2.

1 Atoms and elements

- Atoms are small particles.

- A substance made up of just one type of atom is called an element.

- Elements cannot be broken down into anything simpler by chemical reactions.

- There are now 118 known elements,

- Most of the known mass of the universe consists of just two elements, hydrogen (92%) and helium
(7%), with all the other elements contributing only 1% to the total

How a certain number of these elements concentrated together to form the Earth is of great interest
and significance.

There are 94 elements found naturally on Earth but just eight account for more than

98% of the mass of the Earth's crust. Two elements, silicon and oxygen, which are bound together in
silicate rocks, make up almost three-quarters of the crust.

Only certain elements are able to form the complex compounds that are found in living things. For
example, the human body contains 65% oxygen, 18% carbon, 10% hydrogen, 3% nitrogen, 2% calcium
and 2% of other elements.

KEY WORDS

Element: a substance that cannot be further W divided into simpler substances by chemical methods; all
the atoms of an element contain the same number of protons

Compound: a substance formed by the chemical combination of two or more elements in fixed
proportions

Structure of the atom

Our modern understanding of the atom is based on the atomic theory put forward by the English
chemist John Dalton in 1807.

Dalton's idea was that atoms were the basic building blocks of the elements. He thought of them as
indivisible particles that could join together to make molecules.

Whereas Dalton only had theories for the existence of atoms, modern techniques, can now directly
reveal the presence of individual atoms.

Research since Dalton's time has shown that atoms are made up of several subatomic particles.

Crucial experiments then showed that an atom is mostly space occupied by the negatively charged
electrons, surrounding a very small, positively charged nucleus. The nucleus is at the centre of the atom
and contains almost all the mass of the atom.

By 1932, when the neutron was discovered, it was clear that atoms consisted of three subatomic
particles - protons, neutrons and electrons. These particles are universal –

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All atoms are made from protons, neutrons and electrons.

The atom remains the smallest particle that shows the chemical characteristics of a particular element.

KEY WORDS

Electron: a subatomic particle with negligible mass and a relative charge of -1; electrons are present in
all atoms, located in the shells (energy levels) outside the nucleus

Proton: a subatomic particle with a relative atomic mass of 1 and a charge of +1 found in the nucleus of
all atoms

Nucleus: (of an atom) the central region of an atom that is made up of the protons and neutrons of the
atom; the electrons orbit around the nucleus in different 'shells' or 'energy levels'

Neutron: an uncharged subatomic particle present in the nucleus of atoms- a neutron has a mass of 1
relative to a proton

Subatomic particles: very small particles - protons, neutrons and electrons - from which all atoms are
made.

Characteristics of protons, neutrons and electrons

- The protons and neutrons are located in the small central nucleus.

- The electrons are present in the space surrounding the nucleus.

- The electrons are held within the atom by an electrostatic force of attraction between them and the
positive charge of the protons in the nucleus.

- Protons and neutrons have almost the same mass. Both are given a relative mass of 1.

- Electrons have virtually no mass (1/1840 or 0.00054 of the mass of a proton).

- Protons and electrons have equal and opposite charges (+1 and -1, respectively), while neutrons are
electrically neutral (have no charge).

- Although atoms contain electrically charged particles, the atoms themselves are electrically neutral
(they have no overall charge).

- This must mean that in any atom there are an equal number of protons and electrons.

- The total positive charge on the nucleus (due to the protons) is balanced by the total negative charge
of the orbiting electrons.

The simplest atom is the hydrogen atom, which has one proton in its nucleus. It is the only atom that
has no neutrons; it consists of one proton and one electron.

The next simplest atom is that of helium. This has two protons and two neutrons in the nucleus, and
two orbiting electrons.

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 - Lithium is the next simplest atom after helium.

- A lithium atom has three protons, four neutrons and three electrons.

- The subatomic arrangement of larger atoms gets more complicated with the addition of more
protons and electrons.

- The number of neutrons required to hold the nucleus together increases as the atomic size
increases.

- The number of neutrons increases as the atomic size increases.

- An atom of gold consists of 79 protons, 118 neutrons and 79 electrons.

Proton (atomic) number and mass (nucleon) number

 Only hydrogen atoms have one proton in their nuclei.

 Only helium atoms have two protons. Indeed, only gold atoms have 79 protons.

 The number of protons in the nucleus of an atom determines which element it is. This important
number is known as the proton number or atomic number of an atom.

 The proton number is given the symbol Z.

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 - We have seen that protons alone do not make up all the mass of an atom.

- The neutrons in the nucleus also contribute to the total mass. Because a proton and a neutron
have the same relative mass.

- The mass of a particular atom depends on the total number of protons and neutrons present.

- Protons and neutrons are known as nucleons

- The total number of protons and neutrons present is called the mass number or nucleon
number of an atom.

- The mass number is given the symbol A.

KEY WORDS

Proton number (or atomic number) (Z): the number of protons in the nucleus of an atom

Mass number (or nucleon number) (A): the total number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus of an
atom

 An important way of representing a particular atom of an element is to combine the chemical

symbol of the element with the proton and mass numbers of the atom. The symbol Z
representing the proton number and symbol A representing the mass number of an atom

When the proton and mass numbers are known for the atoms of an element, we can work out
the following:

Proton number (Z) = number of protons in the nucleus

Mass number (4) = number of protons + number of neutrons

Important relationships:

Number of electrons = number of protons = atomic number

Number of neutrons = mass number - atomic number = A-Z

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