Quantum mechanics model of the atom

In the development of the quantum mechanical model of the atom, scientists found that an electron in an atom could have only certain distinct quantities of energy associated with it and that in order to change its energy it had to absorb or emit a certain distinct amount of energy. The energy that the atom emits or absorbs is really the difference in the two energy states and we can calculate it by the equation ... 

What is the quantum mechanical model of the atom, and how does a understanding of atomic structure enable chemists to explain the properties of substances and their chemical bonding ... 

Distinguish clearly between an electron orbit, as depicted in Bohr s atomic model, and an electron orbital, as depicted in the quantum mechanical model of the atom. 

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 this section, you have seen how a theoretical idea, the quantum mechanical model of the atom, explains the experimentally determined structure of the periodic table, and the properties of its elements. Your understanding of the four quantum numbers enabled you to write electron configurations and draw orbital diagrams for atoms of the elements. You also learned how to read the periodic table to deduce the electron configuration of any element. 

The modern, quantum mechanical model of the atom has broadened your understanding of the elements, the composition of their atoms, and their chemical and physical behaviour in the world around you. 

Compare the Rutherford, Bohr, and quantum mechanical models of the atom. 

The breakthrough in understanding atomic structure came in 1926, when the Austrian physicist Erwin Schrodinger (1887-1961) proposed what has come to be called the quantum mechanical model of the atom. The fundamental idea behind the model is that it s best to abandon the notion of an electron as a small particle moving around the nucleus in a defined path and to concentrate instead on the electron s wavelike properties. In fact, it was shown in 1927 by Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976) that it is impossible to know precisely where an electron is and what path it follows—a statement called the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. 

In order to begin to understand the behavior of atoms, we must first look at some of the details of the quantum mechanical model of the atom. Schrodinger s equation predicts the presence of certain regions in the atom where electrons are likely to be found. These regions, known as orbitals, are located at various distances from the nucleus, are oriented in certain directions, and have certain characteristic shapes. Let s look at some of the basic components of the atom as predicted by the equation, and at the same time we will review quantum numbers. 

In 1926, Erwin Schrodinger used de Broglie s idea that matter has wavelike properties. Schrodinger proposed what is now known as the quantum mechanical model of the atom. In this new model, he abandoned the notion of the electron as a small particle orbiting the nucleus. Instead, he took into account the particle s wavelike properties, and described the behaviour of electrons in terms of wave functions. 

We can use the quantum mechanical model of the atom to show how the electron arrangements in the atomic orbitals of the various atoms account for the organization of the periodic table. Our main assumption here is that all atoms have orbitals similar to those that have been described for the hydrogen atom. As protons are added one by one to the nucleus to build up the elements, electrons are similarly added to these atomic orbitals. This is called the aufbau principle. 

How are the electrons distributed in an atom According to the quantum mechanical model of the atom, the motion of an electron around a nucleus can be described mathematically by what is known as a wave equation— the same sort of expression used to describe the motion of waves in a fluid. The solution to a wave equation is called a wave function, or orbital, and is denoted by the Greek letter psi, ijj. 

The Schrodinger wave equation In 1926, Austrian physicist Erwin Schrbdinger (1887-1961) furthered the wave-particle theory proposed by de Broglie. Schrbdinger derived an equation that treated the hydrogen atom s electron as a wave. Remarkably, Schrbdinger s new model for the hydrogen atom seemed to apply equally well to atoms of other elements—an area in which Bohr s model failed. The atomic model in which electrons are treated as waves is called the wave mechanical model of the atom or, more commonly, the quantum mechanical model of the atom. Like Bohr s model,... 

Comparing and Contrasting Compare and contrast the Bohr model and quantum mechanical model of the atom. 

Soon after the development of the quantum mechanical model of the atom, physicists such as John H. van Vleck (1928) began to investigate a wave-mechanical concept of the chemical bond. The electronic theories of valency, polarity, quantum numbers, and electron distributions in atoms were described, and the valence bond approximation, which depicts covalent bonding in molecules, was built upon these principles. In 1939, Linus Pauling s Nature of the Chemical Bond offered valence bond theory (VBT) as a plausible explanation for bonding in transition metal complexes. His application of VBT to transition metal complexes was supported by Bjerrum s work on stability that suggested electrostatics alone could not account for all bonding characteristics. 

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