MODERN ATOMIC

THEORY
Atomism
•Refers to the
philosophy for which
all matter is
produced from
• Robert Boyle (1627-1691)
• An Irish philosopher and alchemist

• Water, fire, earth, and air are not true elements

• because it can still be broken down through

chemical means into simpler substances such as
iron, oxygen, lead, hydrogen, and sulphur.

• He believed that atoms indeed exist even though

• Boyle’s J-tube Experiment
• He used a J-shaped tube made of glass
• The tube was closed at one end and open to the atmosphere
at the other.
• He trapped a small amount of air at the closed end by adding
a little amount of mercury (Hg) to the tube.

• Increase the pressure = volume of the trapped air

decreased
(adding more Hg)
• Lessened the pressure = volume of the trapped air
increased
(removing some amount of the Hg)
Considering that there was no
leak in the tube, how was the
trapped air compressed?

•The air was composed of minute particles

(atoms) that were just separated by space and
which was forced closer to one another when the
pressure was increased.
thus he believed that it will decrease the
volume of the air.
French Experiments
• In the late 1700s

• Supported the idea

• Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier
(1743-1794)
• In an experiment, he burned small quantities of sulfur
and phosphorus
• He measured the mass of the reactants before the
experiments, and then measured the mass of the
products after.
• He was surprised when the mass of the products was
greater than that of the reactants.
• The total masses before and after was unequal
because he did not include oxygen in the air as a
reactant.
• LAW OF CONSERVATION OF
MASS
By Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier

• Statesthat in a chemical reaction,

mass is neither created nor
destroyed.

• Matter
can undergo chemical
changes, but the total mass
• Joseph-Louis Proust (1754-
1826)
• In his experiment in 1794, he used copper
carbonate as a reactant in a decomposition
reaction.
• Copper carbonate was chemically broken down into
its components:
copper, carbon and oxygen.
• He discovered that the three elements that
constituted it were consistently found in constant
and identical mass ratios.
• He determined that there were always five parts
• LAW OF DEFINITE
PROPORTIONS
• By Joseph-Louis Proust
• States that the mass ratio of elements in a
chemical compound is always constant.

• Furthermore, Proust realized that the ratios are

always whole numbers.

• This insight suggested that atoms could not be

divided; rather, they are discrete units.
• DALTON’S ATOMIC THEORY
• By John Dalton (1766-1844)
• Dalton is a British chemist, who wondered
how certain amounts of various elements
combined to yield compounds.

• In his experiments, he computed for the

relative masses of several elements.

• He introduces the first “table of

• Essential Facts About ATOMS
• By: John Dalton
• All matter is made up of atoms – extremely
minute, indestructible, and indivisible particles.
• All atoms of a certain elements are identical in
size, weight, and chemical properties.
• Atoms of an element differ from those of other
elements.
• Atoms can neither be created nor destroyed.
They cannot be divided into even smaller particles.
• In any chemical reaction, the atoms of the
reactants can be separated, combined, or
• Joseph John Thomson
• From the Alchemists’ POV, the atom had no
internal structures or smaller
constituents.

• In 1897, this was proven wrong when

Thomson discovered one of the components
of the atom –
the electrons.
• Cathode ray tube experiment
• By J.J. Thomson
• Thomson discovered that the atom consists
of electrons through this experiment.

CATHODE RAY TUBE is a vacuum tube with

two metal electrodes:
cathode ( negatively charged plate)
anode (positively charged plate)
• Thomson studied the path traversed by cathode
rays as they crossed the space between the two
metal electrodes.
• When electricity was sent through the tube, a
glowing beam appeared inside the tube. Other
scientists had shown that this beam came from
the cathode. However, they had not been able to
determine what the beam was made of.
• When Thomson placed a magnet near the tube,
the beam was deflected, or bent. Only streams
of charged particles can be bent by a magnet.
• Based on the direction the beam bent,
Thomson determined that the particles in the
beam were negatively charged. His
experiments also showed that, no matter what
substance the cathode was made of, the beam
was always the same.

• Based on his results, Thomson concluded that

the particles in the beam came from atoms.
He also concluded that the particles were the
• Thomson’s “Plum
Pudding” Model of
the Atom

By Joseph John
Thomson (1856-1940)
• Thomson’s experiment
showed that atoms
contained even smaller
particles. He proposed a new
model of the atom based on
his discovery. According to
Thomson’s model, electrons
were spread randomly
throughout an atom. The
rest of the atom was a
positively charged material.
• Ernest Rutherford (1871-
1937)
•A British physicist who
critically analysed
Thomson’s plum
pudding model of the
atom.

• He conducted
• Gold foil Experiment
• By Rutherford
• For Rutherford, if the plum pudding model were
indeed true, then the mass of the atom must be
spread out or distributed throughout the
atom.

• Thus, if high-velocity alpha particles were to be

bombarded at an atom, an insignificant deflection
of the alpha particles must occur.

•
• Gold foil Experiment
• An experiment in which a thin gold foil was
bombarded with alpha particles.

• He observed that most alpha particles just passed

through the film of gold atoms. This implied that the
atom is mostly an empty space.

• However, a few alpha particles rebounded

directly backwards; others did so at an angle.
• Gold foil Experiment
• An alpha particle is positively charged
and thus will be deflected at an angle once
it hits another positive entity. ( similar
charges repel each other)

• The slight deflection of few alpha particles

signified that the nucleus of an atom is
positively charged.
•WHAT ABOUT THOSE RAYS
THAT WERE DEFLECTED
DIRECTLY BACK TO THE FOIL?
• They
must hit something in the
atom that was considerably
massive.
Rutherford’s Planetary Model of the
Atom

• In
the Rutherford
model, negatively
charged electrons
orbit the positively
charged nucleus.
This is similar to the
• Niels Bohr (1885-1962)
• Danish physicist who worked in Ernest
Rutherford’s laboratory in 1913.

• Rutherford requested him to work on some

flaws of his planetary atomic model.
• Bohr Model of the Atom
•By Niels Bohr
• The model includes the following postulates:

1. Electrons assume only definite orbits around the

nucleus. The orbits are stationary and stable.

2. Each orbit has an associated energy and a

designated energy level. For instance, the orbit
nearest to the nucleus has an energy designated
as E1, the next nearest orbit has energy E2, and
3. When an electron jumps from a higher level
(e.g. E3) to a lower energy level (e.g., E2),
light is emitted. When an electron jumps from
a lower energy level (e.g., E1) to a higher
energy level (e.g., E2) light is absorbed.
Absorbed or emitted light corresponds to a
specific color or wavelength of light.

4. The light emitted or absorbed has energy and

• Bohr Model of the Atom
• The Bohr model shows the
atom as a small, positively
charged nucleus
surrounded by orbiting
electrons.
• Bohr was the first to discover
that electrons travel in
separate orbits around the
nucleus and that the
number of electrons in the
• Emission Spectrum
• Is
a series of narrow lines of specific
colors separated by black spaces that
are generated when an emitted light
passes through a prism.
• THE ATOMIC STRUCTURE
• ATOMIC PROPERTIES
• THE ATOMIC STRUCTURE
• atomic number (Z)
• Every atom of a given type of element always
has the same number of protons in the
nucleus.

the atomic number tells us both the number of protons

in the nucleus and the number of electrons in the
electron cloud of a neutral atom
• THE ATOMIC STRUCTURE
• ATOMIC WEIGHT/MASS
• an element is a mixture of isotopes, and it is
useful to know the average mass, called the
atomic weight (or atomic mass), of the
atoms in a sample.
• THE ATOMIC STRUCTURE
• MASS NUMBER (A)
• isthe sum of the number of protons and
neutrons.
• both protons and neutrons contribute to
the mass of an atom.
• THE ATOMIC STRUCTURE
• atomic mass unit
• which defines the mass of individual atoms
relative to a standard mass.
• One atomic mass unit (amu) equals one-

twelfth the mass of a carbon atom that has

six protons and six neutrons; 1 amu = 1.661
x 10–24 g.
• THE ATOMIC STRUCTURE
• ATOMIC NUMBER AND MASS NUMBER
• SAMPLE EXERCISE

Give the complete chemical symbol

for the atom that contains 82
protons, 82 electrons, and 126
neutrons.
• SAMPLE EXERCISE
Determining the Number of Subatomic Particles in Atoms

• How many protons, neutrons, and

electrons are in (a) an atom of 197Au,
(b) an atom of strontium-90?
• PRACTICE EXERCISE
• Howmany protons, neutrons,
and electrons are in (a) a
138
Ba atom, (b) an atom of
phosphorus-31?
• PRACTICE
EXERCISE