Atomic models Bohr model

See also Atomic models Bohr model Bond energy Chemical bond Chemistry Electron cloud Molecular formula Molecular geometry. 

The location of electrons in an atom is one factor that determines how that atom will form bonds with other atoms. Scientists use two basic models to explain the location of electrons in the atom—the Bohr model and the quantum mechanics model. 

Despite its great success in accounting for the spectral lines of the H atom, the Bohr model failed to predict the spectrum of any other atom, even that of helium, the next simplest element. In essence, the Bohr model predicts spectral lines for the H atom and other one-electron species, such as He" (Z = 2), Li (Z = 3), and Be (Z = 4). But, it fails for atoms with more than one electron because in these systems, electron-electron repulsions and additional nucleus-electron attractions are present as well. Nevertheless, we still use the terms ground state and excited state and retain one of Bohr s central ideas in our current model the energy of an atom occurs in discrete levels. 

The final aim of a theory of atomic structure must be to construct the whole periodic system of the elements from an atom model. Bohr had already made attempts in this direction in his earlier works. He made use of ring models, in which the individual electrons were situated at the comers of concentric regular polygons (the rings ). A considerable amount of work has been expended on the calculations of such ring systems by Bohr,4 Sommerfeld,5 Debye, Kroo,7... 

Line spectra for multi-electron atoms are more complex than the hydrogen line spectrum, and thus are less easily explained in an explicit fashion at a middle school, high school, or even first year undergraduate level. However, discussions of this topic with respect to the hydrogen atom allow for the instructor to point out many important features of rudimentary quantum mechanics. Among these are the quantized nature of the electrons in atoms, the Bohr model of one-electron atoms, the dual wave-particle nature of light, the... 

A model for the atom is of little use if it does not apply to all atoms. The Bohr model was discarded because it could be applied only to hydrogen. The wave mechanical model can be applied to all atoms in basically the same form as the one we have just used for hydrogen. In fact, the major triumph of this model is its ability to explain the periodic table of the elements. Recall that the elements on the periodic table are arranged in vertical groups, which contain elements that typically show similar chemical properties. The wave mechanical model of the atom allows us to explain, based on electron arrangements, why these similarities occur. We will see in due time how this is done. 

In spite of its success with the hydrogen atom, the Bohr model was deficient because it was unable to account for the emission spectra of heavier atoms, such as helium. 

The role of chemistry in Bohr s atomic theory is discussed in Helge Kragh, Niels Bohr and the Quantum Atom The Bohr Model of Atomic Structure 1913-1925 (Oxford Oxford University Press, 2012). 

For nearly half a century, Mendeleev s periodic table remained an empirical compilation of the relationship of the elements. Only after the first atomic model was developed by the physicists of the early twentieth century, which took form in Bohr s model, was it possible to reconcile the involved general concepts with the specificity of the chemical elements. Bohr indeed expanded Rutherford s model of the atom, which tried to connect the chemical specificity of the elements grouped in Mendeleev s table with the behavior of electrons spinning around the nucleus. Bohr hit upon the idea that Mendeleev s periodicity could... 

The quantum mechanical atom differs from the Bohr model in several ways. In particular, according to quantum mechanics—... 

In recent years the old quantum theory, associated principally with the names of Bohr and Sommerfeld, encountered a large number of difficulties, all of which vanished before the new quantum mechanics of Heisenberg. Because of its abstruse and difficultly interpretable mathematical foundation, Heisenberg s quantum mechanics cannot be easily applied to the relatively complicated problems of the structures and properties of many-electron atoms and of molecules in particular is this true for chemical problems, which usually do not permit simple dynamical formulation in terms of nuclei and electrons, but instead require to be treated with the aid of atomic and molecular models. Accordingly, it is especially gratifying that Schrodinger s interpretation of his wave mechanics3 provides a simple and satisfactory atomic model, more closely related to the chemist s atom than to that of the old quantum theory. 

Photo 5 (left) Linus Pauling with Arnold Sommerfeld (on left). Sommerfeld, well-known professor of theoretical physics in the University of Munich, Germany, was an expert on an early form of quantum mechanics, the Bohr-Sommerfeld atomic model. The picture was taken on the occasion of Sommerfeld s visit to Caltech in 1928. Pauling studied quantum mechanics with Sommerfeld in 1926—1927, which is where Pauling got his start in the application of quantum mechanics to chemical bonding (Chapter 1) and to the calculation of molecular properties (Chapter 8). 

In chemistry, perhaps because of the significance in visualizing molecular strac-ture, there has been a focus on how students perceive three-dimensional objects from a two-dimensional representation and how students mentally manipulate rotated, reflected and inverted objects (Stieff, 2007 Tuckey Selvaratnam, 1993). Although these visualization skills are very important in chemistry, it is evident that they are not the only ones needed in school chemistry (Mathewson, 1999). For example, conceptual understanding of nature of different types of chemical bonding, atomic theory in terms of the Democritus particle model and the Bohr model, and... 

Whether the Bohr atomic model or the quantum mechanical model is introduced to students, it is inevitable that they have to learn, among other things, that (i) the atomic nucleus is surrounded by electrons and (ii) most of an atom is empty space. Students understanding of the visual representation of the above two statements was explored by Harrison and Treagust (1996). In the study, 48 Grade 8-10... 

---