STRUCTURE

OF ATOM
 WHAT IS AN ATOM ?
Matter found around us in nature (like iron rod, glass, cup, pen,
pencil etc.) is made up from very small particles, which is
known as atoms.

we also says that "atoms are very small particles which made
matter" so atom is fundamental unit.

The word atom comes from the word 'atomos' meaning

'indivisible' coined by a Greek philosopher Democritus (460-361
B.C.). He forwarded the idea that the universe was made up of
tiny indivisible particles called atoms. In 1808, John Dalton an
English scientist suggested that, an atom is the basic unit of
matter.

An atom is the smallest particle of an element that exhibits all

the properties of that element. It may or may not exist
independently but takes part in every chemical reaction.
Example: Take a small piece of zinc and crush it into
smaller pieces. All these pieces show properties of
zinc. On grinding crushed pieces further, they break
up into very fine particles which still show the
properties of zinc. But, there comes a stage when the
particles cannot be further subdivided into particles
exhibiting properties of zinc. These indivisible particles
are the atoms of zinc.

"In other words atom is the smallest possible unit of

an element".

Atoms of the same element are all identical. They

differ from the atoms of other elements.

That is why different elements differ in their

properties.
Ancient view of matter
The smallest particle of matter is the atom. One of the question which
puzzled Indian and Greek thinkers alike was the nature of matter.

Slowly, an idea developed among the natural philosophers in Greece-

that all matter must be made of some basic elements. They thought
these elements were water, earth, fire and sky.

Some view was also maintained by Indian philosophers. According to

Kanada if you cut a pure substance into smaller and smaller bits, you
would ultimately reach these indestructible particles which could not
be broken further.

The atomic view of matter was developed to quite an extent by other

Indian philosophers. We can equate the 'anu' with molecule and the
'paramanu' with atom. The greek philosopher Democritus called the
atoms as building blocks of matter. He thought matter was made of tiny,
invisible, eternal and immutable particles or atoms.
How big are atoms?

Atoms are very small, they are smaller than anything that we can imagine or compare
with. More than millions of atoms when stacked would make a layer barely as thick
as this sheet of paper.
Atoms are so small that it would take millions of them, just to cover a full stop.
The main characteristics of atoms as suggested
by John Dalton are:
• An atom is the smallest particle of matter
which cannot be divided further into smaller
particles.
• Atoms of the same element are all identical
but they differ from the atoms of other
elements.
• An atom of an element exhibits all the
properties of that element.
• Atoms can neither be created nor be
destroyed.
• Atoms may or may not have independent
existence but they can take part in chemical
reactions.
Originally it was thought that atoms of
an element can not be divided further,
but studies in the early twentieth
century showed that, an atom is itself
made up of even smaller particles called
fundamental particles or subatomic
particles.

They are: Electrons, Protons and

Neutrons.
Electrons :

Electrons are the negatively charged

particles in an atom with one unit
negative charge and negligible mass. The
electron was discovered by J.J. Thomson
in 1897 through experiments with
cathode rays. Symbol: e⁻. The mass of an
electron is 0

The charge on the proton and electron

are exactly the same size but opposite.
The same number of protons and
electrons exactly cancel one another in a
neutral atom.
Protons
Protons are the positively charged particles present
in an atom with one unit positive charge and one
unit mass. Symbol: p⁺. The proton was discovered by
Ernest Rutherford in 1917 during his experiments
with alpha particles and nitrogen gas.
A proton is 1837 times heavier than electron.

Neutrons
Neutrons are the particles with no electrical charge,
so they are neutral but have one unit mass.
Neutrons were discovered by a scientist named
James Chadwick in 1932. He found that there were
particles in the nucleus with no charge. Neutrons
are similar in size to protons but a bit heavier.
 STRUCTURE OF ATOM
•An atom is composed of two regions: the
nucleus, which is in the center of the atom .
The nucleus is like the atom’s heart or core. The nucleus
is like the atom’s heart or core.

• It constitutes positively charged particles

“protons” and uncharged particles
“neutrons” and the outer region of the atom,
consists of a cloud of negatively charged
particles called an electron.

•Electrons revolve in orbit around the

nucleus. The attraction between the protons
and electrons holds the structure of atom
Orbit is a well-defined circular path around
together.
the nucleus in which electrons revolve around
the nucleus.
Simple Model of an Atom

•Protons and Neutrons: Think of the

nucleus as a bunch of balls (protons
and neutrons) stuck together. Neutrons
are like the glue that helps hold the
nucleus of an atom together. They are
very important for the stability and
mass of atoms.

•Electrons: Around the nucleus, there

are smaller, much lighter particles
called electrons that move very fast.
 POINTS TO NOTE
Why Are Neutrons Important?

•Balance: Neutrons help keep the nucleus stable. If there were only protons in the nucleus, their positive
charges would repel each other and push apart.

How the positively charged protons are able to stay so close together in the nucleus: Why don’t they repel
each other?

There is a force called the “Strong Force,” which holds protons and neutrons together in the nucleus of the
atom. This force is much stronger than the force of repulsion of one proton from another.

Why doesn’t the electron smash into the proton? If they are attracted to each other, why don’t they just
collide?

The energy or speed of the electron. As the electron gets closer to the nucleus, its energy and speed
increases. It ends up moving in a region surrounding the nucleus at a speed that is great enough to balance
the attraction that is pulling it in, so the electron does not crash into the nucleus.
 POINTS TO NOTE
• Generally, all atoms except hydrogen
consist of these three subatomic
particles. Hydrogen is an exception to
all atoms as it contains just one proton
and one electron but lacks neutrons.

• The number of protons indicates what

element an atom is. Whereas the
number of electrons indicates the type
of reactions that will happen in an
atom.
 ATOMIC MODELS
Different models help scientists understand what atoms look like and how they behave.
Observations obtained from the experiments
mentioned in the previous sections have
suggested that Dalton’s indivisible atom is
composed of sub-atomic particles carrying
positive and negative charges. The major
problems before the scientists after the
discovery of sub-atomic particles were:

• to account for the stability of atom,

• to compare the behavior of elements in terms

of both physical and chemical properties,

• to explain the formation of different kinds of

molecules by the combination of different
atoms
 Thomson's Plum Pudding Model
• J.J. Thomson thought of the atom as a ball of
positive charge with tiny, negatively charged
electrons scattered throughout, like raisins in a
pudding.

Key Points:

• Atoms are made of even smaller particles.

• Electrons are spread out within a positively charged

"pudding."

Thomson's atomic model failed to explain how the

positive charge holds on the electrons inside the
atom. It also failed to explain an atom's stability.
The theory did not mention anything about the
nucleus of an atom.
 Rutherford Atomic Model
• Rutherford conducted an experiment by bombarding a thin sheet of gold
with α-particles and then studied the trajectory of these particles after
their interaction with the gold foil.

• According to the Rutherford atomic model:

• The positive charge and most of the mass of an atom is concentrated in an

extremely small volume. He called this region of the atom as a nucleus.
• Rutherford’s model proposed that the negatively charged electrons
surround the nucleus of an atom. He also claimed that the electrons
surrounding the nucleus revolve around it with very high speed in circular
paths. He named these circular paths as orbits.
• Electrons being negatively charged and nucleus being a densely
concentrated mass of positively charged particles are held together by a
strong electrostatic force of attraction.

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.
 Bohr’s Model of an Atom
• The Bohr model of the atom was proposed by Neil Bohr in
1915. It came into existence with the modification of
Rutherford’s model of an atom.

• Bohr theory modified the atomic structure model by

explaining that electrons move in fixed orbitals (shells) and
not anywhere in between and he also explained that each
orbit (shell) has a fixed energy.

• Rutherford explained the nucleus of an atom and Bohr

modified that model into electrons and their energy levels.

• Bohr’s model consists of a small nucleus (positively

charged) surrounded by negative electrons moving around
the nucleus in orbits. Bohr found that an electron located
away from the nucleus has more energy, and the electron
which is closer to nucleus has less energy
Postulates of Bohr’s Model of an Atom

• In an atom, electrons (negatively charged) revolve around

the positively charged nucleus in a definite circular path
called orbits or shells.

• Each orbit or shell has a fixed energy and these circular

orbits are known as orbital shells.

• The energy levels are represented by an integer (n=1, 2, 3…)

known as the quantum number. This range of quantum
number starts from nucleus side with n=1 having the lowest
energy level. The orbits n=1, 2, 3, 4… are assigned as K, L, M,
N…. shells and when an electron attains the lowest energy
level, it is said to be in the ground state.

• The electrons in an atom move from a lower energy level to

a higher energy level by gaining the required energy and an
electron moves from a higher energy level to lower energy
level by losing energy.
• The electron configuration of an element describes how electrons
are distributed in its atomic shells.

• The distribution of electrons into different orbits of an atom was

suggested by Bohr and Bury.

• The following rules are followed for writing the number of electrons
in different energy levels or shells:

(i) The maximum number of electrons present in a shell is given by

the formula 2n2, where ‘n’ is the orbit number or energy level
index, 1,2,3,….

Hence the maximum number of electrons in different shells are as

follows: first orbit or K-shell will be = 2 × 12 = 2, second orbit or L-
shell will be = 2 × 22 = 8, third orbit or M-shell will be = 2 × 32 = 18,
fourth orbit or N-shell will be = 2 × 42= 32, and so on.

(ii) The maximum number of electrons that can be accommodated in

the outermost orbit is 8.

(iii) Electrons are not accommodated in a given shell, unless the inner
shells are filled. That is, the shells are filled in a step-wise manner.
 Electronic Configuration Diagram
Let’s take lithium as an example.

Lithium has an atomic number of 3. It has 3

electrons and 3 protons - first electron into the
first shell. And the second electron goes to the
same shell.

However, this shell can only contain a maximum

of 2 electrons. So, the third element must fill in
the next shell. This same process of filling
electrons applies to even larger atoms too. The
filling of electrons should be from the lowest to
the highest energy levels.
• We have learnt how the electrons in an atom are arranged in different shells/orbits.

• The electrons present in the outermost shell of an atom are known as the valence
electrons.

• From the Bohr-Bury scheme, we also know that the outermost shell of an atom can
accommodate a maximum of 8 electrons.

• It was observed that the atoms of elements, having a completely filled outermost
shell show little chemical activity. In other words, their combining capacity or
valency is zero.

• Of these inert elements, the helium atom has two electrons in its outermost shell
and all other elements have atoms with eight electrons in the outermost shell. To
attain stability, these atoms lose, gain or share electrons with other atoms to
complete their octet.

• “The combining capacity of the atoms of an element is known as valency. OR

• “The number of electrons gained, lost or shared by atom of an element in order to

complete its octet (or duplet) or to attain stable configuration is known as the
valency of the element”
Concept

In atoms, the electrons are arranged to

revolve around the nucleus in different
orbitals (shells).

These orbitals are represented as K, L, M, N,

and so on. The atom of valence electron
remains in the outermost electron shell.

These electrons in the outer shell participate

in any chemical reaction because they
generally contain more energy than electrons
that are present in different orbits.

According to the octet rule, the outermost

orbit of an atom will have a maximum of 8
electrons to become stable. However, if the
outer orbital is filled, then sometimes very
little to no chemical activity is observed in the
Calculation of Valency

To calculate the valency of an element, the electronic

configuration of the element must be written first and
then the valency is calculated. The valency of an
element can be calculated as follows:

Elements having 1, 2, 3 and 4 electrons respectively in

their valence shell: For these elements valency is
equal to the number of electrons present in their
valence shell.

Elements having more than 4 electrons in their

valency shell: For these elements having more than 4
electrons in their valence shell, valency can be
calculated as follows:

Valency = 8 – Number of valence electrons