Wave-Mechanical atomic model

The Bohr Model of the Atom The Wave Mechanical Model... 

In 1913 Niels Bohr proposed a system of rules that defined a specific set of discrete orbits for the electrons of an atom with a given atomic number. These rules required the electrons to exist only in these orbits, so that they did not radiate energy continuously as in classical electromagnetism. This model was extended first by Sommerfeld and then by Goudsmit and Uhlenbeck. In 1925 Heisenberg, and in 1926 Schrn dinger, proposed a matrix or wave mechanics theory that has developed into quantum mechanics, in which all of these properties are included. In this theory the state of the electron is described by a wave function from which the electron s properties can be deduced. 

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. 

In the early development of the atomic model scientists initially thought that, they could define the sub-atomic particles by the laws of classical physics—that is, they were tiny bits of matter. However, they later discovered that this particle view of the atom could not explain many of the observations that scientists were making. About this time, a model (the quantum mechanical model) that attributed the properties of both matter and waves to particles began to gain favor. This model described the behavior of electrons in terms of waves (electromagnetic radiation). 

With the failure of the Bohr model it was found that the properties of an electron in an atom had to be described in wave-mechanical terms (p. 54). Each Bohr model energy level corresponding to... 

In this section, you saw how the ideas of quantum mechanics led to a new, revolutionary atomic model—the quantum mechanical model of the atom. According to this model, electrons have both matter-like and wave-like properties. Their position and momentum cannot both be determined with certainty, so they must be described in terms of probabilities. An orbital represents a mathematical description of the volume of space in which an electron has a high probability of being found. You learned the first three quantum numbers that describe the size, energy, shape, and orientation of an orbital. In the next section, you will use quantum numbers to describe the total number of electrons in an atom and the energy levels in which they are most likely to be found in their ground state. You will also discover how the ideas of quantum mechanics explain the structure and organization of the periodic table. 

In principle, quantum mechanics permits the calculation of molecular energies and therefore thermodynamic properties. In practice, analytic solutions of the equations of wave mechanics are not generally accessible, especially for molecules with many atoms. However, with the advances in computer technology and programming, and the development of new computational methods, it is becoming feasible to calculate energies of molecules by ab initio quantum mechanics [11]. Furthermore, molecular modeling with substantial complexity and molecular mechanics treatments for... 

In the modern model of the atom, based on wave mechanics, the conception of electronic orbits in the old model is replaced by the idea of the probability of the occurrence of an electron at a given point. The conclusions, however, which can be drawn from the older model remain the same in the newer conception, and it is important to remember that in this new model the essential points of Bohr s theory have not been discarded, but merely interpreted differently and very greatly refined. 

This model includes wave mechanics, in which the electron in a hydrogen atom is described as a wave. 

Following the wave-mechanical reformulation of the quantum atomic model it became evident that the observed angular momentum of an s-state was not the result of orbital rotation of charge. As a result, the Bohr model was finally rejected within twenty years of publication and replaced by a whole succession of more refined atomic models. Closer examination will show however, that even the most refined contemporary model is still beset by conceptual problems. It could therefore be argued that some other hidden assumption, rather than Bohr s quantization rule, is responsible for the failure of the entire family of quantum-mechanical atomic models. Not only should the Bohr model be re-examined for some fatal flaw, but also for the valid assumptions that led on to the successful features of the quantum approach. 

The formulation of spatially separated a and 7r interactions between a pair of atoms is grossly misleading. Critical point compressibility studies show [71] that N2 has essentially the same spherical shape as Xe. A total wave-mechanical model of a diatomic molecule, in which both nuclei and electrons are treated non-classically, is thought to be consistent with this observation. Clamped-nucleus calculations, to derive interatomic distance, should therefore be interpreted as a one-dimensional section through a spherical whole. Like electrons, wave-mechanical nuclei are not point particles. A wave equation defines a diatomic molecule as a spherical distribution of nuclear and electronic density, with a common quantum potential, and pivoted on a central hub, which contains a pith of valence electrons. This valence density is limited simultaneously by the exclusion principle and the golden ratio. 

As integers always appear in Nature associated with periodic systems, with waves as the most familiar example, it is almost axiomatic that atomic matter should be described by the mechanics of wave motion. Each of the mechanical variables, energy, momentum and angular momentum, is linked to a wave variable by Planck s constant E = hu = h/r, p = h/X = hi), L = h/27r. A wave-mechanical formulation of any mechanical problem which can be modelled classically, can therefore be derived by substituting wave equivalents for dynamic variables. The resulting general equation for matter waves was first obtained by Erwin Schrodinger. 

From a chemical point of view the most important result is that number theory predicts two alternative periodic classifications of the elements. One of these agrees with experimental observation and the other with a wave-mechanical model of the atom. The subtle differences must be ascribed to a constructionist error that neglects the role of the environment in the wave-mechanical analysis. It is inferred that the wave-mechanical model applies in empty space Z/N = 0.58), compared to the result, observed in curved non-empty space, (Z/N = t). The fundamental difference between the two situations reduces to a difference in space-time curvature. 

The model we have used is, of course, too simplified. A more accurate model would likewise have to agree with our deduction of the previous chapter, but it could differ in its final results from the free electron model in having a different reflection coefficient and a different value of No(dCp/dN). And the calculation would differ in that it is only with free electrons, unperturbed by atoms, that we can find the number colliding with 1 sq. cm. of surface per second as simply as we have done here. Then in wave mechanics the reflection coefficient is not so simple as in the classical... 

Erwin Schrodinger Schrodinger equation Established the field of wave mechanics that was the basis for the development of the quantum model of the atom... 

The wave mechanical treatment of the hydrogen atom does not provide more accurate values than the Bohr model did for the energy states of the hydrogen atom. It does, however, provide the basis for describing the probability of finding electrons in certain regions, which is more compatible with the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. Note that the solution of this three-dimensional wave equation resulted in the introduction of three quantum numbers (n, /, and mi). A principle of quantum mechanics predicts that there will be one quantum number for... 

The wave-mechanical theory of the atomic bond leads to a more detailed picture of the multiple bond (Penney), no longer based on a tetrahedral model. 

The wave-mechanical model of the atom shows a more complex structure of the atom and the way electrons configure themselves in the principal energy levels. Principal energy levels are divided into sublevels, each with its own distinct set of orbitals. This more complex structure is outlined with the help of this diagram. The principal energy levels in the atom are numbered 1 through 7. 

The modern view of the periodic table explains its structure in terms of an Aufbau procedure based on the wave-mechanical model of the hydrogen atom. Although seductive at first glance, the model is totally inadequate to account for details of the observed electronic configurations of atoms, and makes no distinction between isotopes of the same element. The attractive part of the wave-mechanical model is that it predicts a periodic sequence of electronic configurations readily specified as a function of atomic number. The periodicity follows from the progressive increase of four quantum numbers n, l, mi and s, such that... 

Each of the three theories accounts for some, but not all aspects of elemental periodicity. The common ground among the three may well reveal the suspected link with space-time structure. What is required is to combine aspects of the wave-mechanical model of hydrogen, the structure of atomic nuclei and number theory. 

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