The structure of atoms. University of Colorado （原子的结构。）.pdf

The structure of atoms. What will be covered? 1. The nucleus 2. Atomic weight 3. Electronic structure 4. Electronic configuration of the elements 5. Valence 6. Hybridization 7. Periodic table Why do we need to know this material? Atomic structure is the foundation of Materials Science. This material will form the basis for understanding the interatomic and intermolecular forces to be covered in the next section. Fundamentals. Atoms consist of nuclei and electrons. Nuclei are composed of protons and neutrons. Protons carry a positive charge of 1.69x10-19 coulombs and have a mass at rest of 1.67x10-24 g. Neutrons have no charge and have the same rest mass as protons. Overall the nucleus is thus positively charged. This charge is balanced by an equal charge due to a number of electrons equal to the number of protons (for neutral atoms). Each electron carries a charge of –1.69x10-19 coulombs. Nucleus. The number of protons in the nucleus is called the atomic number (this defines the elemental identity). The number of neutrons in a nucleus is larger than or equal to the number of protons, with the larger excess of neutrons occurring for the larger atomic numbers. Many elements have isotopes, i.e. their nuclei contain an equal number of protons but have different numbers of neutrons; some of these isotopes are stable while others decompose via radioactive decay. Atomic weight. The atomic weight is given in terms of atomic mass units (amu) and indicates the mass of the atom in units of 1/12 the mass of the carbon isotope with 6 protons and 6 neutrons. The isotope therefore has an arbitrary atomic weight of 12 amu and is represented as 6C12. Here the subscript is the atomic number and the superscript the mass number, i.e. the sum of the number of protons and neutrons. 12 Atomic weights are not whole numbers except f