kg of hydrogen is joined to 8 kg of oxygen, 2.5 g H :
20 g O, 3.5 g H to 28 g O etc.) This is explained with atoms since every compound molecule is alike
and all atoms of one kind have the same weight.

Besides showing that his theory fit well with experiments, Dalton’s 1827 paper suggested a method
for finding the actual weights of different atoms so atoms now were real enough that they could be
weighed! Dalton joined the world of chemical experiments to the world of philosophical ideas.
 Dalton’s atomic theory
•Atom: The smallest possible amount of matter that still retains its identity as a chemical
element, now known to consist of a nucleus surrounded by electrons.
•Law of multiple proportions: The law stating that reactants will always combine in set
whole number ratios.
Joseph Proust

•The law of definite composition was proposed by Joseph Proust based on his observations
on the composition of chemical compounds.
•Proust proposed that a compound is always composed of the same proportions of elements
by mass.
•Though initially controversial, the law of definite composition was supported by Dalton’s
atomic theory.
Proust had studied tin oxides and found that their masses were either 88.1% tin and 11.9%
oxygen or 78.7% tin and 21.3% oxygen (these were tin(II) oxide and tin dioxide
respectively). Dalton noted from these percentages that 100g of tin will combine either with
13.5g or 27g of oxygen; 13.5 and 27 form a ratio of 1:2.
Description of his model:

All elements are composed (made up) of atoms. It is impossible to divide or destroy an atom.

All atoms of the same element are alike. (One atom of oxygen is like another atom of oxygen.

Atoms of different elements are different. (An atom of oxygen is different than an atom of hydrogen)

Atoms of different elements combine to form a compound. These atoms have to be in definite whole
number ratios. For example, water is a compound made up of 2 atoms of hydrogen and one atom of
oxygen. (A ratio of 2:1)  Three atoms of hydrogen and 2 atoms of oxygen cannot combine to make water. 

Chemical reactions occur when atoms are separated, joined, or rearranged. Atoms of one element are
never changed into atoms of another element as a result of a chemical reaction.
 Law of conservation of mass

Dalton showed how Laws discovered by experiments could be explained by the atomic theory. The Law
of Conservation of Mass is explained by the atomic theory since all chemical reactions are just a
rearrangement of atoms – no atoms are created or destroyed.
Law of constant proportion

Dalton also used his theory to explain the Law of Constant Composition, discovered in 1806
by Joseph Proust. The Law states that for a given compound, the weights of the elements
making up the compound are always in a fixed weight ratio.
Atomic model: Further improvement JJ
Thomson (1897)
• JJ Thomson provided the first hint that an atom may be made of
smaller particles
• His model is known as the plum pudding model
• Atoms are made with a positively charged material and negatively
charged particles are scattered all around
Thomson studied the passage of an electric current through a gas. As the
current passed through the gas it gave off rays of negatively charged
particles.
Thomson concluded that the negative charges came from within the atom.

A particle small than an atom had to exist.

The atom was divisible

Thomson called the negatively charged corpuscles, today known as electrons

Since the gas was known to be neutral, having no charge, he reasoned that there must
be positively charged particles in the atom.

He could not find them

Discovery of radioactivity

Discovery of Radioactivity Antoine Henri Becquerel (1896)

Pierre Curie Marie Curie, née Sklodowska (1898).
The Curies discovered Polonium and Radium
Radioactivity
Rutherford Gold Foil
Experiment

In 1908, the English physicist Ernest Rutherford was hard at work

on an experiment that seemed to have little to do with unraveling
the mysteries of the atomic structure.

Rutherford’s experiment Involved firing a stream of tiny

positively charged particles at a thin sheet of gold foil (2000 atoms
thick)
 Rutherford’s model
Most of the positively charged “bullets” passed right through the gold atoms in the
sheet of gold foil without changing course at all.

Some of the positively charged “bullets,” however, did bounce away from the gold
sheet as if they had hit something solid . He knew that positive charges repel positive
charges.

This could only mean that the gold atoms in the sheet were mostly open space .
Atoms were not a pudding filled with a positively charged material. Rutherford
concluded that an atom had a small, dense, positively charged center that repelled
his positively charged “bullets.” He called the center of the atom the “ nucleus ” The
nucleus is tiny compared to the atom as a whole.

Rutherford reasoned that all of an atom’s positively charged particles were contained
in the nucleus. The negatively charged particles were scattered outside the nucleus
around the atom’s edge .
Development of vacuum pumps played an important role in
understanding about subatomic particles
Some instruments, Geiger counter
Cloud Chamber

A cloud chamber consists of a sealed environment containing a  supersaturated vapour

of water or alcohol.
An energetic charged particle interacts with the gaseous mixture by knocking electrons off gas molecules
via electrostatic forces during collisions, resulting in a trail of ionized gas particles.
The resulting ions act as condensation centers around which a mist-like trail of small droplets form if the
gas mixture is at the point of condensation.
 Bohr’s Model

In 1913, the Danish scientist Niels Bohr proposed an

improvement. In his model, he placed each electron in a
specific energy level.

According to Bohr’s atomic model, electrons move in

definite orbits around the nucleus, much like planets
circle the sun. These orbits, or energy levels , are located
at certain distances from the nucleus.
Exercise

Atomic Number A unique number for each element that equals the number of protons in an atom of
that element.

Atomic Mass Number A unique number for each element that equals the number of protons and
neutrons present in the nucleus of the atom. In other words is the sum of the nucleus of the atom.
(P+N=mass)

83 Bismuth Bi 209 What is the atomic mass? 209 What is the atomic number? 83 What is the number
of protons? 83 What is the number of neutrons? 126

Elements A substance that cannot be broken down in to simpler substance. There 112 elements in the
periodic table.
Elements 112 total elements 92 natural elements 20 artificial or synthetic elements man-made
elements.
Wave Model
Today’s atomic model is based on the principles of wave mechanics .

According to the theory of wave mechanics, electrons do not move about an atom in
a definite path, like the planets around the sun.

In fact, it is impossible to determine the exact location of an electron. The probable

location of an electron is based on how much energy the electron has.

According to the modern atomic model, at atom has a small positively charged
nucleus surrounded by a large region in which there are enough electrons to make
an atom neutral.
How to find number of atoms

To calculate the number of atoms in a sample, we need to find how many moles of the
element the sample contains.

A mole is a unit chemists use. It's equal to Avogadro's number (6.02 X 1023) of atoms.

By definition, the weight of one mole of an element (its molar mass) is equal to its atomic
weight in grams. The atomic weight for each element is on the periodic table right under the
element's symbol. The atomic weight of carbon is 12 atomic mass units (amu), so the weight
of one mole is 12 grams.
If you have a sample that contains only atoms of a particular element, weigh the sample in
grams and divide by the atomic weight of the element. The quotient tells you the number of
moles. Multiply that by Avogadro's number, and you'll find out how many atoms the sample
contains.
Finding nature of atoms