Dalton’s atomic model

English chemist and physicist John Dalton converted the atomic philosophy of
the Greeks into a scientific theory between 1803 and 1808. His book A New
System of Chemical Philosophy (Part I, 1808; Part II, 1810) was the first
application of atomic theory to chemistry. It provided a physical picture of how
elements combine to form compounds and a phenomenological reason for
believing that atoms exist. His work, together with that of Joseph-Louis Gay-
Lussac of France and Amedeo Avogadro of Italy, provided the experimental
foundation of atomic chemistry. Dalton used experimental results to propose a
new model of the atom in which he suggested the following:

 All matter consists of extremely small particles called atoms.

 Atoms are indestructible and resist changes.
o Dalton stated that atoms could not be created, destroyed, divided
into smaller pieces, or transformed into atoms of other elements. He
used the law of conservation of mass in the late 1700s as the basis
for these conclusions.
 Elements are characterized by the mass of their atoms.
o Dalton stated that all atoms of an element are identical in shape,
size, and mass.
 When atoms are involved in chemical reactions, they combine in small
whole-number ratios to form what are now called molecules.
o Dalton suggested that two types of atoms could form molecules of
different whole-number ratios. This is known to be true for such
molecules as carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide—both of which
are composed of carbon and oxygen atoms but which have different
ratios of each.

Dalton’s atomic model was readily accepted. It incorporated the already known
ideas of the law of conservation of mass, the law of definite proportions, and
the law of multiple proportions and matched experimental observations.
The Thomson atomic model
In the years after Dalton described his atomic model, multiple experiments were
performed that proved that charged particles exist. In 1897 English physicist J.J.
Thomson discovered a negatively charged particle, which he called the electron.
The existence of the electron showed that the 2,000-year-old conception of the
atom as a homogeneous particle was wrong and that in fact the atom has a
complex structure. Thomson noted that the Dalton model of the atom did not
include the idea of charge, and he theorized that the electrons must be within
the atoms of elements. He used his discovery to strongly support the so-called
“plum-pudding” model of atomic structure first proposed by Lord Kelvin. The
model indicated that there were pockets of negative charges within the sphere
of the atom. The advantage of the Thomson atom was that it was inherently
stable: if the electrons were displaced, they would attempt to return to their
original positions.
The Rutherford atomic model
In 1911 a former student of Thomson’s, New Zealand-born British
physicist Ernest Rutherford, in cooperation with other scientists,
performed alpha particle experiments that led to the overturning of Thomson’s
model. They aimed alpha particles at a thin sheet of gold foil and then recorded
the location of the alpha particle with a fluorescent screen after the interaction.
They found that the majority of the alpha particles passed through the gold foil
as if the foil was not there. They also found that a very small number of these
alpha particles deflected at angles from the initial path, with some of the alpha
particles even bouncing back along the initial path.

Rutherford concluded that there must be a small, highly dense core of matter in
an atom off which the alpha particles were bouncing. He theorized that this
atomic nucleus was positively charged and surmised that the electrons orbited
around it. Many physicists doubted the Rutherford atomic model because it was
difficult to reconcile with the chemical behaviour of atoms. The model suggested
that the charge on the nucleus was the most important characteristic of the
atom, determining its structure.
The Bohr atomic model
In 1913, just two years after the Rutherford atomic model had been introduced,
Danish physicist Niels Bohr, a student of Rutherford’s, proposed his
quantized shell model of the atom (see Bohr model) to explain how electrons can
have stable orbits around the nucleus. The motion of the electrons in
the Rutherford model was unstable because, according to classical mechanics
and electromagnetic theory, any charged particle moving on a curved
path emits electromagnetic radiation; thus, the electrons would lose energy and
spiral into the nucleus. To remedy the stability problem, Bohr modified the
Rutherford model by requiring that the electrons move in orbits of fixed size and
energy. The energy of an electron depends on the size of the orbit and is lower
for smaller orbits. Radiation can occur only when the electron jumps from one
orbit to another. The atom will be completely stable in the state with the
smallest orbit, since there is no orbit of lower energy into which the electron
can jump. Bohr’s starting point was the realization that classical mechanics by
itself could never explain the atom’s stability.

Bohr suggested that each orbit has a different energy level associated with it, as
the distance from the nucleus determines forces acting on the electrons in the
various orbits, or shells. He found that energy can be absorbed by electrons to
move from a lower energy orbit to a higher energy orbit and that they release
energy when moving from higher to lower energy orbits. However, despite a
number of modifications to the model, by the early 1920s Bohr’s model seemed
to be a dead end, as efforts to generalize the model to multielectron atoms had
proved futile.
Quantum atomic model
In 1926, Austrian Physicist Erwin Schrodinger used the duality of electron wave
particles to create and solve difficult mathematical formulas that accurately
describe the behavior of electrons in a hydrogen atom. The quantum mechanical
model of the atom was created by solving the Schrodinger equation.

FEATURES OF QUANTUM MECHANICAL MODEL OF ATOM

 The power of the electron is quantized. That is, it can have a positive
performance value.
 The proven answer to the Schrodinger wave equation is the quantized
power of the electron, which is the end result of the wave-like properties
of the electron.
 According to Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, it is not possible to know
the specific function and momentum of an electron. Therefore, we can
calculate the only danger of putting an electron in a particular function.
 The current number of miles is | ψ | 2. Where ψ represents the wave
characteristics of the electron.
 The wave characteristics (ψ) of electrons in an atom are called atomic
orbitals. Electrons occupy atomic orbitals when their miles are
characterized by wave characteristics. Since an electron can have many
wave functions, it has multiple atomic orbitals.
 Each wave’s characteristics or atomic orbitals have a specific shape and
power.
 The orbital wave properties of an atom contain all the statistics about the
electrons in the atom, and quantum mechanics can extract these
statistics.
 The likelihood of an electron being placed on a positive web page within
an atom is proportional to the square of the orbital wave characteristic at
that location. That is, | ψ | 2. Random density is always advantageous and
is understood as | ψ | 2.
Guide Questions:

1. Name the scientist/s who used model to explain phenomena that

cannot be easily seen or detected.
2. What are the different models used by scientists to explain
phenomena that cannot be easily seen or detected?
3. What is your observation on the illustration of each model?
4. In your opinion, why do scientists provide models to explain
phenomena that cannot be easily seen or detected?

Guide Questions:

1. Name the scientist/s who used model to explain phenomena that

cannot be easily seen or detected.
2. What are the different models used by scientists to explain
phenomena that cannot be easily seen or detected?
3. What is your observation on the illustration of each model?
4. In your opinion, why do scientists provide models to explain
phenomena that cannot be easily seen or detected?

Guide Questions:

1. Name the scientist/s who used model to explain phenomena that

cannot be easily seen or detected.
2. What are the different models used by scientists to explain
phenomena that cannot be easily seen or detected?
3. What is your observation on the illustration of each model?
4. In your opinion, why do scientists provide models to explain
phenomena that cannot be easily seen or detected?

Guide Questions:
1. Name the scientist/s who used model to explain phenomena that
cannot be easily seen or detected.
2. What are the different models used by scientists to explain
phenomena that cannot be easily seen or detected?
3. What is your observation on the illustration of each model?
4. In your opinion, why do scientists provide models to explain
phenomena that cannot be easily seen or detected?