STRUCTURE OF ATOM

CHEMISTRY
COURSE CODE: CHEM 201
FALL 2024

Instructor
Tanjum Motin Mitul
[email protected]
 Thomson Model of Atom
■ J. J. Thomson proposed that an atom possesses a
spherical shape (radius approximately 10⁻¹⁰ m) in which the
positive charge is uniformly distributed.

■ The electrons are embedded into it in such a manner as to

give the most stable electrostatic arrangement (Fig. 2.4).

■ Many different names are given to this model, for example, plum pudding, raisin pudding or
watermelon. Thomson model of atom can be visualised as a pudding or watermelon of
positive charge with plums or seeds (electrons) embedded into it.
■ An important feature of this model is that the mass of the atom is assumed to be uniformly
distributed over the atom.
■ Although this model was able to explain the overall neutrality of the atom, but was not
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consistent with the results of later experiments.
 Rutherford’s Nuclear Model of Atom
α–particle Scattering Experiment:

Construction:
■ A stream of high energy α–particles from a radioactive source was directed at a
thin foil (thickness ∼ 100 nm) of gold metal.
■ The thin gold foil had a circular fluorescent zinc sulphide screen around it.
■ Whenever α–particles struck the screen, a tiny flash of light was produced at
that point.
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 Rutherford’s Nuclear Model of Atom
α–particle Scattering Experiment:

Observation:
■ Most of the α–particles passed through
the gold foil undeflected.
■ A small fraction of the α–particles was
deflected by small angles.
■ A very few α–particles (∼1 in 20,000) bounced back, that is, were deflected by
nearly 180°.

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 Rutherford’s Nuclear Model of Atom
α–particle Scattering Experiment:

Conclusion:
■ Most of the space in the atom is empty as most of the α–particles passed through
the foil undeflected.
■ The deflection of a few α-particles shows that the atom's positive charge is
concentrated in a small region, not spread throughout as Thomson had thought. He
called this strong positive charge “nucleus”.
■ Calculations by Rutherford showed that the volume occupied by the nucleus is
negligibly small as compared to the total volume of the atom. The radius of the
atom is about 10⁻¹⁰ m, while that of nucleus is 10⁻¹⁵ m.
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 Rutherford’s Nuclear Model of Atom
On the basis of above observations and conclusions, Rutherford proposed the
nuclear model of atom. According to this model:
■ The positive charge and most of the mass of the atom was densely concentrated
in extremely small region. This very small portion of the atom was called
nucleus by Rutherford.
■ The nucleus is surrounded by electrons that move around the nucleus with a
very high speed in circular paths called orbits. Thus, Rutherford’s model of
atom resembles the solar system in which the nucleus plays the role of sun and
the electrons that of revolving planets.
■ Electrons and the nucleus are held together by electrostatic forces of attraction.

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 Rutherford’s Nuclear Model of Atom
Drawbacks of Rutherford’s Model:
■ Rutherford proposed that the electrons revolve around the nucleus in fixed paths called orbits.
■ According to Maxwell, accelerated charged particles emit electromagnetic radiations and
hence an electron revolving around the nucleus should emit electromagnetic radiation.
■ This radiation would carry energy from the motion of the electron which would come at the
cost of shrinking of orbits.
■ Ultimately the electrons would collapse in the nucleus.
■ Calculations have shown that as per the Rutherford model, an electron would collapse into the
nucleus in less than 10-8 seconds. So the Rutherford model was not in accordance with
Maxwell’s theory and could not explain the stability of an atom.
■ One of the drawbacks of the Rutherford model was also that he did not say anything about the
arrangement of electrons in an atom which made his theory incomplete.

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 Subatomic Particles
Protons
■ Protons are positively charged subatomic particles.
■ The charge of a proton is 1e, which corresponds to approximately 1.602 × 10⁻¹⁹
■ The mass of a proton is approximately 1.672 × 10⁻²⁴
■ Protons are over 1800 times heavier than electrons.
■ The total number of protons in the atoms of an element is always equal to the
atomic number of the element.

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 Subatomic Particles
Neutrons
■ The mass of a neutron is almost the same as that of a proton, i.e., 1.674
×10⁻²⁴
■ Neutrons are electrically neutral particles and carry no charge.
■ Different isotopes of an element have the same number of protons but vary
in the number of neutrons present in their respective nuclei.

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 Subatomic Particles
Electrons
■ The charge of an electron is -1e, which approximates to -1.602 × 10⁻¹⁹
■ The mass of an electron is approximately 9.1 × 10⁻³¹.
■ Due to the relatively negligible mass of electrons, they are ignored when
calculating the mass of an atom.

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 BOHR’S ATOMIC THEORY
Neils Bohr put forth his model of the atom in the year 1915. This is the most
widely used atomic model to describe the atomic structure of an element which is
based on Planck’s theory of quantization .
Postulates:
■ The electrons inside atoms are placed in discrete orbits called “stationery
orbits”.
■ The energy levels of these shells can be represented via quantum numbers.
Electrons can jump to higher levels by absorbing energy and move to lower
energy levels by losing or emitting their energy.
■ As long as an electron stays in its own stationery, there will be no absorption
or emission of energy.
■ Electrons revolve around the nucleus in these stationary orbits only.
■ The energy of the stationary orbits is quantized.
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 BOHR’S ATOMIC THEORY
Limitations of Bohr’s Atomic Theory:
■ Bohr’s atomic structure works only for single electron species such as H, He+,
Li2+, Be3+, ….
■ When the emission spectrum of hydrogen was observed under a more accurate
spectrometer, each line spectrum was seen to be a combination of a number of
smaller discrete lines.
■ Both Stark and Zeeman’s effects couldn’t be explained using Bohr’s theory.

Stark effect:Phenomenon of deflection of electrons in the presence of an electric

field.
Zeeman effect:Phenomenon of deflection of electrons in the presence of a
magnetic field.
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 Photoelectric Effect
■ H. Hertz performed a very interesting experiment in which electrons were ejected
when certain metals were exposed to a beam of light. The phenomenon is called
Photoelectric effect.

The results observed in this experiment were:

I. The electrons are ejected from the metal surface as soon as the beam of light strikes
the surface, i.e., there is no time lag between the striking of light beam and the
ejection of electrons from the metal surface.

II. The number of electrons ejected is proportional to the intensity or brightness of light.

III. For each metal, there is a characteristic minimum frequency, ν₀ (also known as
threshold frequency) below which photoelectric effect is not observed. At a frequency
ν > ν₀ , the ejected electrons come out with certain kinetic energy. The kinetic energies
of these electrons increase with the increase of frequency of the light used.
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 Photoelectric Effect
■ Since the striking photon has energy equal to hν and the minimum energy required
to eject the electron is hν₀ (also called work function, W₀ ),

■ Then the difference in energy (hν – hν₀ ) is transferred as the kinetic energy of
the photoelectron.

■ Following the conservation of energy principle, the kinetic energy of the ejected
electron is given by

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 Line Spectrum of Hydrogen
■ Since ordinary white light consists of waves with all the wavelengths in the visible
range, a ray of white light is spread out into a series of coloured bands called
spectrum.
■ The hydrogen spectrum consists of several series of lines named after their
discoverers.
■ Balmer showed in 1885 on the basis of experimental observations that if spectral
lines are expressed in terms of wavenumber (⊽ ), then the visible lines of the
hydrogen spectrum obey the following formula:

■ The series of lines described by this formula are called the balmer series. 15
 Line Spectrum of Hydroen
■ All series of lines in the hydrogen spectrum could be described by the following expression :

■ The value 109,677 cm⁻¹ is called the rydberg constant for hydrogen. The first five series
of lines that correspond to n₁ = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 are known as Lyman, Balmer, Paschen, Bracket
and Pfund series, respectively, Table 2.3 shows these series of transitions in the hydrogen
spectrum.

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Line Spectrum of Hydroen

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 Problems
■ Calculate (a) wavenumber and (b) frequency of yellow radiation
having wavelength 5800 Å.

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 Problems
■ Calculate (a) wavenumber and (b) frequency of yellow radiation
having wavelength 5800 Å.

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 Problems
■ Calculate energy of one mole of photons of radiation whose
frequency is 5 ×10¹⁴ Hz.

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 Problems
■ Calculate energy of one mole of photons of radiation whose
frequency is 5 ×10¹⁴ Hz.

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 Problems
■ When electromagnetic radiation of wavelength 300 nm falls on the surface of
sodium, electrons are emitted with a kinetic energy of 1.68 ×10⁵ Jmol⁻¹. What
is the minimum energy needed to remove an electron from sodium? What is
the maximum wavelength that will cause a photoelectron to be emitted?

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 Problems
■ When electromagnetic radiation of wavelength 300 nm falls on the surface of
sodium, electrons are emitted with a kinetic energy of 1.68 ×10⁵ Jmol⁻¹. What
is the minimum energy needed to remove an electron from sodium? What is
the maximum wavelength that will cause a photoelectron to be emitted?

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 Problems
■ The threshold frequency ν₀ for a metal is 7.0 ×10¹⁴ s⁻¹. Calculate the kinetic
energy of an electron emitted when radiation of frequency ν =1.0 ×10¹⁵ s⁻¹hits
the metal.

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 Problems
■ The threshold frequency ν₀ for a metal is 7.0 ×10¹⁴ s⁻¹. Calculate the kinetic
energy of an electron emitted when radiation of frequency ν =1.0 ×10¹⁵ s⁻¹hits
the metal.

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 Bohr’s Model for Hydrogen Atom
■ Bohr’s frequency rule: The frequency of radiation absorbed or emitted when
transition occurs between two stationary states that differ in energy by ∆E, is given
by:

■ Where E1 and E2 are the energies of the lower and higher allowed energy states
respectively. This expression is commonly known as Bohr’s frequency rule.

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 Bohr’s Model for Hydrogen Atom
According to Bohr’s theory for hydrogen atom:
a) The stationary states for electron are numbered n = 1,2,3.......... These integral
numbers are known as Principal quantum numbers.

b) E The radii of the stationary states are expressed as:

where aₒ = 52.9 pm.

Thus the radius of the first stationary state, calledthe bohr orbit, is 52.9 pm.
Normally the electron in the hydrogen atom is found in this orbit (that is n=1). As n
increases the value of r will increase. In other words the electron will be present
away from the nucleus.

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 Bohr’s Model for Hydrogen Atom
The most important property associated with the electron, is the energy of its stationary
state. It is given by the expression.

where Rн is called rydberg constant and its value is 2.18×10⁻¹⁸ J.

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 Explanation of Line Spectrum of Hydroen
■ Radiation (energy) is absorbed if the electron moves from the orbit of smaller
Principal quantum number to the orbit of higher Principal quantum number,
■ whereas the radiation (energy) is emitted if the electron moves from higher orbit to
lower orbit.
■ The energy gap between the two orbits is given by equation

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 Explanation of Line Spectrum of Hydroen
■ The frequency (ν) associated with the absorption and emission of the photon can be
evaluated by using equation

■ In case of absorption spectrum, nf> ni and the term in the parenthesis is positive and
energy is absorbed. On the other hand in case of emission spectrum ni > nf , ∆ E is
negative and energy is released. 30
 Problems
■ What are the frequency and wavelength of a photon emitted during a
transition from n = 5 state to the n = 2 state in the hydrogen atom?

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 Problems
■ What are the frequency and wavelength of a photon emitted during a
transition from n = 5 state to the n = 2 state in the hydrogen atom?

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