Resident Physics Lectures

Structure of the Atom

Prof. J.K Tonui, PhD

School of Medicine,
Department of Radiology & Imaging
 Learning Objectives

 At the end of this lecture, the students is expected to:

 Describe the structure of an atom and its components,

 Explain the energy levels, binding energy and electron

transitions, and
 Described nuclear properties and how changes within it affect

its radioactive nature.

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 Introduction
 All objects, including human bodies,

 Are made up of matter, which

 Was anciently thought of as made up of “stuff” characterized by

a physical quantity called “mass”, and

 Mass was recognized by weight (force of gravity) and inertia, but

 Since early 1900s, matter was discovered to be made up

smaller indivisible particles called ‘atoms’.

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 An Atom
 An atom

 Is the smallest building block of all matter, and

 Is defined as the smallest indivisible part of matter which still

maintains chemical properties of that matter.

 An object

 Is made up of zillions of atoms that are arranged in a regular

pattern to produce its specific shape and size.

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 Electric Charge
 Electric charge

 Was discovered when it was observed that a rubbed amber was

able to attract small pieces of paper, and

 Rubbing amber was referred as ‘charging’ and in the process

acquired ‘charges’, and

 Further experiments showed that there were 2-types of electric

charge – positive and negative charges.

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 Electric Charge
 This discovery

 Showed that matter was made-up of other physical quantities

characterized the electric electric charges, and

 The particle that carried positive charge was named proton,

while
 The particles that carried negative charge was named electron.

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 Electric Charge
 An atom,

 Is electrically neutral, which means

 No. of protons = No. of electrons, but

 Can be charged by either removing or adding electrons, where

o Losing electrons make the atom become +vely charge (protons>

electrons), and
o Gaining electrons make the atom becomes –vely charged (protons

< electrons).

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 Electric charge
 Electric charge

 Has SI unit called the Coulomb, denoted by C, and

 Fundamental or unit unit of charge is denoted by ‘e’ and has a

magnitude, e = 1.6 x 10-19 C, such that

o Proton is positively charged hence e+ = +1.6 x 10-19 C.

o Electron is negatively charged hence e- = -1.6 x 10-19 C.

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 Electric charge
 Electric charges exert forces on each

other such that

 Like charges repel, and

 Unlike charges attract.

 It is now known that

 The electrons are the ones transferred

when amber is rubbed with cloth.

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 A Molecule
 Some substances

 Cannot exist as a single atom but rather as a combination of two

or more atoms bonded together, and

 The combination of 2 or more atoms is called a molecule, and

 Is also defined in a similar way as the atom as the smallest unit that

retain the characteristics of the material itself, and

 Examples include H2, N2, O2, CH4, H2O, CO2, NaCl etc, and

 Both atom and molecule are used interchangeably to refer to the

smallest building blocks of matter!

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 Chemical Bonds
 A molecule is held together by

 Chemical bonds between the atoms making it up, which

 Are formed by the electrical forces of attraction between

oppositely charged parts of the molecule, and

 This force is usually referred to as

 The Coulomb force, named after

 Charles A. de Coulomb, a French physicist who characterized

it and developed mathematical equation for it.

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 Coulomb Force
 The Columbic force or law

 Is a force that holds 2 or more atoms bonded together, e.g. holds

hydrogen and oxygen together in H2O molecule, and

 Mathematically, for 2-charges q1 and q2 , is directly proportional to

product of charges interacting and inversely proportional to square of

distance between them or
q1q2
F k 2
r
 Where k is a constant = 9.0 x 109 Nm2C-2

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 Elements
 More than 100 different types (species) of atoms exist in the

world, and
 These species are referred to as elements.

 And out of these number,

 92 occur naturally,

o e.g. mercury, helium, gold, hydrogen, oxygen, etc.

 And the rest are man-made or artificial

o e.g. europium, americium etc.

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 Chemical Symbols
 Chemists have assigned each element

 A chemical symbol (1-letter or 2-letters),

o e.g. H – hydrogen, gold - Au, mercury - Hg, helium - He, etc

 Some symbols

 Are obvious abbreviations of the English names, while

 Others are derived from the original Latin names of the

elements,
o e.g. Au is from aurum, the Latin word for gold.

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 Atomic Structure
 Dalton, a chemists, found experimentally that

1) All elements are composed of a tiny indivisible particles

called atoms.
2) Atoms of the same element are identical.

3) Atoms of any one element are different from those of any

other element.
4) The atoms are arranged in well organized table called
periodic table as shown in next slide

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 Periodic Table

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 Composition of an Atom
 An atom

 Is the basic building block of all matter and too small to see,

even with the most powerful microscope, and .

 Is made up of three basic particles, called subatomic

particles, which are similar for all elements:

o Proton,

o Electrons, and

o Neutrons.
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 Composition of an Atom
 An atom

 Was initially though of as made up of protons and electrons

when electrical charges was discovered, but

 This view accounted only for electrical properties, but not the

mass of the atom, since

 The measured mass of an atom was not reconciling with that

calculated based on the masses of protons and electrons.

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 Composition of an Atom
 However,

 The discrepancy in the mass of an atom was resolved in 1932, when

Chadwick discovered another subatomic particle called a neutron,

which
 Was assigned a zero charge (i.e. no electrical charge) so as not

disrupt electrical neutrality of the atom that had been agreed upon
and sealed, and
 When the mass of a neutral was included in the calculated mass of an

atom, the calculated and measured masses were reconciled.

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 Masses of sub-atomic particles
 Masses of subatomic particles are:

 Proton, mp = 1.00783 amu

 Neutron, mn = 1.00866 amu

 Electron, me = 0.00055 amu.

 Notice that

 mp  mn, and

 mp = mn  2000me which implies mass of atom  mp+mn

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 Structure of an Atom
 The next task to know about an atom

 Was how are the 3-subatomic particles packaged in the atom?

 Early scientists proposed several models on how these particles

were arranged inside the atom, and

 Was subjected to experimental verification to ascertain their

validity, and
 Many were rejected because they could not be validated or

could not stand experimental tests.

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 Structure of an Atom
 However,

 In 1913, Niels Bohr developed a model that has been accepted

to describe the structure of an atom, where:

o He proposed a model analogous to the planetary system, where

o An atom consists of a central part called nucleus (like sun), which

houses protons and neutrons, (collectively called nucleons) and

o Electrons revolve around this nucleus in well defined orbits like the

planets are revolving around the sun in well defined orbits.

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 Structure of an Atom
 Bohr model of an atom showing
 A nucleus surrounded by a cloud of
electrons

Planetary model of an
atom (nucleus is like sun
and electrons like
planets)

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 Structure of an Atom

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 Orbital Electrons
 Fig.

 Shows energy levels or shells or orbits are shown in

the figure, and
 Electrons reside only at certain allowed shell as
L
shown (K and L in this Fig.), and
K
 The shells are designated as: -
o K-shell closest to nucleus and
~ +
~ +
o L-shell next closest. + ~
o Shells proceed up from K, L, M, N, etc.
o Except for K shell, all shells contain sub-shells
X
-
-
-

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 Size of the atom
 Atom mostly empty space
 Atomic radius  10-10 m and

 Radius of nucleus  10-15 m.

 Nucleus

 Contains almost all of atom’s mass.

 Electron shells

 Determine element’s chemical

properties.
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 Shell Capacities
Shell Electron
Capacity
(2n2)
1 (K) 2
2 (L) 8
3 (M) 18
4 (N) 32
5 (O) 50
6 (P) 72
7 (Q) 98

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 Electron Shells
 Electrons always
 Attempt to reside in lowest available energy shell

K
~ + L
-
K
- ~ +
- -
-

-
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 The Shell Game
 Electrons can move from shell to shell

 To move to higher energy shell

 Requires energy input equal to difference between the binding

energy of the two shells L

K
-
-
Requires
~ + energy
~
+ ~ input!

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 The Shell Game
 An atom

 With a gap in a lower shell is unhappy (unstable)

and
L
 Electrons will attempt to drop to lower shells to fill K
-
the gap
~ +
~ +
 BUT, + ~

 Moving to a lower energy shell results in the release - -

of energy equal to the difference between shells -

and
Energy
 This energy is emitted as characteristic x-rays.
released
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 Classification of Nuclei
 There are two numbers that are used in atomic structure to identify each nuclei:

1. Atomic number, and

2. Mass number.

 Atomic Number

 Is defined as the number of protons in the nucleus and is given the symbol Z,
and
 This number defines the position of an element in the Periodic Table of
Elements.

 Mass Number

 Is defined as the number of nucleons in a nucleus, i.e. the sum of protons and
neutrons, and is given the symbol A.

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 Classification of Nuclei
 The number of neutrons is denoted by N hence

 A = N + Z,

 So if the Z- and A numbers are known, then the number of

neutrons can be determined.

 Example:
 The mass number of an oxygen atom is 16 and the atomic number is 8. How

many neutrons are there in the nucleus of this oxygen atom?

 Solution:

 N = A – Z = 16 – 8 = 8

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 Classification of Nuclei
 Atoms are classified in several ways depending on

the Z-number and A-number, as follows:

 Isotopes;

 Isobars;

 Isotones, and

 Isomers.

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 Isotopes
 It has been found experimentally that

 Elements can have same atomic number but different mass numbers, i.e. same

Z but different A and

 Such elements are called Isotopes, and

 Hence, isotopes have the same number of protons but different number

of neutrons.

 All elements have isotopes and the number ranges

 From 3 for hydrogen to over 30 for elements such as cesium and

barium, which are widely used in NM.

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 Representation of Isotopes
 Different isotopes is identified with A and Z numbers just before the
chemical symbol as shown:
 Superscript - Mass Number
 Subscript - Atomic Number
 Where X is the chemical symbol of the atom
 Take hydrogen for example, it has three isotopes represented by

 Note that isotopes are:

 Chemically identical but
 Physical different

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 Other Classifications
 Isobars:

 Atoms with the same A but different Z

 Different elements
 E.g. Carbon-11 and boron-11

 Isotones:

 Atoms with the same number of neutrons but different A

 Isomers:

 Atoms with the same Z and A but with different energy levels (produced
after gamma decay)

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 Binding Energy
 Two types of binding energy

1. Orbital binding energy

 Orbital binding energy is the energy required to bind or hold the electrons in their
orbits around the nucleus of the atom and
 Is source of x-rays used in radiology.

2. Nuclear binding energy

 Nuclear binding energy is energy required to bind nucleons together in the nucleus of
an atom and
 Is source of gamma rays used in nuclear medicine

 Note that
 Nuclear binding energy is stronger or greater than orbital binding energy.

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 Origin of Binding Energy
 As we have seen,

 The nucleus of an atom is very tiny and

 Consist of positively and neutrally charged particles.

 The Columbic force requires that

 Positive charges to repel in the nucleus and the electrons to be

attracted into the nucleus but that is not the case, and
 Hence, raises some fundamental questions:

1. Why can nucleus break up due to repulsive forces between protons?

2. Why can the electrons collapse into the nucleus due to attractive
force of protons in nucleus?

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 Orbital Binding Energy
 Niel Bohr, whose model describe an atom adequately, resolve this

problem of electrons collapsing into the nucleus

 By proposing that the electrons revolve around the nucleus in well

defined and allowed orbits just like the planets revolve around the sun,
and
 The centripetal force required to keep electrons in orbits is provided by

the orbital binding energy.

 Note that the orbital binding energy

 Varies with orbits with inner orbits having higher binding energy.

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 Orbital Binding Energy
L
 Orbital BE K
 Attracts negative electrons to positive -
~ +
nucleus and ~ +
 Is larger for shells closer to nucleus, hence + ~

 K-shell has the highest binding force. -

 The higher atomic # materials (higher Z), -

 Result in more binding energy because of

more positive charge in nucleus, hence
 The energy required to remove an orbital
electron from an atom is very large.

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 Nuclear Binding Energy
 It is found that

 Calculated mass of the nucleons based on the total number of protons and
neutrons is less than Measured mass, and
 The missing mass is called Mass Defect, and

 Is converted into Nuclear Binding Energy, as per this equation:

E  mc 2

 Where
o E is energy (J),

o M is mass defect (kg) and

o C is speed of light (3.0 x 108 m/s)

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 Energy equivalent of an electron
 For example:

 Calculate the energy equivalent of an electron of mass, m = 9.109 X 10-31 kg.

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 Nuclear Binding Energy
 The nuclear binding energy is expressed in units of electronvolt (eV):

 The energy equivalent of 1 amu is given by

 And converting into MeV we get

1 amu = 931.48 MeV

 Where MeV is mega electronvolt (MeV), given by

1 MeV = 106 eV

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 Nuclear Stability (Cont…)
 In most stable isotopes,

 Binding energy per nucleon lies between 7 and 9 MeV.

 The binding energy depends

 On the number of nucleons in a nucleus, i.e. A.

 Electrostatic repulsion between the protons is dependent on the

square of the charges,
 i.e. Z2

 Which is the consequence of Coulombic forces between the charges.

q1q2
F k 2
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 Nuclear Stability (Cont…)
 To achieve stability of the nucleus,

 Electrostatic repulsion between protons must be masked by presence of more

neutrons hence
 We can infer that Z2 must be dependent on A for a nucleus to remain stable.

 In other words,

 To combat the effect of the increase in electrostatic repulsion when the

number of protons increases,
 The number of neutrons must increase more rapidly to contribute sufficient
energy to bind the nucleus together.

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 Nuclear Stability (cont…)
 Each element
 Has a number of isotopes and
 Most stable isotope for each element must have a
specific number of neutrons in its nucleus.
 A plot of Z against N for the stable isotopes
 Generates what is known as Nuclear Stability
Curve as shown in figure beside.
 Note that
 Number of protons = number of neutrons for small
nuclei (up to Z = 20)
 But neutron number increases more than proton
number for heavy nuclei to maintain stability (for
elements with Z > 20).

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 Radioactivity
 Stability of atom
 Depends on the ratio of Z to N.
 The thick line is this graph
 Is the line of stability
 Based on this stability curve, the
elements (nuclei) are divided into two
groups:
1. Non-radioactive – are stable
atoms and lie along stability curve.
2. Radioactive – are unstable atoms
and lie either above or below
stability curve

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 Abbreviations
Memorize this.
That’s an order!
109 giga G (billion)
106 mega M (million)
103 kilo k (thousand)
10-1 deci d (tenth)
10-2 centi c (hundredth)
10-3 milli m (thousandth)
10-6 micro m (millionth)
10-9 nano n (billionth)
10-12 pico p (millionth millionth)

Angstrom = Å = 10-10 m

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 Some Examples of MCQs

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 Some Examples of MCQs

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 Some Examples of MCQs

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