Scribd
Upload
64 views52 pages

Quantum Theory and Atomic Structure

1. The document discusses the development of models of atomic structure from 1890 to 1930, starting with Dalton's atomic theory and ending with the development of quantum mechanics. 2. It describes how Planck's quantization of energy and Einstein's photon theory changed the classical view of matter and energy, establishing the wave-particle duality. 3. Key models discussed include Bohr's model of discrete atomic energy levels, de Broglie's proposal that matter has wave-like properties, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, and Schrodinger's quantum mechanical model based on the wave function and atomic orbitals specified by quantum numbers.

Uploaded by

Beri Nays
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
64 views52 pages

Quantum Theory and Atomic Structure

1. The document discusses the development of models of atomic structure from 1890 to 1930, starting with Dalton's atomic theory and ending with the development of quantum mechanics. 2. It describes how Planck's quantization of energy and Einstein's photon theory changed the classical view of matter and energy, establishing the wave-particle duality. 3. Key models discussed include Bohr's model of discrete atomic energy levels, de Broglie's proposal that matter has wave-like properties, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, and Schrodinger's quantum mechanical model based on the wave function and atomic orbitals specified by quantum numbers.

Uploaded by

Beri Nays
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 52

OBJECTIVES

1. Describe the relationships among frequency, wavelength, and energy of


light, and know the meaning of amplitude; have a general understanding
of the electromagnetic spectrum
2. Understand how particles and waves differ and how the work of Planck
(quantization of energy) and Einstein (photon theory) changed thinking
about it
3. Explain the Bohr theory and the importance of discrete atomic energy
levels
4. Describe the wave-particle duality of matter and energy and the
theories and experiments that led to it (particle wavelength, electron
diffraction, photon momentum, uncertainty principle)
5. Describe the hierarchy of quantum numbers, the hierarchy of levels,
sublevels, and orbitals, and determine quantum numbers and sublevel
designations
from around 1890 to 1930—a revolution took place
in how we view the makeup of the universe

Dalton’s atomic theory - established the idea of


individual units of matter

Rutherford’s nuclear model substituted atoms with


rich internal structure for “plum puddings.”
BUT…….
Why didn’t the orbiting electron lose energy continuously and spiral into
the nucleus?
a complete rethinking of the classical picture
of matter and energy
• Matter occurs in chunks you can hold and weigh, and you can change
the amount of matter in a sample piece by piece.
• Energy is “massless,” and its quantity changes in a continuous manner.
• Matter moves in specific paths.
• light and other types of energy travel in diffuse waves.
As soon as 20th-century scientists probed the subatomic world, these
clear distinctions between particulate matter and wavelike energy began
to fade, revealing a much more amazing reality!
• classical wave model distinguishes clearly between waves and particles
why objects look distorted under water, and many other everyday
observations.

• But, it cannot explain observations on the atomic scale because, in that


unfamiliar realm, energy behaves as though it consists of particles!
• All the waves in the spectrum travel at the same speed through a vacuum
but differ in frequency and, therefore, wavelength.
• We perceive different wavelengths (or frequencies) of visible light as
different colors, from red
to violet .
• Light of a single wavelength is called monochromatic (Greek, “one
color”), whereas light of many wavelengths is polychromatic. White
light is polychromatic
Three phenomena involving matter and light confounded
physicists at the turn of the 20th century:

(1) blackbody radiation

(2) the photoelectric effect

(3) atomic spectra


• When a solid object is heated to about 1000 K, it begins to emit visible
light as you can see in the soft red glow of smoldering coal.
• At about 1500 K, the light is brighter and more orange, like that from
an electric heating coil.
• At temperatures greater than 2000 K, the light is still brighter and
whiter, as from the filament of a lightbulb.
• These changes in intensity and wavelength of emitted light as an
object is heated are characteristic of blackbody radiation, light given
off by a hot blackbody (A blackbody is an idealized object that
absorbs all the radiation incident on it. A hollow cube with a small
hole in one wall approximates a blackbody).
• In 1900, the German physicist Max Planck (1858–1947) made a radical
assumption that eventually led to an entirely new view of energy. He proposed
that the hot, glowing object could emit (or absorb) only certain quantities of
energy:

where E is the energy of the radiation, is its frequency, n is a positive integer (1,
2, 3, and so on) called a quantum number, and h is a proportionality constant now
known very precisely and called Planck’s constant. With energy in joules (J) and
frequency in s⁻¹ , h has units of Js:
• Later interpretations of Planck’s proposal stated that the hot object’s
radiation is emitted by the atoms contained within it.
• If an atom can emit only certain quantities of energy, it follows that the
atom itself can have only certain quantities of energy.
• Thus, the energy of an atom is quantized: it exists only in certain fixed
quantities, rather than being continuous.
• Each energy packet is called a quantum (“fixed quantity”; plural,
quanta), and its energy is equal to h.
• Thus, an atom changes its energy state by emitting (or absorbing) one
or more quanta, and the energy of the emitted (or absorbed) radiation is
equal to the difference in the atom’s energy states:
• Carrying Planck’s idea of quantized energy further, the great physicist
Albert Einstein proposed that light itself is particulate, that is,
quantized into small “bundles” of electromagnetic energy, which were
later called photons.
Bohr’s model explains that an atomic spectrum is not continuous because the atom’s
energy has only certain discrete levels, or states.
• In Bohr’s model, the quantum number n (1, 2, 3, . . .) is associated
with the radius of an electron orbit, which is directly related to the
electron’s energy: the lower the n value, the smaller the radius of the
orbit, and the lower the energy level.
When the electron is in the first
orbit (n 1), the orbit closest to the
nucleus, the H atom is in its lowest
(first) energy level, called the
ground state.

When the electron is in the


second or any higher orbit, the
atom is said to be in an excited
state
ated that energy is particlelike

Louis de Broglie proposed a startling reason for fixed energy levels: if energy
is particle-like, perhaps matter is wavelike.
De Broglie reasoned that if electrons have wavelike motion and are restricted
to orbits of fixed radii, that would explain why they have only certain possible
frequencies and energies

According to this equation for the de Broglie


wavelength, matter behaves as though it moves in a
wave.
• states that it is impossible to know the exact position and momentum
(mass times speed) of a particle simultaneously.
• we cannot assign fixed paths for electrons, such as the circular orbits
of Bohr’s model.
quantum mechanics - examines the wave nature of objects on the
atomic scale

In 1926, Erwin Schrödinger derived an equation that is the basis for the
quantum-mechanical model of the hydrogen atom.

The model describes an atom that has certain allowed quantities of


energy due to the allowed frequencies of an electron whose behavior is
wavelike and whose exact location is impossible to know.
The electron’s matter-wave occupies the three-dimensional space near
the nucleus and experiences a continuous, but varying, influence from
the nuclear charge.

Schrödinger equation:

wave function - a mathematical description of the electron’s matter-


wave in terms of position in three dimensions.
Each solution to the equation (that is, each energy state of the atom) is
associated with a given wave function, also called an atomic orbital.
atomic orbital - It’s important to keep in mind that an “orbital” in the
quantum-mechanical model bears no resemblance to an “orbit” in the
Bohr model: an orbit was, supposedly, an electron’s path around the
nucleus, whereas an orbital is a mathematical function with no direct
physical meaning.
We cannot know precisely where the electron is at any moment, but we
can describe where it probably is, that is, where it is most likely to be
found, or where it spends most of its time.
An atomic orbital is specified by three quantum numbers.

You might also like