What is atoms?

- The smallest particles that can be called an element.

- All matter is made up of atoms.
- Made up of protons (+), neutrons, and electrons (-).

What is an Element?

- An element is any substance that cannot be broken down into simpler substances.

Nuclear Reaction

- Are process in which a nucleus either combines with another nucleus (through nuclear fission)
or splits into smaller nucleus (through nuclear fission).

Types of Nuclear Reaction

 Alpha Decay: Loss of an alpha particles

 Beta Decay
 Gamma Radiation
 Positron Emission
 Electron Capture
 Bombardment of Alpha Particles

Alpha Particles

- Alpha particles have 2 protons and 2 neutrons

Isotopes

- Are atoms of an element that have the same number of protons but different numbers of
neutrons. They can be written using the element symbol, the atomic mass (as left superscript),
and the atomic number (as left subscript).

The Big bang Theory

- Big bang theory postulates that approximately 14 billion years ago, a hot, dense mass about on
centimeter in diameter experienced a huge explosion, spreading its products as a fast moving
cloud of gas.
- The event was accompanied by an emission of huge amount of light.
- The first second after the explosion, subatomic particles such as protons, neutrons and electrons
were formed.
- As the expanding universe cooled, the neutrons started to fuse (combine) to form heavier nuclei
of deuterium (an isotope of hydrogen with one neutron and one proton), and some into helium.
- Most wide explanation to the origin of the universe is the big bang theory. The evidence of
theory was first expressed in the early 1900s, when Edwin Hubble offered an explanation that
the universe is expanding.
- He observed that many stars and galaxies shine with light shifted toward the red end of the
visible spectrum.
Redshift

- Occurs because the light waves of cosmic bodies are stretched into low-frequency red waves as
they move away from an observer on Earth.

Stellar Formation and Evolution

- The universe continuously expanded for the several years and the cloud of hydrogen and helium
gases to form stars including the sun.
- During this stellar evolution, nuclear reactions continued, which produced elements heavier
than lithium. The light elements combined to form atoms of carbon, neon, oxygen, silicon and
iron.

Fusion Shells

- Starting from a small, young, yellow star, successive nuclear reactions occurred until it became a
giant red star.
- The reactions involved in the formation of each new element happened in regions or layers

Atomic Theory
John Dalton (1776-1884)

- All matter is made up of atoms.

- Atoms of an element are identical.
- Each element has different atoms.
- Atoms can engage in a chemical reactions.
- Atoms can neither be created nor be destroyed.
- Atoms are indivisible.

Wilhelm Rontgen (1845-1923)

- In 1895, he is the first person to discover electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength range

commonly known as X-rays today.

Marie Curie (1867-1934)

- Student of Wilhelm Rontgen and known as “Mother of Physics”

- Proposed the term radioactivity.
- Found that three types of rays are produced by the radioactive decay of a material---alpha, beta,
and gamma rays.

Joseph John Thomson (1856-1940)

- In 1897, he proposed the “plum pudding” model of an atom.

- This model explained the neutrality of an atom.
- It was short-lived and was immediately disproved.
Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937)

- Atom has a positively charged central part (nucleus).

- Electrons are distributed around nucleus.
- Mass of an atom is concentrated at nucleus.
- Compared with total volume of an atom, the volume of nucleus is meager.

Proton

- Protons, together with neutrons, are the constituents of atomic nuclei. A hydrogen atom, for
instance, is composed of a single proton orbited by a single electron. Unlike their neutral
cousins, neutrons, protons are electromagnetically charged, and have charge opposite to that of
an electron: they are positively charged. Hence in an atom, the negatively
charged electrons orbit the positively charged nucleus.
- The mass of a proton is 1.6726231 × 10-27 kg.
- The charge of a proton is 1.60217733 × 10-19 C. (where C is a Coulomb)

Neutron

- A neutron is a sub-atomic particle with no net electrostatic charge, with a very similar mass to
a proton. Neutrons are thought to comprise of one up quark of charge +2/3 and
two down quarks of charge -1/3 each, resulting in a net charge of zero. Neutrons are present in
almost all atomic nuclei except for Hydrogen.
- The mass of the neutron is: 1.6749286 × 10-27 kg.
- When neutrons are isolated in space they decay with a half-life of about 15 minutes and decay
into a proton, an electron and an anti-neutrino. This process is known as beta decay, where beta
refers to the electron. As a result of this process, space is relatively devoid of free neutrons.

Ernest Rutherford

- Ernest Rutherford was born in 1871 in Brightwater, New Zealand.

- Rutherford researched at both Canterbury University and McGill University.
- At both universities he studied radioactivity and radiation.
- At the University of Manchester, Rutherford aided Professor Hans Geiger in creating the Geiger
counter. This device detects alpha particles.
- Geiger and Rutherford had previously revealed in 1908 that the alpha particles were helium
ions, as both had the same atomic light spectrum (emission spectrum).
- Rutherford, Geiger, and Geiger's graduate student Ernest Marsden decided to test how alpha
particles interacted with other elements. They tested this by shooting alpha particles at a thin
gold foil.

Rutherford’s Gold Foil

- Ernest Rutherford, Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden carried out their Gold Foil Experiment to
observe the effect of alpha particles on Rutherford devised a way to record the location of the
alpha particles by surrounding the bombarded object with a sheet coated in ZnS, which would
emit of flash of light when hit with an alpha particle.
 - The bombarded object with a sheet coated in ZnS, which would emit of flash of light when hit
with an alpha particle.
- He then hypothesized that these particles would penetrate a thin metal foil, although they may
scatter slightly because of the charge in the metal atom's subatomic particles.
- After shooting alpha particles through the thin sheet of gold, Geiger, Marsden and Rutherford
discovered that a small porportion of the molecules were scattered at larger than 90° angles.

What is the structure of an Atom?

Nucleus - center of the atom

- Home of Protons and Neutrons

- Has a positive charge

Proton

- Has a relative mass of 1

- Has a positive (+) charge
- Determines the atomic number
- Found inside the nucleus

Neutron

- Has no (0) charge

- Has a relative mass of 1
- Found inside the nucleus

Electron

- Has a negative (-) charge

- Found outside the nucleus
- Rutherford atom model - electrons are around the nucleus
- Bohr model – electrons are in specific energy levels called shells

What is Atomic Number?

- The atomic number or proton number (symbol Z) of a chemical element is the number of
protons found in the nucleus of an atom. It is identical to the charge number of the nucleus. The
atomic number uniquely identifies a chemical element. In an uncharged atom, the atomic
number is also equal to the number of electrons.

What is Atomic Mass?

- The mass of an atom of a chemical element expressed in atomic mass units. It is approximately
equivalent to the number of protons and neutrons in the atom (the mass number) or to the
average number allowing for the relative abundances of different isotopes.
Ions

- Is an atom or molecule that has a net electrical charge. Since the charge of the electron
(considered "negative" by convention) is equal and opposite to that of the proton (considered
"positive" by convention), the net charge of an ion is non-zero due to its total number
of electrons being unequal to its total number of protons. A cation is a positively charged ion,
with fewer electrons than protons, while an anion is negatively charged, with more electrons
than protons. Because of their opposite electric charges, cations and anions attract each other
and readily form ionic compounds.
- The charge (q) of an ion is written as a superscript at the right-hand side of the chemical symbol.
A (+1) or a (-1) charge is normally written as just + and -, respectively.
- The charge of an ion may be computed using the formula.

DOLTON’S ATOMIC THEORY (1808)

John Dalton’s Postulates

1. Elements are made up of small indivisible particles called atoms.

2. In any given pure element, the mass and other properties of all the atoms are the same.
Atoms of different elements differ in mass and other properties.
3. Compounds are composed of atoms of more than one element.
4. In a chemical reaction, atoms are neither created nor destroyed. They simply
combine, separate or rearrange.