History of

Chemistry
Discoveries and Atoms

Early Greeks
Democritus

all matter is made of

small, indivisible particles called
atomos
Aristotle matter is continuous and
NOT made of smaller particles

Robert
1st

Boyle (1600s)

true chemist

Discovered

a relationship
between pressure and
volume (Boyles Law)

Antoine

Lavoisier

Matter

cannot be created
or destroyed
Law of Conservation of
Mass

Joseph

Proust

Found

that a given
compound always contains
exactly the same proportion
of elements by mass
Law of Definite Proportions

John

Dalton (1800s)

The

ratios of the masses of

elements in a compound can
always be reduced to small
whole numbers

Law of Multiple Proportions

Daltons Atomic Theory

1)

all matter is composed of tiny particles

called atoms
2) the atoms of an element are always
identical while the atoms of different
elements are different
3) compounds form when atoms combine;
atoms combine in small whole number
ratios
4) reactions involve reorganization of
atoms; the atoms themselves do not
change

Dalton
Proposed

the Billiard-ball
model of the atom

Joseph

Gay-Lussac (1809)

Measured

the volumes of
gases that reacted with one
another to develop the
Law of Combining Volumes of
Gases

Amadeo

Avogadro

at the same temperature and

pressure, equal volumes of
gases contain the same
number of particles

Avogadros hypothesis

J.J.

Thomson

Produced

a cathode ray
which was deflected by a
negative electric field

Thus

the ray must be made of

negative particles (electrons)

J.J.

Thomson

Since

atoms are neutral, they

must also have a positive area

Plum

pudding model

J.J.

Thomson

Protons

were found to be
1836 X the mass of an
electron
Charge of proton is +1

Robert

Millikan

Oil

drop experiment to
determine the magnitude of
the electrons charge

which is now known as -1

James

Chadwick

Discovered

high energy
particles with no charge
and the same mass as the
proton
the neutron

Henri

Becquerel

Accidentally

discovered

radioactivity
Alpha particles (+2 charge)
(Also beta particles, gamma
rays)

Ernest

Rutherford (1911)

Tests

Thomsons Plum Pudding

Model by shooting alpha
particles through a sheet of gold
foil

Ernest

Rutherford

Nuclear

Model
of the Atom

Robert

Bunsen

Found

that when heated,

different elements produced
different colors in a flame

Niels

Bohr (1912)

Electrons

orbit the nucleus

somewhat like planets orbit the sun
Planetary Model

Arnold

Sommerfeld

Expanded

the Bohr model

Electrons travel in orbitals, but
the orbitals are not the same shape

-- this leads to the electron cloud

model of the atom

Electron Cloud Model

Wolfgang

Pauli (1924)

Predicted

that electrons spin

while orbiting the nucleus

Paulis Exclusion Principle says

no two electrons do the exact
same thing at the same time

de Broglie and Schrdinger

Propose

that electrons move

like wave
thus the Wave-Mechanical
Model

Werner
No

Heisenberg

experiment can measure

the position and momentum
of a quantum particle
simultaneously
Heisenbergs Uncertainty
Principle

Modern View of the Atom

Tiny

nucleus surrounded by
electron cloud
Nucleus accounts for all of the
mass
Arrangement of electrons causes
different chemical properties

Electron Cloud Model

Note:

Just as no map can equal a territory,

no concept of an atom can possibly equal
its nature. These models of the atom
simply served as a way of thinking about
them, though they contained limitations
(all models do).