Stoichiometry (sometimes called reaction stoichiometry to distinguish it from composition stoichiometry) is the calculation of quantitative (measurable) relationships of the reactants and products in a balanced chemical reaction (chemicals). It can be used to calculate quantities such as the amount of products that can be produced with the given reactants and percent yield.
Etymology
"Stoichiometry" is derived from the Greek words στοιχεῖον (stoikheion, meaning element) and μέτρον (metron, meaning measure.) In patristic Greek, the word Stoichiometria was used by Nicephorus to refer to the number of line counts of the canonical books of the New Testament and some of the Apocrypha.
Definition
Stoichiometry rests upon the law of conservation of mass, the law of definite proportions (i.e., the law of constant composition) and the law of multiple proportions. In general, chemical reactions combine in definite ratios of chemicals. Since chemical reactions can neither create nor destroy matter, nor transmute one element into another, the amount of each element must be the same throughout the overall reaction. For example, the amount of elements x on the reactant side must equal the amount of element X on the product side.
Next time we would be explained it again....
sorry...
Friday, August 21, 2009
Chemical Bonds.
A chemical bond is an attraction between atoms brought about by a sharing of electrons between to atoms or a complete transfer of electrons. There are three types of chemical bonds: Ionic, Covalent and Polar covalent. In addition chemists often recognise another type of bond called a hydrogen bond.
Ionic Bonds.
Ionic bonds arise from elements with low electronegativity(almost empty outer shells) reacting with elements with high electronegativity (mostly full outer shells). In this case there is a complete transfer of electrons.
A well known example is table salt, sodium chloride. Sodium gives up its one outer shell electron completely to chlorine which needs only one electron to fill its shell. Thus, the attraction between these atoms is much like static electricity since opposite charges attract.
Covalent bond.
Covalent bonds involve a complete sharing of electrons and occurrs most commonly between atoms that have partially filled outer shells or energy levels. Thus if the atoms are similar in negativity then the electrons will be shared. Carbon forms covalent bonds. The electrons are in hybrid orbitals formed by the atoms involved as in this example: ethane. Diamond is strong because it involves a vast network of covalent bonds between the carbon atoms in the diamond.
Covalent bond has two kind, first polar covalent bond and non polar covalent bond
Polar Covalent Bond.
These bonds are in between covalent and ionic bonds in that the atoms share electrons but the electrons spend more of their time around on atom versus the others in the compound. This type of bond occurs when the atoms involved differ greatly in electronegativity. The most familiar example is water. Oxygen is much more electronegative than hydrogen, and so the electrons involved in bonding the water molecule spend more time there.
The fact that water is a polar covalently bonded moleccule has a number of implications for molecules that are disolved in water. In particular, molecules with polar covalent bods can break apart when they encounter water molecules. They are broken apart because of the electrical attraction between the dissimilar charges of the molecules. Also, since ionically bonded molecules involve ions with opposite charges, water with its polar covalent bonds can separate ions from each other and then surround the ions which prevents them from recombining. The properties of water all relate to this polar covalent bonding. Indeed the sorts of so called hydrophilic and hydrophobic interactions water has with varios organic compounds depend on the nature of the polar covalent bond in water.
For non polar covalent bond would be explained next time…..
The pH Scale.
The concentration of hydrogen ions in a solution is very important for living things. This is because, since the hydrogen ions are positively charged they alter the charge environment of other molecules in solution. By putting different forces on the molecules, the molecules change shape from their normal shape. This is particularly important for proteins in solution because the shape of a protein is related to its function.
The concentration of hydrogen ions is commonly expressed in terms of the pH scale. Low pH corresponds to high hydrogen ion concentration and vice versa. A substance that when added to water increases the concentration of hydrogen ions(lowers the pH) is called an acid. A substance that reduces the concentration of hydrogen ions(raises the pH) is called a base. Finally some substances enable solutions to resist pH changes when an acid or base is added. Such substances are called buffers. Buffers are very important in helping organisms maintain a relatively constant pH. Study the pH chart given below carefully. Note that each decrease in pH by one pH unit means a tenfold increase in the concentration of hydrogen ions.
Origin and current state
Atoms form about 4% of the total energy density of the observable universe, with an average density of about 0.25 atoms/m3.Within a galaxy such as the Milky Way, atoms have a much higher concentration, with the density of matter in the interstellar medium (ISM) ranging from 105 to 109 atoms/m3. The Sun is believed to be inside the Local Bubble, a region of highly ionized gas, so the density in the solar neighborhood is only about 103 atoms/m3. Stars form from dense clouds in the ISM, and the evolutionary processes of stars result in the steady enrichment of the ISM with elements more massive than hydrogen and helium. Up to 95% of the Milky Way's atoms are concentrated inside stars and the total mass of atoms forms about 10% of the mass of the galaxy. (The remainder of the mass is an unknown dark matter)
Nucleosynthesis
Stable protons and electrons appeared one second after the Big Bang. During the following three minutes, Big Bang nucleosynthesis produced most of the helium, lithium, and deuterium in the universe, and perhaps some of the beryllium and boron. The first atoms (complete with bound electrons) were theoretically created 380,000 years after the Big Bang—an epoch called recombination, when the expanding universe cooled enough to allow electrons to become attached to nuclei. Since then, atomic nuclei have been combined in stars through the process of nuclear fusion to produce elements up to iron.
Isotopes such as lithium-6 are generated in space through cosmic ray spallation. This occurs when a high-energy proton strikes an atomic nucleus, causing large numbers of nucleons to be ejected. Elements heavier than iron were produced in supernovae through the r-process and in AGB stars through the s-process, both of which involve the capture of neutrons by atomic nuclei. Elements such as lead formed largely through the radioactive decay of heavier elements.
Earth
Most of the atoms that make up the Earth and its inhabitants were present in their current form in the nebula that collapsed out of a molecular cloud to form the Solar System. The rest are the result of radioactive decay, and their relative proportion can be used to determine the age of the Earth through radiometric dating. Most of the helium in the crust of the Earth (about 99% of the helium from gas wells, as shown by its lower abundance of helium-3) is a product of alpha decay.
There are a few trace atoms on Earth that were not present at the beginning (i.e., not "primordial"), nor are results of radioactive decay. Carbon-14 is continuously generated by cosmic rays in the atmosphere. Some atoms on Earth have been artificially generated either deliberately or as by-products of nuclear reactors or explosions. Of the transuranic elements—those with atomic numbers greater than 92—only plutonium and neptunium occur naturally on Earth. Transuranic elements have radioactive lifetimes shorter than the current age of the Earth and thus identifiable quantities of these elements have long since decayed, with the exception of traces of plutonium-244 possibly deposited by cosmic dust. Natural deposits of plutonium and neptunium are produced by neutron capture in uranium ore.
The Earth contains approximately 1.33 × 1050 atoms. In the planet's atmosphere, small numbers of independent atoms of noble gases exist, such as argon and neon. The remaining 99% of the atmosphere is bound in the form of molecules, including carbon dioxide and diatomic oxygen and nitrogen. At the surface of the Earth, atoms combine to form various compounds, including water, salt, silicates and oxides. Atoms can also combine to create materials that do not consist of discrete molecules, including crystals and liquid or solid metals. This atomic matter forms networked arrangements that lack the particular type of small-scale interrupted order associated with molecular matter.
Rare and theoretical forms
While isotopes with atomic numbers higher than lead (82) are known to be radioactive, an "island of stability" has been proposed for some elements with atomic numbers above 103. These superheavy elements may have a nucleus that is relatively stable against radioactive decay. The most likely candidate for a stable superheavy atom, unbihexium, has 126 protons and 184 neutrons.
Each particle of matter has a corresponding antimatter particle with the opposite electrical charge. Thus, the positron is a positively charged antielectron and the antiproton is a negatively charged equivalent of a proton. When a matter and corresponding antimatter particle meet, they annihilate each other. Because of this, along with an imbalance between the number of matter and antimatter particles, the latter are rare in the universe. (The first causes of this imbalance is not yet fully understood, although the baryogenesis theories may offer an explanation.) As a result, no antimatter atoms have been discovered in nature. However, in 1996, antihydrogen, the antimatter counterpart of hydrogen, was synthesized at the CERN laboratory in Geneva.
Other exotic atoms have been created by replacing one of the protons, neutrons or electrons with other particles that have the same charge. For example, an electron can be replaced by a more massive muon, forming a muonic atom. These types of atoms can be used to test the fundamental predictions of physics.
References
1. Leigh, G. J., ed (1990). International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, Commission on the Nomenclature of Inorganic Chemistry, Nomenclature of Organic Chemistry - Recommendations 1990. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Publications. p. 35. ISBN 0-08-022369-9. "An atom is the smallest unit quantity of an element that is capable of existence whether alone or in chemical combination with other atoms of the same or other elements."
2. Haubold, Hans; Mathai, A.M. (1998). "Microcosmos: From Leucippus to Yukawa". Structure of the Universe. http://www.columbia.edu/~ah297/unesa/universe/universe-chapter3.html. Retrieved 2008-01-17.
3. Harrison (2003:123–139).
4. "Radioactive Decays". Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. 15 June 2009. http://www2.slac.stanford.edu/vvc/theory/nuclearstability.html. Retrieved 2009-07-04.
5. a b Ponomarev (1993:14–15).
6. Gangopadhyaya (1981).
7. Iannone (2001:62).
8. Teresi (2003:213–214).
9. Moran (2005:146).
10. a b Levere (2001)
11. Pratt, Vernon (28 September 2007). "The Mechanical Philosophy". Reason, nature and the human being in the West. http://www.vernonpratt.com/conceptualisations/d06bl2_1mechanical.htm. Retrieved 2009-06-28.
12. Kemerling, Garth (8 August 2002). "Corpuscularianism". Philosophical Dictionary. http://www.philosophypages.com/dy/c9.htm. Retrieved 2009-06-17.
13. Siegfried (2002:42–55).
14. "Lavoisier's Elements of Chemistry". Elements and Atoms. Le Moyne College, Department of Chemistry. http://web.lemoyne.edu/~GIUNTA/EA/LAVPREFann.HTML. Retrieved 2007-12-18.
15. Wurtz (1881:1–2).
16. Dalton (1808).
17. Patterson, Elizabeth C. (1970). John Dalton and the Atomic Theory. Garden City, New York: Anchor.
18. Einstein, Albert (1905). "Über die von der molekularkinetischen Theorie der Wärme geforderte Bewegung von in ruhenden Flüssigkeiten suspendierten Teilchen" (in German) (PDF). Annalen der Physik 322 (8): 549–560. doi:10.1002/andp.19053220806. http://www.zbp.univie.ac.at/dokumente/einstein2.pdf. Retrieved 2007-02-04.
19. Mazo (2002:1–7).
20. Lee, Y.K.; Hoon, K. (1995). "Brownian Motion". Imperial College. http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~nd/surprise_95/journal/vol4/ykl/report.html. Retrieved 2007-12-18.
21. Patterson, G. (2007). "Jean Perrin and the triumph of the atomic doctrine". Endeavour 31 (2): 50–53. doi:10.1016/j.endeavour.2007.05.003. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17602746.
22. IUPAC article on periodic table
23. "J.J. Thomson". Nobel Foundation. 1906. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1906/thomson-bio.html. Retrieved 2007-12-20.
24. Rutherford, E. (1911). "The Scattering of α and β Particles by Matter and the Structure of the Atom". Philosophical Magazine 21: 669–88. http://ion.elte.hu/~akos/orak/atfsz/atom/rutherford_atom11.pdf.
25. "Frederick Soddy, The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1921". Nobel Foundation. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1921/soddy-bio.html. Retrieved 2008-01-18.
26. Thomson, Joseph John (1913). "Rays of positive electricity". Proceedings of the Royal Society A 89: 1–20. http://web.lemoyne.edu/~giunta/canal.html.
27. Stern, David P. (16 May 2005). "The Atomic Nucleus and Bohr's Early Model of the Atom". NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center. http://www-spof.gsfc.nasa.gov/stargaze/Q5.htm. Retrieved 2007-12-20.
28. Bohr, Neils (11 December 1922). "Niels Bohr, The Nobel Prize in Physics 1922, Nobel Lecture". Nobel Foundation. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1922/bohr-lecture.html. Retrieved 2008-02-16.
29. Lewis, Gilbert N. (1916). "The Atom and the Molecule". Journal of the American Chemical Society 38 (4): 762–786. doi:10.1021/ja02261a002.
30. Scerri (2007:205–226)
31. Langmuir, Irving (1919). "The Arrangement of Electrons in Atoms and Molecules". Journal of the American Chemical Society 41 (6): 868–934. doi:10.1021/ja02227a002.
32. Scully, Marlan O.; Lamb Jr., Willis E.; Barut, Asim (1987). "On the theory of the Stern-Gerlach apparatus". Foundations of Physics 17 (6): 575–583. doi:10.1007/BF01882788.
33. Brown, Kevin (2007). "The Hydrogen Atom". MathPages. http://www.mathpages.com/home/kmath538/kmath538.htm. Retrieved 2007-12-21.
34. Harrison, David M. (2000). "The Development of Quantum Mechanics". University of Toronto. http://www.upscale.utoronto.ca/GeneralInterest/Harrison/DevelQM/DevelQM.html. Retrieved 2007-12-21.
35. Aston, Francis W. (1920). "The constitution of atmospheric neon". Philosophical Magazine 39 (6): 449–55.
36. Chadwick, James (12 December 1935). "Nobel Lecture: The Neutron and Its Properties". Nobel Foundation. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1935/chadwick-lecture.html. Retrieved 2007-12-21.
37. Meitner, Lise; Frisch, Otto Robert (1939). "Disintegration of uranium by neutrons: a new type of nuclear reaction". Nature 143: 239. doi:10.1038/143239a0.
38. Schroeder, M.. "Lise Meitner - Zur 125. Wiederkehr Ihres Geburtstages" (in German). http://www.physik3.gwdg.de/~mrs/Vortraege/Lise_Meitner-Vortrag-20031106/. Retrieved 2009-06-04.
39. Crawford, E.; Lewin Sime, R.; Walker, M. (1997). "A Nobel tale of postwar injustice". Physics Today 50 (9): 26–32. doi:10.1063/1.881933. http://md1.csa.com/partners/viewrecord.php?requester=gs&collection=TRD&recid=63212AN&q=A+Nobel+tale+of+postwar+injustice&uid=787269344&setcookie=yes.
40. Kullander, Sven (28 August 2001). "Accelerators and Nobel Laureates". Nobel Foundation. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/articles/kullander/. Retrieved 2008-01-31.
41. "The Nobel Prize in Physics 1990". Nobel Foundation. 17 October 1990. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1990/press.html. Retrieved 2008-01-31.
42. "The Nobel Prize in Physics 1997". Nobel Foundation. 15 October 1997. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1997/. Retrieved 2008-02-10.
43. Park, Jiwoong; et al. (2002). "Coulomb blockade and the Kondo effect in single-atom transistors". Nature 417 (6890): 722–25. doi:10.1038/nature00791. Bibcode: 2002Natur.417..722P.
44. Domokos, P.; Janszky, J.; Adam, P. (1994). "Single-atom interference method for generating Fock states". Physical Review A 50: 3340–44. doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.50.3340. Bibcode: 1994PhRvA..50.3340D.
45. Demtröder (2002:39–42).
46. Woan (2000:8).
47. MacGregor (1992:33–37).
48. Particle Data Group (2002). "The Particle Adventure". Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. http://www.particleadventure.org/. Retrieved 2007-01-03.
Nucleosynthesis
Stable protons and electrons appeared one second after the Big Bang. During the following three minutes, Big Bang nucleosynthesis produced most of the helium, lithium, and deuterium in the universe, and perhaps some of the beryllium and boron. The first atoms (complete with bound electrons) were theoretically created 380,000 years after the Big Bang—an epoch called recombination, when the expanding universe cooled enough to allow electrons to become attached to nuclei. Since then, atomic nuclei have been combined in stars through the process of nuclear fusion to produce elements up to iron.
Isotopes such as lithium-6 are generated in space through cosmic ray spallation. This occurs when a high-energy proton strikes an atomic nucleus, causing large numbers of nucleons to be ejected. Elements heavier than iron were produced in supernovae through the r-process and in AGB stars through the s-process, both of which involve the capture of neutrons by atomic nuclei. Elements such as lead formed largely through the radioactive decay of heavier elements.
Earth
Most of the atoms that make up the Earth and its inhabitants were present in their current form in the nebula that collapsed out of a molecular cloud to form the Solar System. The rest are the result of radioactive decay, and their relative proportion can be used to determine the age of the Earth through radiometric dating. Most of the helium in the crust of the Earth (about 99% of the helium from gas wells, as shown by its lower abundance of helium-3) is a product of alpha decay.
There are a few trace atoms on Earth that were not present at the beginning (i.e., not "primordial"), nor are results of radioactive decay. Carbon-14 is continuously generated by cosmic rays in the atmosphere. Some atoms on Earth have been artificially generated either deliberately or as by-products of nuclear reactors or explosions. Of the transuranic elements—those with atomic numbers greater than 92—only plutonium and neptunium occur naturally on Earth. Transuranic elements have radioactive lifetimes shorter than the current age of the Earth and thus identifiable quantities of these elements have long since decayed, with the exception of traces of plutonium-244 possibly deposited by cosmic dust. Natural deposits of plutonium and neptunium are produced by neutron capture in uranium ore.
The Earth contains approximately 1.33 × 1050 atoms. In the planet's atmosphere, small numbers of independent atoms of noble gases exist, such as argon and neon. The remaining 99% of the atmosphere is bound in the form of molecules, including carbon dioxide and diatomic oxygen and nitrogen. At the surface of the Earth, atoms combine to form various compounds, including water, salt, silicates and oxides. Atoms can also combine to create materials that do not consist of discrete molecules, including crystals and liquid or solid metals. This atomic matter forms networked arrangements that lack the particular type of small-scale interrupted order associated with molecular matter.
Rare and theoretical forms
While isotopes with atomic numbers higher than lead (82) are known to be radioactive, an "island of stability" has been proposed for some elements with atomic numbers above 103. These superheavy elements may have a nucleus that is relatively stable against radioactive decay. The most likely candidate for a stable superheavy atom, unbihexium, has 126 protons and 184 neutrons.
Each particle of matter has a corresponding antimatter particle with the opposite electrical charge. Thus, the positron is a positively charged antielectron and the antiproton is a negatively charged equivalent of a proton. When a matter and corresponding antimatter particle meet, they annihilate each other. Because of this, along with an imbalance between the number of matter and antimatter particles, the latter are rare in the universe. (The first causes of this imbalance is not yet fully understood, although the baryogenesis theories may offer an explanation.) As a result, no antimatter atoms have been discovered in nature. However, in 1996, antihydrogen, the antimatter counterpart of hydrogen, was synthesized at the CERN laboratory in Geneva.
Other exotic atoms have been created by replacing one of the protons, neutrons or electrons with other particles that have the same charge. For example, an electron can be replaced by a more massive muon, forming a muonic atom. These types of atoms can be used to test the fundamental predictions of physics.
References
1. Leigh, G. J., ed (1990). International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, Commission on the Nomenclature of Inorganic Chemistry, Nomenclature of Organic Chemistry - Recommendations 1990. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Publications. p. 35. ISBN 0-08-022369-9. "An atom is the smallest unit quantity of an element that is capable of existence whether alone or in chemical combination with other atoms of the same or other elements."
2. Haubold, Hans; Mathai, A.M. (1998). "Microcosmos: From Leucippus to Yukawa". Structure of the Universe. http://www.columbia.edu/~ah297/unesa/universe/universe-chapter3.html. Retrieved 2008-01-17.
3. Harrison (2003:123–139).
4. "Radioactive Decays". Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. 15 June 2009. http://www2.slac.stanford.edu/vvc/theory/nuclearstability.html. Retrieved 2009-07-04.
5. a b Ponomarev (1993:14–15).
6. Gangopadhyaya (1981).
7. Iannone (2001:62).
8. Teresi (2003:213–214).
9. Moran (2005:146).
10. a b Levere (2001)
11. Pratt, Vernon (28 September 2007). "The Mechanical Philosophy". Reason, nature and the human being in the West. http://www.vernonpratt.com/conceptualisations/d06bl2_1mechanical.htm. Retrieved 2009-06-28.
12. Kemerling, Garth (8 August 2002). "Corpuscularianism". Philosophical Dictionary. http://www.philosophypages.com/dy/c9.htm. Retrieved 2009-06-17.
13. Siegfried (2002:42–55).
14. "Lavoisier's Elements of Chemistry". Elements and Atoms. Le Moyne College, Department of Chemistry. http://web.lemoyne.edu/~GIUNTA/EA/LAVPREFann.HTML. Retrieved 2007-12-18.
15. Wurtz (1881:1–2).
16. Dalton (1808).
17. Patterson, Elizabeth C. (1970). John Dalton and the Atomic Theory. Garden City, New York: Anchor.
18. Einstein, Albert (1905). "Über die von der molekularkinetischen Theorie der Wärme geforderte Bewegung von in ruhenden Flüssigkeiten suspendierten Teilchen" (in German) (PDF). Annalen der Physik 322 (8): 549–560. doi:10.1002/andp.19053220806. http://www.zbp.univie.ac.at/dokumente/einstein2.pdf. Retrieved 2007-02-04.
19. Mazo (2002:1–7).
20. Lee, Y.K.; Hoon, K. (1995). "Brownian Motion". Imperial College. http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~nd/surprise_95/journal/vol4/ykl/report.html. Retrieved 2007-12-18.
21. Patterson, G. (2007). "Jean Perrin and the triumph of the atomic doctrine". Endeavour 31 (2): 50–53. doi:10.1016/j.endeavour.2007.05.003. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17602746.
22. IUPAC article on periodic table
23. "J.J. Thomson". Nobel Foundation. 1906. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1906/thomson-bio.html. Retrieved 2007-12-20.
24. Rutherford, E. (1911). "The Scattering of α and β Particles by Matter and the Structure of the Atom". Philosophical Magazine 21: 669–88. http://ion.elte.hu/~akos/orak/atfsz/atom/rutherford_atom11.pdf.
25. "Frederick Soddy, The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1921". Nobel Foundation. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1921/soddy-bio.html. Retrieved 2008-01-18.
26. Thomson, Joseph John (1913). "Rays of positive electricity". Proceedings of the Royal Society A 89: 1–20. http://web.lemoyne.edu/~giunta/canal.html.
27. Stern, David P. (16 May 2005). "The Atomic Nucleus and Bohr's Early Model of the Atom". NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center. http://www-spof.gsfc.nasa.gov/stargaze/Q5.htm. Retrieved 2007-12-20.
28. Bohr, Neils (11 December 1922). "Niels Bohr, The Nobel Prize in Physics 1922, Nobel Lecture". Nobel Foundation. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1922/bohr-lecture.html. Retrieved 2008-02-16.
29. Lewis, Gilbert N. (1916). "The Atom and the Molecule". Journal of the American Chemical Society 38 (4): 762–786. doi:10.1021/ja02261a002.
30. Scerri (2007:205–226)
31. Langmuir, Irving (1919). "The Arrangement of Electrons in Atoms and Molecules". Journal of the American Chemical Society 41 (6): 868–934. doi:10.1021/ja02227a002.
32. Scully, Marlan O.; Lamb Jr., Willis E.; Barut, Asim (1987). "On the theory of the Stern-Gerlach apparatus". Foundations of Physics 17 (6): 575–583. doi:10.1007/BF01882788.
33. Brown, Kevin (2007). "The Hydrogen Atom". MathPages. http://www.mathpages.com/home/kmath538/kmath538.htm. Retrieved 2007-12-21.
34. Harrison, David M. (2000). "The Development of Quantum Mechanics". University of Toronto. http://www.upscale.utoronto.ca/GeneralInterest/Harrison/DevelQM/DevelQM.html. Retrieved 2007-12-21.
35. Aston, Francis W. (1920). "The constitution of atmospheric neon". Philosophical Magazine 39 (6): 449–55.
36. Chadwick, James (12 December 1935). "Nobel Lecture: The Neutron and Its Properties". Nobel Foundation. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1935/chadwick-lecture.html. Retrieved 2007-12-21.
37. Meitner, Lise; Frisch, Otto Robert (1939). "Disintegration of uranium by neutrons: a new type of nuclear reaction". Nature 143: 239. doi:10.1038/143239a0.
38. Schroeder, M.. "Lise Meitner - Zur 125. Wiederkehr Ihres Geburtstages" (in German). http://www.physik3.gwdg.de/~mrs/Vortraege/Lise_Meitner-Vortrag-20031106/. Retrieved 2009-06-04.
39. Crawford, E.; Lewin Sime, R.; Walker, M. (1997). "A Nobel tale of postwar injustice". Physics Today 50 (9): 26–32. doi:10.1063/1.881933. http://md1.csa.com/partners/viewrecord.php?requester=gs&collection=TRD&recid=63212AN&q=A+Nobel+tale+of+postwar+injustice&uid=787269344&setcookie=yes.
40. Kullander, Sven (28 August 2001). "Accelerators and Nobel Laureates". Nobel Foundation. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/articles/kullander/. Retrieved 2008-01-31.
41. "The Nobel Prize in Physics 1990". Nobel Foundation. 17 October 1990. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1990/press.html. Retrieved 2008-01-31.
42. "The Nobel Prize in Physics 1997". Nobel Foundation. 15 October 1997. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1997/. Retrieved 2008-02-10.
43. Park, Jiwoong; et al. (2002). "Coulomb blockade and the Kondo effect in single-atom transistors". Nature 417 (6890): 722–25. doi:10.1038/nature00791. Bibcode: 2002Natur.417..722P.
44. Domokos, P.; Janszky, J.; Adam, P. (1994). "Single-atom interference method for generating Fock states". Physical Review A 50: 3340–44. doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.50.3340. Bibcode: 1994PhRvA..50.3340D.
45. Demtröder (2002:39–42).
46. Woan (2000:8).
47. MacGregor (1992:33–37).
48. Particle Data Group (2002). "The Particle Adventure". Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. http://www.particleadventure.org/. Retrieved 2007-01-03.
Identification
Scanning tunneling microscope image showing the individual atoms making up this gold (100) surface. Reconstruction causes the surface atoms to deviate from the bulk crystal structure and arrange in columns several atoms wide with pits between them.
The scanning tunneling microscope is a device for viewing surfaces at the atomic level. It uses the quantum tunneling phenomenon, which allows particles to pass through a barrier that would normally be insurmountable. Electrons tunnel through the vacuum between two planar metal electrodes, on each of which is an adsorbed atom, providing a tunneling-current density that can be measured. Scanning one atom (taken as the tip) as it moves past the other (the sample) permits plotting of tip displacement versus lateral separation for a constant current. The calculation shows the extent to which scanning-tunneling-microscope images of an individual atom are visible. It confirms that for low bias, the microscope images the space-averaged dimensions of the electron orbitals across closely packed energy levels—the Fermi level local density of states.
An atom can be ionized by removing one of its electrons. The electric charge causes the trajectory of an atom to bend when it passes through a magnetic field. The radius by which the trajectory of a moving ion is turned by the magnetic field is determined by the mass of the atom. The mass spectrometer uses this principle to measure the mass-to-charge ratio of ions. If a sample contains multiple isotopes, the mass spectrometer can determine the proportion of each isotope in the sample by measuring the intensity of the different beams of ions. Techniques to vaporize atoms include inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, both of which use a plasma to vaporize samples for analysis.
A more area-selective method is electron energy loss spectroscopy, which measures the energy loss of an electron beam within a transmission electron microscope when it interacts with a portion of a sample. The atom-probe tomograph has sub-nanometer resolution in 3-D and can chemically identify individual atoms using time-of-flight mass spectrometry.
Spectra of excited states can be used to analyze the atomic composition of distant stars. Specific light wavelengths contained in the observed light from stars can be separated out and related to the quantized transitions in free gas atoms. These colors can be replicated using a gas-discharge lamp containing the same element. Helium was discovered in this way in the spectrum of the Sun 23 years before it was found on Earth.
Properties
Nuclear properties
By definition, any two atoms with an identical number of protons in their nuclei belong to the same chemical element. Atoms with equal numbers of protons but a different number of neutrons are different isotopes of the same element. For example, all hydrogen atoms admit exactly one proton, but isotopes exist with no neutrons hydrogen-1, one neutron (deuterium), two neutrons (tritium) and more than two neutrons. The hydrogen-1 is by far the most common form, and is sometimes called protium. The known elements form a set of atomic numbers from hydrogen with a single proton up to the 118-proton element ununoctium All known isotopes of elements with atomic numbers greater than 82 are radioactive.
About 339 nuclides occur naturally on Earth, of which 269 (about 79%) have not been observed to decay. Of the chemical elements, 80 have one or more stable isotopes. Elements 43, 61, and all elements numbered 83 or higher have no stable isotopes. As a rule, there is, for each element, only a handful of stable isotopes, the average being 3.1 stable isotopes per element which has any stable isotopes. Twenty-seven elements have only a single stable isotope, while the largest number of stable isotopes observed for any element is ten, for the element tin.
Stability of isotopes is affected by the ratio of protons to neutrons, and also by presence of certain "magic numbers" of neutrons or protons which represent closed and filled quantum shells. These quantum shells correspond to a set of energy levels within the shell model of the nucleus; filled shells, such as the filled shell of 50 protons for tin, confers unusual stability on the nuclide. Of the 250 known stable nuclides, only four have both an odd number of protons and odd number of neutrons: hydrogen-2 (deuterium), lithium-6, boron-10 and nitrogen-14. Also, only four naturally occurring, radioactive odd-odd nuclides have a half-life over a billion years: potassium-40, vanadium-50, lanthanum-138 and tantalum-180m. Most odd-odd nuclei are highly unstable with respect to beta decay, because the decay products are even-even, and are therefore more strongly bound, due to nuclear pairing effects.
Atomic mass
Because the large majority of an atom's mass comes from the protons and neutrons, the total number of these particles in an atom is called the mass number. The mass of an atom at rest is often expressed using the unified atomic mass unit (u), which is also called a Dalton (Da). This unit is defined as a twelfth of the mass of a free neutral atom of carbon-12, which is approximately 1.66 × 10−27 kg. Hydrogen-1, the lightest isotope of hydrogen and the atom with the lowest mass, has an atomic weight of 1.007825 u. An atom has a mass approximately equal to the mass number times the atomic mass unit. The heaviest stable atom is lead-208 with a mass of 207.9766521 u.
As even the most massive atoms are far too light to work with directly, chemists instead use the unit of moles. The mole is defined such that one mole of any element will always have the same number of atoms (about 6.022 × 1023). This number was chosen so that if an element has an atomic mass of 1 u, a mole of atoms of that element will have a mass of 0.001 kg, or 1 gram. Carbon, for example, has an atomic mass of 12 u, so a mole of carbon atoms weighs 0.012 kg.
Size
Atoms lack a well-defined outer boundary, so the dimensions are usually described in terms of the distances between two nuclei when the two atoms are joined in a chemical bond. The radius varies with the location of an atom on the atomic chart, the type of chemical bond, the number of neighboring atoms (coordination number) and a quantum mechanical property known as spin. On the periodic table of the elements, atom size tends to increase when moving down columns, but decrease when moving across rows (left to right). Consequently, the smallest atom is helium with a radius of 32 pm, while one of the largest is caesium at 225 pm.These dimensions are thousands of times smaller than the wavelengths of light (400–700 nm) so they can not be viewed using an optical microscope. However, individual atoms can be observed using a scanning tunneling microscope.
Some examples will demonstrate the minuteness of the atom. A typical human hair is about 1 million carbon atoms in width. A single drop of water contains about 2 sextillion (2 × 1021) atoms of oxygen, and twice the number of hydrogen atoms. A single carat diamond with a mass of 2 × 10-4 kg contains about 10 sextillion (1022) atoms of carbon.[note 2] If an apple were magnified to the size of the Earth, then the atoms in the apple would be approximately the size of the original apple.
Radioactive decay
This diagram shows the half-life (T½) in seconds of various isotopes with Z protons and N neutrons.
Every element has one or more isotopes that have unstable nuclei that are subject to radioactive decay, causing the nucleus to emit particles or electromagnetic radiation. Radioactivity can occur when the radius of a nucleus is large compared with the radius of the strong force, which only acts over distances on the order of 1 fm.
The most common forms of radioactive decay are:
• Alpha decay is caused when the nucleus emits an alpha particle, which is a helium nucleus consisting of two protons and two neutrons. The result of the emission is a new element with a lower atomic number.
• Beta decay is regulated by the weak force, and results from a transformation of a neutron into a proton, or a proton into a neutron. The first is accompanied by the emission of an electron and an antineutrino, while the second causes the emission of a positron and a neutrino. The electron or positron emissions are called beta particles. Beta decay either increases or decreases the atomic number of the nucleus by one.
• Gamma decay results from a change in the energy level of the nucleus to a lower state, resulting in the emission of electromagnetic radiation. This can occur following the emission of an alpha or a beta particle from radioactive decay.
Other more rare types of radioactive decay include ejection of neutrons or protons or clusters of nucleons from a nucleus, or more than one beta particle, or result (through internal conversion) in production of high-speed electrons which are not beta rays, and high-energy photons which are not gamma rays.
Each radioactive isotope has a characteristic decay time period—the half-life—that is determined by the amount of time needed for half of a sample to decay. This is an exponential decay process that steadily decreases the proportion of the remaining isotope by 50% every half life. Hence after two half-lives have passed only 25% of the isotope will be present, and so forth.
Magnetic moment
Elementary particles possess an intrinsic quantum mechanical property known as spin. This is analogous to the angular momentum of an object that is spinning around its center of mass, although strictly speaking these particles are believed to be point-like and cannot be said to be rotating. Spin is measured in units of the reduced Planck constant (ħ), with electrons, protons and neutrons all having spin ½ ħ, or "spin-½". In an atom, electrons in motion around the nucleus possess orbital angular momentum in addition to their spin, while the nucleus itself possesses angular momentum due to its nuclear spin.
The magnetic field produced by an atom—its magnetic moment—is determined by these various forms of angular momentum, just as a rotating charged object classically produces a magnetic field. However, the most dominant contribution comes from spin. Due to the nature of electrons to obey the Pauli exclusion principle, in which no two electrons may be found in the same quantum state, bound electrons pair up with each other, with one member of each pair in a spin up state and the other in the opposite, spin down state. Thus these spins cancel each other out, reducing the total magnetic dipole moment to zero in some atoms with even number of electrons.
In ferromagnetic elements such as iron, an odd number of electrons leads to an unpaired electron and a net overall magnetic moment. The orbitals of neighboring atoms overlap and a lower energy state is achieved when the spins of unpaired electrons are aligned with each other, a process known as an exchange interaction. When the magnetic moments of ferromagnetic atoms are lined up, the material can produce a measurable macroscopic field. Paramagnetic materials have atoms with magnetic moments that line up in random directions when no magnetic field is present, but the magnetic moments of the individual atoms line up in the presence of a field.
The nucleus of an atom can also have a net spin. Normally these nuclei are aligned in random directions because of thermal equilibrium. However, for certain elements (such as xenon-129) it is possible to polarize a significant proportion of the nuclear spin states so that they are aligned in the same direction—a condition called hyperpolarization. This has important applications in magnetic resonance imaging.
Energy levels
When an electron is bound to an atom, it has a potential energy that is inversely proportional to its distance from the nucleus. This is measured by the amount of energy needed to unbind the electron from the atom, and is usually given in units of electronvolts (eV). In the quantum mechanical model, a bound electron can only occupy a set of states centered on the nucleus, and each state corresponds to a specific energy level. The lowest energy state of a bound electron is called the ground state, while an electron at a higher energy level is in an excited state.
In order for an electron to transition between two different states, it must absorb or emit a photon at an energy matching the difference in the potential energy of those levels. The energy of an emitted photon is proportional to its frequency, so these specific energy levels appear as distinct bands in the electromagnetic spectrum. Each element has a characteristic spectrum that can depend on the nuclear charge, subshells filled by electrons, the electromagnetic interactions between the electrons and other factors.
An example of absorption lines in a spectrum.
When a continuous spectrum of energy is passed through a gas or plasma, some of the photons are absorbed by atoms, causing electrons to change their energy level. Those excited electrons that remain bound to their atom will spontaneously emit this energy as a photon, traveling in a random direction, and so drop back to lower energy levels. Thus the atoms behave like a filter that forms a series of dark absorption bands in the energy output. (An observer viewing the atoms from a different direction, which does not include the continuous spectrum in the background, will instead see a series of emission lines from the photons emitted by the atoms.) Spectroscopic measurements of the strength and width of spectral lines allow the composition and physical properties of a substance to be determined.
Close examination of the spectral lines reveals that some display a fine structure splitting. This occurs because of spin-orbit coupling, which is an interaction between the spin and motion of the outermost electron. When an atom is in an external magnetic field, spectral lines become split into three or more components; a phenomenon called the Zeeman effect. This is caused by the interaction of the magnetic field with the magnetic moment of the atom and its electrons. Some atoms can have multiple electron configurations with the same energy level, which thus appear as a single spectral line. The interaction of the magnetic field with the atom shifts these electron configurations to slightly different energy levels, resulting in multiple spectral lines.The presence of an external electric field can cause a comparable splitting and shifting of spectral lines by modifying the electron energy levels, a phenomenon called the Stark effect.
If a bound electron is in an excited state, an interacting photon with the proper energy can cause stimulated emission of a photon with a matching energy level. For this to occur, the electron must drop to a lower energy state that has an energy difference matching the energy of the interacting photon. The emitted photon and the interacting photon will then move off in parallel and with matching phases. That is, the wave patterns of the two photons will be synchronized. This physical property is used to make lasers, which can emit a coherent beam of light energy in a narrow frequency band.
Valence and bonding behavior
The outermost electron shell of an atom in its uncombined state is known as the valence shell, and the electrons in that shell are called valence electrons. The number of valence electrons determines the bonding behavior with other atoms. Atoms tend to chemically react with each other in a manner that will fill (or empty) their outer valence shells. For example, a transfer of a single electron between atoms is a useful approximation for bonds which form between atoms which have one-electron more than a filled shell, and others which are one-electron short of a full shell, such as occurs in the compound sodium chloride and other chemical ionic salts. However, many elements display multiple valences, or tendencies to share differing numbers of electrons in different compounds. Thus, chemical bonding between these elements takes many forms of electron-sharing that are more than simple electron transfers. Examples include the element carbon and the organic compounds.
The chemical elements are often displayed in a periodic table that is laid out to display recurring chemical properties, and elements with the same number of valence electrons form a group that is aligned in the same column of the table. (The horizontal rows correspond to the filling of a quantum shell of electrons.) The elements at the far right of the table have their outer shell completely filled with electrons, which results in chemically inert elements known as the noble gases
States
Snapshots illustrating the formation of a Bose–Einstein condensate.
Quantities of atoms are found in different states of matter that depend on the physical conditions, such as temperature and pressure. By varying the conditions, materials can transition between solids, liquids, gases and plasmas. Within a state, a material can also exist in different phases. An example of this is solid carbon, which can exist as graphite or diamond.
At temperatures close to absolute zero, atoms can form a Bose–Einstein condensate, at which point quantum mechanical effects, which are normally only observed at the atomic scale, become apparent on a macroscopic scale. This super-cooled collection of atoms then behaves as a single super atom, which may allow fundamental checks of quantum mechanical behavior.
By definition, any two atoms with an identical number of protons in their nuclei belong to the same chemical element. Atoms with equal numbers of protons but a different number of neutrons are different isotopes of the same element. For example, all hydrogen atoms admit exactly one proton, but isotopes exist with no neutrons hydrogen-1, one neutron (deuterium), two neutrons (tritium) and more than two neutrons. The hydrogen-1 is by far the most common form, and is sometimes called protium. The known elements form a set of atomic numbers from hydrogen with a single proton up to the 118-proton element ununoctium All known isotopes of elements with atomic numbers greater than 82 are radioactive.
About 339 nuclides occur naturally on Earth, of which 269 (about 79%) have not been observed to decay. Of the chemical elements, 80 have one or more stable isotopes. Elements 43, 61, and all elements numbered 83 or higher have no stable isotopes. As a rule, there is, for each element, only a handful of stable isotopes, the average being 3.1 stable isotopes per element which has any stable isotopes. Twenty-seven elements have only a single stable isotope, while the largest number of stable isotopes observed for any element is ten, for the element tin.
Stability of isotopes is affected by the ratio of protons to neutrons, and also by presence of certain "magic numbers" of neutrons or protons which represent closed and filled quantum shells. These quantum shells correspond to a set of energy levels within the shell model of the nucleus; filled shells, such as the filled shell of 50 protons for tin, confers unusual stability on the nuclide. Of the 250 known stable nuclides, only four have both an odd number of protons and odd number of neutrons: hydrogen-2 (deuterium), lithium-6, boron-10 and nitrogen-14. Also, only four naturally occurring, radioactive odd-odd nuclides have a half-life over a billion years: potassium-40, vanadium-50, lanthanum-138 and tantalum-180m. Most odd-odd nuclei are highly unstable with respect to beta decay, because the decay products are even-even, and are therefore more strongly bound, due to nuclear pairing effects.
Atomic mass
Because the large majority of an atom's mass comes from the protons and neutrons, the total number of these particles in an atom is called the mass number. The mass of an atom at rest is often expressed using the unified atomic mass unit (u), which is also called a Dalton (Da). This unit is defined as a twelfth of the mass of a free neutral atom of carbon-12, which is approximately 1.66 × 10−27 kg. Hydrogen-1, the lightest isotope of hydrogen and the atom with the lowest mass, has an atomic weight of 1.007825 u. An atom has a mass approximately equal to the mass number times the atomic mass unit. The heaviest stable atom is lead-208 with a mass of 207.9766521 u.
As even the most massive atoms are far too light to work with directly, chemists instead use the unit of moles. The mole is defined such that one mole of any element will always have the same number of atoms (about 6.022 × 1023). This number was chosen so that if an element has an atomic mass of 1 u, a mole of atoms of that element will have a mass of 0.001 kg, or 1 gram. Carbon, for example, has an atomic mass of 12 u, so a mole of carbon atoms weighs 0.012 kg.
Size
Atoms lack a well-defined outer boundary, so the dimensions are usually described in terms of the distances between two nuclei when the two atoms are joined in a chemical bond. The radius varies with the location of an atom on the atomic chart, the type of chemical bond, the number of neighboring atoms (coordination number) and a quantum mechanical property known as spin. On the periodic table of the elements, atom size tends to increase when moving down columns, but decrease when moving across rows (left to right). Consequently, the smallest atom is helium with a radius of 32 pm, while one of the largest is caesium at 225 pm.These dimensions are thousands of times smaller than the wavelengths of light (400–700 nm) so they can not be viewed using an optical microscope. However, individual atoms can be observed using a scanning tunneling microscope.
Some examples will demonstrate the minuteness of the atom. A typical human hair is about 1 million carbon atoms in width. A single drop of water contains about 2 sextillion (2 × 1021) atoms of oxygen, and twice the number of hydrogen atoms. A single carat diamond with a mass of 2 × 10-4 kg contains about 10 sextillion (1022) atoms of carbon.[note 2] If an apple were magnified to the size of the Earth, then the atoms in the apple would be approximately the size of the original apple.
Radioactive decay
This diagram shows the half-life (T½) in seconds of various isotopes with Z protons and N neutrons.
Every element has one or more isotopes that have unstable nuclei that are subject to radioactive decay, causing the nucleus to emit particles or electromagnetic radiation. Radioactivity can occur when the radius of a nucleus is large compared with the radius of the strong force, which only acts over distances on the order of 1 fm.
The most common forms of radioactive decay are:
• Alpha decay is caused when the nucleus emits an alpha particle, which is a helium nucleus consisting of two protons and two neutrons. The result of the emission is a new element with a lower atomic number.
• Beta decay is regulated by the weak force, and results from a transformation of a neutron into a proton, or a proton into a neutron. The first is accompanied by the emission of an electron and an antineutrino, while the second causes the emission of a positron and a neutrino. The electron or positron emissions are called beta particles. Beta decay either increases or decreases the atomic number of the nucleus by one.
• Gamma decay results from a change in the energy level of the nucleus to a lower state, resulting in the emission of electromagnetic radiation. This can occur following the emission of an alpha or a beta particle from radioactive decay.
Other more rare types of radioactive decay include ejection of neutrons or protons or clusters of nucleons from a nucleus, or more than one beta particle, or result (through internal conversion) in production of high-speed electrons which are not beta rays, and high-energy photons which are not gamma rays.
Each radioactive isotope has a characteristic decay time period—the half-life—that is determined by the amount of time needed for half of a sample to decay. This is an exponential decay process that steadily decreases the proportion of the remaining isotope by 50% every half life. Hence after two half-lives have passed only 25% of the isotope will be present, and so forth.
Magnetic moment
Elementary particles possess an intrinsic quantum mechanical property known as spin. This is analogous to the angular momentum of an object that is spinning around its center of mass, although strictly speaking these particles are believed to be point-like and cannot be said to be rotating. Spin is measured in units of the reduced Planck constant (ħ), with electrons, protons and neutrons all having spin ½ ħ, or "spin-½". In an atom, electrons in motion around the nucleus possess orbital angular momentum in addition to their spin, while the nucleus itself possesses angular momentum due to its nuclear spin.
The magnetic field produced by an atom—its magnetic moment—is determined by these various forms of angular momentum, just as a rotating charged object classically produces a magnetic field. However, the most dominant contribution comes from spin. Due to the nature of electrons to obey the Pauli exclusion principle, in which no two electrons may be found in the same quantum state, bound electrons pair up with each other, with one member of each pair in a spin up state and the other in the opposite, spin down state. Thus these spins cancel each other out, reducing the total magnetic dipole moment to zero in some atoms with even number of electrons.
In ferromagnetic elements such as iron, an odd number of electrons leads to an unpaired electron and a net overall magnetic moment. The orbitals of neighboring atoms overlap and a lower energy state is achieved when the spins of unpaired electrons are aligned with each other, a process known as an exchange interaction. When the magnetic moments of ferromagnetic atoms are lined up, the material can produce a measurable macroscopic field. Paramagnetic materials have atoms with magnetic moments that line up in random directions when no magnetic field is present, but the magnetic moments of the individual atoms line up in the presence of a field.
The nucleus of an atom can also have a net spin. Normally these nuclei are aligned in random directions because of thermal equilibrium. However, for certain elements (such as xenon-129) it is possible to polarize a significant proportion of the nuclear spin states so that they are aligned in the same direction—a condition called hyperpolarization. This has important applications in magnetic resonance imaging.
Energy levels
When an electron is bound to an atom, it has a potential energy that is inversely proportional to its distance from the nucleus. This is measured by the amount of energy needed to unbind the electron from the atom, and is usually given in units of electronvolts (eV). In the quantum mechanical model, a bound electron can only occupy a set of states centered on the nucleus, and each state corresponds to a specific energy level. The lowest energy state of a bound electron is called the ground state, while an electron at a higher energy level is in an excited state.
In order for an electron to transition between two different states, it must absorb or emit a photon at an energy matching the difference in the potential energy of those levels. The energy of an emitted photon is proportional to its frequency, so these specific energy levels appear as distinct bands in the electromagnetic spectrum. Each element has a characteristic spectrum that can depend on the nuclear charge, subshells filled by electrons, the electromagnetic interactions between the electrons and other factors.
An example of absorption lines in a spectrum.
When a continuous spectrum of energy is passed through a gas or plasma, some of the photons are absorbed by atoms, causing electrons to change their energy level. Those excited electrons that remain bound to their atom will spontaneously emit this energy as a photon, traveling in a random direction, and so drop back to lower energy levels. Thus the atoms behave like a filter that forms a series of dark absorption bands in the energy output. (An observer viewing the atoms from a different direction, which does not include the continuous spectrum in the background, will instead see a series of emission lines from the photons emitted by the atoms.) Spectroscopic measurements of the strength and width of spectral lines allow the composition and physical properties of a substance to be determined.
Close examination of the spectral lines reveals that some display a fine structure splitting. This occurs because of spin-orbit coupling, which is an interaction between the spin and motion of the outermost electron. When an atom is in an external magnetic field, spectral lines become split into three or more components; a phenomenon called the Zeeman effect. This is caused by the interaction of the magnetic field with the magnetic moment of the atom and its electrons. Some atoms can have multiple electron configurations with the same energy level, which thus appear as a single spectral line. The interaction of the magnetic field with the atom shifts these electron configurations to slightly different energy levels, resulting in multiple spectral lines.The presence of an external electric field can cause a comparable splitting and shifting of spectral lines by modifying the electron energy levels, a phenomenon called the Stark effect.
If a bound electron is in an excited state, an interacting photon with the proper energy can cause stimulated emission of a photon with a matching energy level. For this to occur, the electron must drop to a lower energy state that has an energy difference matching the energy of the interacting photon. The emitted photon and the interacting photon will then move off in parallel and with matching phases. That is, the wave patterns of the two photons will be synchronized. This physical property is used to make lasers, which can emit a coherent beam of light energy in a narrow frequency band.
Valence and bonding behavior
The outermost electron shell of an atom in its uncombined state is known as the valence shell, and the electrons in that shell are called valence electrons. The number of valence electrons determines the bonding behavior with other atoms. Atoms tend to chemically react with each other in a manner that will fill (or empty) their outer valence shells. For example, a transfer of a single electron between atoms is a useful approximation for bonds which form between atoms which have one-electron more than a filled shell, and others which are one-electron short of a full shell, such as occurs in the compound sodium chloride and other chemical ionic salts. However, many elements display multiple valences, or tendencies to share differing numbers of electrons in different compounds. Thus, chemical bonding between these elements takes many forms of electron-sharing that are more than simple electron transfers. Examples include the element carbon and the organic compounds.
The chemical elements are often displayed in a periodic table that is laid out to display recurring chemical properties, and elements with the same number of valence electrons form a group that is aligned in the same column of the table. (The horizontal rows correspond to the filling of a quantum shell of electrons.) The elements at the far right of the table have their outer shell completely filled with electrons, which results in chemically inert elements known as the noble gases
States
Snapshots illustrating the formation of a Bose–Einstein condensate.
Quantities of atoms are found in different states of matter that depend on the physical conditions, such as temperature and pressure. By varying the conditions, materials can transition between solids, liquids, gases and plasmas. Within a state, a material can also exist in different phases. An example of this is solid carbon, which can exist as graphite or diamond.
At temperatures close to absolute zero, atoms can form a Bose–Einstein condensate, at which point quantum mechanical effects, which are normally only observed at the atomic scale, become apparent on a macroscopic scale. This super-cooled collection of atoms then behaves as a single super atom, which may allow fundamental checks of quantum mechanical behavior.
Subcomponents and quantum theory
The physicist J. J. Thomson, through his work on cathode rays in 1897, discovered the electron. These subatomic particles had the same properties, regardless of the type of atom from whence they came. This universal component of all atoms destroyed the concept of atoms as being indivisible units. Thomson postulated that the low mass, negatively-charged electrons were distributed throughout the atom, possibly rotating in rings, with their charge balanced by the presence of a uniform sea of positive charge. This later become known as the plum pudding model.In 1909, researchers under the direction of physicist Ernest Rutherford bombarded a sheet of gold foil with alpha rays—by then known to be positively charged helium atoms—and discovered that a small percentage of these particles were deflected through much larger angles than was predicted using Thomson's proposal. Rutherford interpreted the gold foil experiment as suggesting that the positive charge of a heavy gold atom and most of its mass was concentrated in a nucleus at the center of the atom—the Rutherford model.
While experimenting with the products of radioactive decay, in 1913 radiochemist Frederick Soddy discovered that there appeared to be more than one type of atom at each position on the periodic table. The term isotope was coined by Margaret Todd as a suitable name for different atoms that belong to the same element. J.J. Thomson created a technique for separating atom types through his work on ionized gases, which subsequently led to the discovery of stable isotopes.
A Bohr model of the hydrogen atom, showing an electron jumping between fixed orbits and emitting a photon of energy with a specific frequency.
Meanwhile, in 1913, physicist Niels Bohr suggested that the electrons were confined into clearly defined, quantized orbits, and could jump between these, but could not freely spiral inward or outward in intermediate states. An electron must absorb or emit specific amounts of energy to transition between these fixed orbits. When the light from a heated material was passed through a prism, it produced a multi-colored spectrum. The appearance of fixed lines in this spectrum was successfully explained by these orbital transitions.
Chemical bonds between atoms were now explained, by Gilbert Newton Lewis in 1916, as the interactions between their constituent electrons. As the chemical properties of the elements were known to largely repeat themselves according to the periodic law, in 1919 the American chemist Irving Langmuir suggested that this could be explained if the electrons in an atom were connected or clustered in some manner. Groups of electrons were thought to occupy a set of electron shells about the nucleus.
The Stern–Gerlach experiment of 1922 provided further evidence of the quantum nature of the atom. When a beam of silver atoms was passed through a specially shaped magnetic field, the beam was split based on the direction of an atom's angular momentum, or spin. As this direction is random, the beam could be expected to spread into a line. Instead, the beam was split into two parts, depending on whether the atomic spin was oriented up or down.
In 1926, Erwin Schrödinger, using Louis de Broglie's 1924 proposal that particles behave to an extent like waves, developed a mathematical model of the atom that described the electrons as three-dimensional waveforms, rather than point particles. A consequence of using waveforms to describe particles is that it is mathematically impossible to obtain precise values for both the position and momentum of a particle at the same time; this became known as the uncertainty principle, formulated by Werner Heisenberg in 1926. In this concept, for a given accuracy in measuring a position one could only obtain a range of probable values for momentum, and vice versa. This model was able to explain observations of atomic behavior that previous models could not, such as certain structural and spectral patterns of atoms larger than hydrogen. Thus, the planetary model of the atom was discarded in favor of one that described atomic orbital zones around the nucleus where a given electron is most likely to be observed.
Schematic diagram of a simple mass spectrometer.
The development of the mass spectrometer allowed the exact mass of atoms to be measured. The device uses a magnet to bend the trajectory of a beam of ions, and the amount of deflection is determined by the ratio of an atom's mass to its charge. The chemist Francis William Aston used this instrument to show that isotopes had different masses. The mass of these isotopes varied by integer amounts, called the whole number rule.The explanation for these different isotopes awaited the discovery of the neutron, a neutral-charged particle with a mass similar to the proton, by the physicist James Chadwick in 1932. Isotopes were then explained as elements with the same number of protons, but different numbers of neutrons within the nucleus.
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