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Discovery of Structure of Atoms
Dalton’s Atomic Theory
The idea of atomic theory
was revived by John Dalton
(1766-1844) 2,000 years
after Democritus first
proposed about it.
In 1800, John Dalton performed a series of
experiments showing the matter consists of lumpy
particles called “atoms”.
His Findings led to the formulation of what is commonly
known as “Dalton’s Atomic Theory”.
Dalton formulated his theory based on Antoine
Lavoiser’s (1743-1794) law of conservation of mass and
Joseph Proust’s (1754-1826) law of definite proportion.
Law of Conservation of
Mass
Law of Definite Proportion
The total mass of substances
before and after a complete
reaction are equal.
Elements combine in a fixed
proportion to form a
compound.
The following are the major postulates of Dalton’s Atomic theory:
1.Matter is composed of small
indivisible particles called atoms.
2.Atoms of the same element are
identical.
3.Compounds are formed by a
combination of two or more different
kinds of atoms.
4.A chemical reaction is
a rearrangement of atoms.
The formulation of Dalton’s atomic
theory marked the start of the modern
era of chemistry.
However, during his time, (1800s), some
scientists still did not believe that there
was an indivisible atom found in all
matter.
In the 1900s, the theory became
widely accepted upon discovery of
subatomic particles.
Let us look at the Cathode Ray Tube experiment
The CRT by J.J Thomson
is a glass tube with two
electrodes: the positive
electrode called anode
and the negative
electrode called
cathode.
Once you apply a sufficiently high voltage, a stream
of ELECTRONS flows towards the "cathode"; this is
what you call a cathode ray. Inside the tube there
exists near perfect vacuum, so there are barely any
other gas molecules, ions etc.
Compare it to a lightning.
JJ Thomson decide to apply a magnetic field in his experiment.
J.J. Thomson was able to have a ratio of the mass of the bent particles
He found out that it was 2000x lighter
than a Hydrogen atom. And that was
the time the electron was discovered.
The Discovery of Proton, Electron and Neutrons
In 1886, Eugen Goldstein (1850-1930) discovered the
positively charged subatomic particle.
However, it was Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937) who coined
the term proton for the positively charged particle in an atom.
Then using CRT experiment, J.J. Thomson (1856-1940)
discovered that an atom is also composed of negatively
charged particles which he named electrons.
In 1932, James Chadwick (1891-1974)
discovered the neutral particles, which he
called neutrons, in the nucleus of an atom.
Atomic model proposed by
different scientists
J.J. Thomson’s Plum Pudding Model
In 1904, he proposed the “plum
pudding” model of divisible atom.
According to him, atoms consist
of a large sphere of uniform
positive charge embedded with
smaller negatively charged
particles called electrons
(corpuscles).
Ernest Rutherford’s Nuclear Model
Based on this model, the atom has a very small positively charged nucleus that contains most of the mass of the atom.
The electrons move around the nucleus
The protons found inside the nucleus are positively charged.
The number of protons is equal to the
number of electrons.
Later he postulated the existence of a
neutral particle in the nucleus to make up
for he calculated mass deficiency in the
atom studied.
Niels Bohr’s Planetary model
In his model (1.) the
electrons move around
the nucleus in fixed orbit.
An electron in a
particular orbit has
constant energy.
2. An electron can absorb energy and move to a
higher energy orbit of larger radius;
3. An excited electron can fall back to its original
orbit by emitting energy as radiation;
4. Electrons can only exist in certain discrete
energy levels.
James Chadwick Model
According to him, the nucleus
of an atom contains neutrons,
electrically neutral particles
with a mass similar to that of
proton.
Quantum Mechanical Model
In this model, the electrons are considered to be moving around the nucleus- but not in a fixed orbit.
Their exact location is not known, it
is only their probable location that is
being considered.
This location is around the
nucleus, in an arbitrary cloud.
This “electron cloud” is that
region around the nucleus
where electrons are most
likely to be found.