Models of the Atom

Many scientists have contributed to the modern view of the atom. They have developed and
improved their models (descriptions) of the atom from the results of experiments carried out over
the last century.

Thomson’s “plum pudding” Model

At one time, scientists thought that atoms were the smallest bits of matter you could have. Then
in 1897, J.J. Thomson discovered that atoms could give out tiny, charged particles which he
called electrons.

Electrons have a negative charge; as atoms have no overall charge; this suggested that they must
also contain positive charge to balance the charge on the electrons.

Thomson suggested that an atom might be a sphere of positive charge with electrons dotted
about inside it rather like raisins in a pudding. People called this the “plum pudding” model.

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Rutherford’s Nuclear Model

In 1911, Ernest Rutherford got two of his assistants, Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden, to do the
experiment below.

Gold Foil Experiment

In their experiment, Geiger and Marsden bombarded thin gold foil with alpha particles – tiny,
positively charged particles shot out by some radioactive materials.

Most of the alpha particles passed straight through the gold atoms, but a few were repelled so
strongly that they bounced back or were deflected through large angles. Rutherford concluded
that the atom must be largely empty space, with its positive charge and mass in a tiny nucleus at
the centre. In his model, the much lighter electrons orbited the nucleus rather like the planets do
the Sun. In 1913 Niels Bohr modified Rutherford’s model by suggesting that electrons were only
allowed to have certain orbits around the nucleus. He did this in order to explain how atoms give
out light.

In 1919, Rutherford found that positively charged particles could be knocked out of the nucleus.
These were protons. In 1932, James Chadwick found that the nucleus also contained uncharged
particles, which he called neutrons.

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What is an Atom?

An atom is the smallest unit into which matter can be divided without the release of electrically
charged particles. It also is the smallest unit of matter that has the characteristic properties of a
chemical element.

Atomic Structure

At the core of the atom is the nucleus, where the majority (99.9%) of an atom's mass is held.
Although the nucleus contains the majority of the mass of the atom, the nucleus is very small
compared to the size of the whole atom. Most of the atom is empty space surrounding the
nucleus.

Atoms contain three subatomic particles: protons, neutrons and electrons. The protons and
neutrons are in the nucleus at the centre of the atom and contribute most of the atom’s mass. The
electrons are in shells – at specific energy levels – orbiting the nucleus.

Properties of Sub – Atomic Particles

Subatomic Particle Relative Charge Relative Mass

Proton +1 1

Neutron 0 1

Electron -1 1/1836

Protons are positively charged particles found inside the nucleus of an atom. Every atom of a
particular element contains the same number of protons. In fact, the number of protons is unique
to each element. As such the proton number is also referred to as the atomic number since it
defines the specific atom. This number never changes for any given atom. For example, an atom
of oxygen has an atomic number of 8. That tells us that oxygen always has 8 protons. Copper's
atomic number is 29, meaning that there are 29 protons in the nucleus of an atom of copper. The
number of protons in uranium is 92. What is Uranium’s atomic number? The proton number is
often referred to as “Z”.

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Electrons are negatively charged particles that orbit the nucleus; much like the planets do the
Sun. The mass of an electron is about 1/1836th of the mass of a proton or a neutron. The sharing
or exchange of electrons between atoms forms chemical bonds, which is how new molecules and
compounds are formed.

For a neutral atom, the number of protons in the nucleus is equal to the number of electrons
around that atom's nucleus.

Neutrons are the other particle found in the nucleus of an atom. Unlike protons and electrons,
however, neutrons carry no electrical charge. Therefore, neutrons are "neutral." The number of
neutrons is also denoted by “N”

Simple Diagrammatic Representations of Some Atoms

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What is special about the hydrogen atom shown above?

Mass Number (A)

The mass of an atom is the sum of the number of protons and neutrons the atom contains, i.e.
A = Z + N. Recall the relative masses of each given earlier. Only these two particles really
contribute to the mass of the atom.

Atomic Representation

The standard format of representing am atom is given below:

What is the mass number of the Carbon atom above?

How many protons, neutrons and electrons does a neutral atom of the Carbon atom shown above
have?

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Isotopes

Atoms of a given element do not always contain the same number of neutrons. Atoms that have
the same number of protons but different number of neutrons in the nucleus are called isotopes.
The differences in the number of neutrons result in these atoms having different mass numbers.
Isotopes are atoms that have the same atomic number (no. of protons) but different mass
numbers.

Isotopes of Hydrogen

The Periodic Table

The atoms are organized into a Periodic Table. This is further divided into horizontal Periods and
vertical Groups. Atoms in the same Group have the same number of electrons on their outer or
valence shell. The exception here is Group 8, where the characteristic of these atoms is that their
outer or valence shell is full. This confers stability on these atoms. As such they will not try to

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lose or gain any electrons to have full shells. The number of electrons in the outer shell ranges
from 2 in Helium (He) to 8 in Neon (Ne) and Argon (Ar).

As you go across the seven Periods each successive atom has one more proton than the atom
preceding it.

An Example of a Periodic Table

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Nuclear Radiation

Some materials contain atoms with unstable nuclei. In time, each nucleus breaks up, or
rearranges itself. As it does so, it shoots out a tiny particle, a burst of wave energy, or both. The
particles and waves ‘radiate’ from the nucleus, so they are called nuclear radiation. The
materials they come from are radioactive.

Alpha (α), Beta (β) and Gamma (γ) Radiation

There are three main types of nuclear radiation: alpha particles, beta particles and gamma rays.

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Detecting Radiation

Alpha, beta and gamma radiation can be detected using a Geiger-Müller tube (GM tube). This
can be connected to the following:

 A ratemeter This gives a reading in counts per second. For example, if 50 alpha
particles are detected by a GM tube every second, the ratemeter reads 50
counts per second.
 An electronic counter This counts the total number of particles (or bursts of
gamma radiation) detected by the tube.
 An amplifier and loudspeaker The loudspeaker makes a ‘click’ when each particle
or burst of
gamma radiation is detected.

Background Radiation

We are exposed to a small amount of radiation all the time because of radioactive materials in
our surroundings. This is called background radiation. It comes mainly from natural sources
such as soil, rocks, air, building materials, food, drink – and even space.

When the radiation from a radioactive source is measured, the reading includes any background
radiation. To find the reading for the source alone, you must measure the background radiation
and subtract that reading from the total to get the actual reading from the source.

Radioactive Decay

The break-up of unstable nuclei is called radioactive decay. It happens at random, and is
unaffected by pressure, temperature or chemical change. As a matter of fact, it is unaffected by
any change external to the nucleus of the atom.

The process is also completely random. You cannot predict which nucleus is going to break up
next, or when. However, some nuclei are more unstable than others and decay at a faster rate.

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Activity
The activity of a radioactive sample is the average number of nuclei breaking up per second. It is
measured in Becquerels (Bq).

Half-life (t½)

The half-life (t½) of a radioactive isotope is the time taken for the amount of the isotope to
fall to half its original value. The radioactivity of the isotope will also halve in this time.
Therefore, the half-life can also be defined as the time taken for the radioactivity of the
atom to fall to half its initial value. The half-life remains constant for each radioactive decay
process.

The half-life of 60Co is 5.2 years. This means that if you started with one gram of cobalt-60, only
a half
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gram will remain after 5.2 years. After another 5.2 years the half gram would have decayed to
one quarter and 5.2 years after that (i.e. 15.6 years after the start of the experiment) only one-
eighth of the gram would remain.

The Half-lives of Some Radioactive Isotopes

Radioactive Isotope Half-life

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C 5.7 x 103 years
6

226
Ra 1.6 x 103 years
88

90
Sr 28 years
38

60
Co 5.2 years
27

131
I 8.1 days
53

24
Na 15 hours
11

214
Bi 19.7 minutes
83

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214
Po 1.5 x 10-4 seconds
84

Radioactive Decay Curves

If the activity of a radioactive sample is plotted against time a radioactive decay curve is
obtained.

NB. THIS IS THE ONLY CURVE THAT YOU WILL HAVE TO DEAL WITH.

Examples are given below.

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Uses of Radioisotopes

When choosing a radioisotope for a particular job, two main factors are considered:

 Penetrating effect Gamma rays are very penetrating, beta particles less so and alpha
particles least of all.

 Half-life A short half-life reduces the time that living things are exposed to harmful
radiation.

Radioisotopes can be detected in small (and safe) quantities, so they can be used as tracers –
their movements can be tracked. Here are four examples:

 Checking whether a patient’s thyroid gland is taking in Iodine properly. The patient
drinks a liquid containing Iodine – 123, a gamma emitter. A detector measures the
activity to find out how quickly iodine becomes concentrated in the gland.
 If a radioactive isotope such as technetium - 99, is injected into a patient’s bloodstream a
doctor can monitor the blood flow on a screen, to see if there is reduced blood flow – a
possible sign of heart disease.
 The human heart has a natural pacemaker that should maintain a regular heartbeat.
Sometimes this natural pacemaker is defective and has to be replaced. Some artificial
pacemakers are powered by the energy produced in radioactive decay. Plutonium – 238 is
used in thermoelectric batteries. As the plutonium decays, the heat produced is used to
generate electricity that then stimulates the heart. These batteries are expected to last

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 more than 25 years. If the patient dies within that time the plutonium has to be removed
from these pacemakers and safely disposed of.
 Detecting leaks in underground pipes by adding a tracer to the fluid in the pipe.

For leaks like these, artificial radioisotopes with short half-lives are used so that there is almost
no radioactivity left after a few days.

Examples of Radioisotopes in Medicine

Isotopes Medical Uses

24
Na tracing blood flow and to locate obstructions in the circulatory system
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131
I monitoring and treating goiter and other thyroid problems; also used in the
53
treatment of liver and brain tumours

201
Tl monitoring certain heart diseases
81

99
Tc monitoring certain heart diseases
44

238
Pu providing energy for heart pacemakers

Radiotherapy

Gamma rays can penetrate deep into the body and kill living cells. So a highly concentrated
beam from a Cobalt-60 source can be used to kill cancer cells.

Sterilization

Gamma radiation from powerful cobalt-60 sources is also used to sterilize medical equipment.
Although gamma radiation is less ionizing than alpha or beta, it is more penetrating, so entire
boxes of syringes and other equipment can be placed in the path of the beam.

Thickness (Consistency) Monitoring

In some production processes, it is important to keep a steady thickness/consistency of material.

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The moving band of tyre cord has a beta source on one side and a detector on the other. If the
cord from the rollers becomes too thin, more beta radiation reaches the detector. This sends
signals to the control unit to adjust the rollers.

Testing for Cracks

Gamma rays are like X-rays, so they can be used to photograph metals to reveal cracks. A
cobalt-60 gamma source is compact and does not need an electrical power source, unlike an X-
ray tube.

Energy Generation

Energy can be provided by unstable radioactive isotopes. Large radioactive isotopes release
energy when they are split. This is called nuclear fission. The fission of Uranium-235 is a source
of energy in some nuclear power stations. This energy is used to generate electricity.

Carbon Dating

Carbon-14 dating (also known as radiocarbon dating) is a method of finding the age of
archaeological specimens that were once living.

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