COURSE: ELECTRONICS N ITS APPLICATIONS

COURSE CODE: PHY-421

BS 1ST
TOPIC: FORMS OF MATTER & INTRODUCTION
TO ATOMIC STRUCTURE

DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS
GCWUF
 CONTENTS:
• MATTER
• CATEGORIES OF MATTER (ELEMENT & COMPOUND)
• ATOM
• ATOMIC STRUCTURE
• NUCLEUS AND NUCLEONS.
• ATOMIC NO.
• ATOMIC MASS
• ELECTRON
• SHELLS & SUBSHELLS
• ELECTRON DISTRIBUTION OF DIFFERENT ATOMS
 MATTER

• MATTER IS DEFINED AS ANYTHING THAT HAS MASS AND TAKES UP

SPACE (IT HAS VOLUME).
• IT'S IMPORTANT FOR SCIENTISTS TO KNOW THE PROPERTIES
OF MATTER BECAUSE ALL THINGS ARE MADE UP OF MATTER.
SCIENTISTS NEED TO KNOW AND UNDERSTAND THESE
CHARACTERISTICS TO MAKE CALCULATIONS.
• THE PROPERTIES OF MATTER INCLUDE ANY TRAITS THAT CAN BE
MEASURED, SUCH AS AN OBJECT'S DENSITY, COLOUR, MASS, VOLUME,
LENGTH, MALLEABILITY, MELTING POINT, HARDNESS, ODOUR,
TEMPERATURE, AND MORE.
• MATTER CAN BE BROKEN DOWN INTO TWO CATEGORIES:
• PURE SUBSTANCES AND MIXTURES.
• PURE SUBSTANCES ARE FURTHER BROKEN DOWN INTO:
ELEMENTS AND COMPOUNDS.
• MIXTURES ARE PHYSICALLY COMBINED STRUCTURES
THAT CAN BE SEPARATED INTO THEIR ORIGINAL
COMPONENTS.
• THERE IS TABULAR FORM REPRESENTATION ABOUT
ELEMENTS AND COMPOUNDS .
Sl. Differentiatin Element Compound
No. g Property
1 Definition Elements are pure Compound are substances
substances which are which are formed by two
composed of only one or more different types of
type of atom. elements that are united
chemically in fixed
proportions.
2 Total There are nearly 118 Compounds are almost
Numbers elements (at present) of endless.
which nearly 94 occur
naturally on Earth.
3 Types Elements are classified as Compounds are classified
either metals, nonmetals according to their bonds
or metalloids. which can be ionic,
molecular or metallic.
4 Examples Some of the examples of A few examples of
elements are Iron, Copper, compounds are NaOH, NaCl,
Gold, etc. etc.

5 Representation Elements are represented Compounds are represented

by symbols and numbers. by their chemical formula. For
For example, Sodium is example, salt is represented
represented by Na. by the formula NaCl.

6 Distinguished Elements can be Distinguished by their fixed

By distinguished by their ratio of different elements
atomic number. (arranged in a defined
manner).
7 Composition and As only one type of In the case of
Property atoms makes up an compounds, the same
element, all the type of molecules
properties of that atom makes up the
are represented by its compound.
atom.

8 Ability to Elements cannot be Compounds can be

Breakdown broken down by easily separated into
chemical reactions. simpler substances by
chemical reactions.
 ATOM:
• ATOMS ARE THE BASIC UNITS OF MATTER AND THE DEFINING STRUCTURE
OF ELEMENTS.
• THE TERM "ATOM" COMES FROM THE GREEK WORD FOR INDIVISIBLE,
BECAUSE IT WAS ONCE THOUGHT THAT ATOMS WERE THE SMALLEST THINGS
IN THE UNIVERSE AND COULD NOT BE DIVIDED.
• WE NOW KNOW THAT ATOMS ARE MADE UP OF THREE PARTICLES:
PROTONS, NEUTRONS AND ELECTRONS — WHICH ARE COMPOSED OF EVEN
SMALLER PARTICLES, SUCH AS QUARKS.
• THE ATOMS OF MOST ELEMENTS CAN NOT EXIST BY THEMSELVES, HENCE
THEY GENERALLY COMBINE TO FORM MOLECULES.
• MOLECULES ARE COMPOSED OF ONE OR MORE ATOMS AND ARE CALLED
MONOATOMIC, DIATOMIC AND TRIATOMIC MOLECULES ETC.
 ATOMIC STRUCTURE:
• OUR PRESENT PLANETARY ATOMIC MODEL WAS
PROPOSED BY NEILS BOHR IN 1913.
• ATOMIC STRUCTURE REFERS TO THE STRUCTURE
COMPRISING OF A NUCLEUS (CENTER) IN WHICH
THE PROTONS (POSITIVELY CHARGED)
AND NEUTRONS (NEUTRAL) ARE PRESENT.
• NEUTRONS ARE ELECTRICALLY NEUTRAL HOWEVER
THEY ARE AS HEAVY AS THAT OF PROTONS AND
EACH IS ABOUT 1840 TIMES HEAVIER THAN AN
ELECTRON.
• THE NEGATIVELY CHARGED PARTICLES
CALLED ELECTRONS REVOLVE AROUND THE CENTER
OF THE NUCLEUS.
 NUCLEUS:
• NUCLEUS IS THE MASSIVE, POSITIVELY CHARGED CENTRAL PART OF AN ATOM,
MADE UP OF PROTONS AND NEUTRONS.
• PROTONS AND NEUTRONS HAVE APPROXIMATELY THE SAME MASS, ABOUT
1.67 × 10-24 GRAMS, WHICH SCIENTISTS DEFINE AS ONE ATOMIC MASS UNIT
(AMU) OR ONE DALTON.
• BUT PROTONS CARRY ONE UNIT OF POSITIVE CHARGE (+E) AND NEUTRONS
CARRY NO CHARGE.
• THESE PARTICLES ARE PACKED TOGETHER INTO AN EXTREMELY SMALL SPACE
AT THE CENTER OF AN ATOM.
• ACCORDING TO SCATTERING EXPERIMENTS, THE NUCLEUS IS SPHERICAL OR
ELLIPSOIDAL IN SHAPE.
• PROTONS AND NEUTRONS WITHIN THE NUCLEUS ARE CALLED NUCLEONS.
 COUNTS OF NUCLEONS:
• THE NUMBER OF PROTONS IN THE NUCLEUS IS GIVEN BY THE ATOMIC NUMBER, 𝑍 .
• THE NUMBER OF NEUTRONS IN THE NUCLEUS IS THE NEUTRON NUMBER, 𝑁 .
• THE TOTAL NUMBER OF NUCLEONS IS THE MASS NUMBER, 𝐴 .
• THESE NUMBERS ARE RELATED BY 𝐴=𝑍+𝑁

• WHERE 𝑋 REPRESENTS THE CHEMICAL ELEMENT, 𝐴 IS THE MASS NUMBER, AND 𝑍 IS THE
ATOMIC NUMBER.
• TWO DIFFERENT FORMS, OR ISOTOPES, OF CARBON ARE SHOWN BELOW:
• CARBON-12: WITH 6 PROTONS AND 6 NEUTRONS AND AN ATOMIC MASS OF 12
• CARBON-14: WITH 6 PROTONS AND 8 NEUTRONS, AND AN ATOMIC MASS OF 14
 ATOMIC NO.
• THE NUMBER OF PROTONS DETERMINES AN ELEMENT’S ATOMIC NUMBER (Z)
AND DISTINGUISHES ONE ELEMENT FROM ANOTHER.
• NEUTRAL ATOMS OF AN ELEMENT CONTAIN AN EQUAL NUMBER OF PROTONS
AND ELECTRONS.
• FOR EXAMPLE, CARBON’S ATOMIC NUMBER (Z) IS 6 BECAUSE IT HAS 6
PROTONS. FOR SILICON , Z=14, FOR COPPER Z= 29, FOR GERMANIUM Z=32.
• THE NUMBER OF NEUTRONS CAN VARY TO PRODUCE ISOTOPES, WHICH ARE
ATOMS OF THE SAME ELEMENT THAT HAVE DIFFERENT NUMBERS OF
NEUTRONS.
• THE NUMBER OF ELECTRONS CAN ALSO BE DIFFERENT IN ATOMS OF THE SAME
ELEMENT, THUS PRODUCING IONS (CHARGED ATOMS). FOR INSTANCE, IRON,
FE, CAN EXIST IN ITS NEUTRAL STATE, OR IN THE +2 AND +3 IONIC STATES.
 ATOMIC MASS
• IT GIVES THE TOTAL NO OF PROTONS AND NEUTRONS CONTAINED IN THE
NUCLEUS OF AN ATOM.
• PROTONS AND NEUTRONS HAVE APPROXIMATELY THE SAME MASS, ABOUT
1.67 × 10-24 GRAMS. SCIENTISTS DEFINE THIS AMOUNT OF MASS AS ONE ATOMIC
MASS UNIT (AMU) OR ONE DALTON.
• ALTHOUGH SIMILAR IN MASS, PROTONS ARE POSITIVELY CHARGED, WHILE
NEUTRONS HAVE NO CHARGE. THEREFORE, THE NUMBER OF NEUTRONS IN AN
ATOM CONTRIBUTES SIGNIFICANTLY TO ITS MASS, BUT NOT TO ITS CHARGE.
• ELECTRONS ARE MUCH SMALLER IN MASS THAN PROTONS, WEIGHING ONLY
9.11 × 10-28 GRAMS. THEREFORE, THEY DO NOT CONTRIBUTE MUCH TO AN
ELEMENT’S OVERALL ATOMIC MASS.
• FOR EXAMPLE, SILICON HAS 14 PROTONS AND 14 NEUTRONS .HENCE IT’S A=28.
 ELECTRONS:

• ELECTRON, LIGHTEST STABLE SUBATOMIC PARTICLE KNOWN.

• IT CARRIES A NEGATIVE CHARGE OF 1.602176634 × 10−19 COULOMB,
WHICH IS CONSIDERED THE BASIC UNIT OF ELECTRIC CHARGE.
• THE REST MASS OF THE ELECTRON IS 9.1093837015 × 10−31 KG, WHICH
IS ONLY 1/1,836THE MASS OF A PROTON.
• AN ELECTRON IS THEREFORE CONSIDERED NEARLY MASSLESS IN
COMPARISON WITH A PROTON OR A NEUTRON, AND THE ELECTRON
MASS IS NOT INCLUDED IN CALCULATING THE MASS NUMBER OF AN
ATOM.
• ELECTRONS CONTRIBUTE GREATLY TO THE
ATOM’S CHARGE, AS EACH ELECTRON
HAS A NEGATIVE CHARGE EQUAL TO THE
POSITIVE CHARGE OF A PROTON.
• SCIENTISTS DEFINE THESE CHARGES AS
“+1” AND “-1. ”
• IN AN UNCHARGED, NEUTRAL ATOM, THE
NUMBER OF ELECTRONS ORBITING THE
NUCLEUS IS EQUAL TO THE NUMBER OF
PROTONS INSIDE THE NUCLEUS. IN THESE
ATOMS, THE POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE
CHARGES CANCEL EACH OTHER OUT,
LEADING TO AN ATOM WITH NO NET
CHARGE.
 DISTRIBUTION OF ELECTRONS:

• ELECTRONS ARE NEGATIVELY CHARGED SUBATOMIC PARTICLES ARRANGED LIKE A CLOUD

OF NEGATIVE CHARGES OUTSIDE THE NUCLEUS OF AN ATOM.
• ACCORDING TO THE POSTULATE OF NEILS BOHR, “ELECTRONS REVOLVE AROUND THE
CENTRE OF AN ATOM (NUCLEUS) IN A PREDICTABLE PATHWAY NAMED “ORBITS”.
• THE REPRESENTATION OF THE ORBITS IS DONE BY LETTERS AND NUMBERS SUCH AS K, L, M,
N, O…. AND 1,2,3,4…. RESPECTIVELY. THE ARRANGEMENT AND DISTRIBUTION OF
ELECTRONS IN DIFFERENT ORBITS DEPENDS UPON OF THEIR ENERGIES IN DIFFERENT
ORBITS & WAS GIVEN BY BOHR AND BURY.
• FOR INSTANCE, 1ST ENERGY LEVEL- K SHELL/ORBIT
• 2ND ENERGY LEVEL- L SHELL/ORBIT
• 3RD ENERGY LEVEL- M SHELL/ORBIT AND SO ON.
• THE SHELLS BEGIN FROM THE CENTRE AND GRADUALLY MOVE OUTWARDS. SO K SHELL
WILL ALWAYS HAVE MINIMUM ENERGY. SIMILARLY, L SHELL IS A LITTLE AWAY FROM
NUCLEUS SO IT WILL HAVE HIGHER ENERGY THAN K SHELL. THE OUTERMOST SHELL WILL
HAVE MAXIMUM ENERGY.
• AN ATOM OF ANY ELEMENT IS MOST STABLE WHEN IT HAS MINIMUM ENERGY. AN ATOM
WILL FIRST FILL THE LOWEST ENERGY LEVEL SO AS TO ATTAIN THE STATE OF MINIMUM
ENERGY. GRADUALLY, THE ELECTRONS WILL FILL THE HIGHER ENERGY LEVELS. THEREFORE,
ELECTRONS WILL FIRST FILL K SHELL, THEN L SHELL, M SHELL, N SHELL, AND SO ON.
 RULES:

• RULE : THE MAXIMUM NUMBER OF ELECTRONS PRESENT IN A PARTICULAR

SHELL IS CALCULATED BY THE FORMULA 2N2, WHERE “N” REPRESENTS THE
SHELL NUMBER. FOR INSTANCE, K SHELL IS THE FIRST SHELL AND IT CAN HOLD
UP TO 2(1)2 = 2 ELECTRONS. SIMILARLY, L SHELL IS THE SECOND SHELL AND IT
CAN HOLD UP TO 2(2)2 = 8 ELECTRONS. THIS FORMULA HELPS TO CALCULATE
THE MAXIMUM NUMBER OF ELECTRONS THAT AN ORBIT CAN ACCOMMODATE.
• RULE : THE MAXIMUM NO OF ELECTRONS IN THE OUTERMOST SHELL OF THE
ATOM CANT EXCEED 8. , AND JUST PRIOR TO OUTERMOST SHELL CANT EXCEED
18.
• RULE : THE ELECTRONS WILL FILL THE INNER SHELLS BEFORE THE OUTER SHELLS.
FIRST ELECTRONS WILL FILL THE K-SHELL AND THEN L SHELL AND SO ON. THUS,
ELECTRONIC CONFIGURATION OF ELEMENTS FOLLOWS AN ASCENDING ORDER.
• EACH ELECTRONIC ORBIT IS ASSOCIATED WITH A CERTAIN DEFINITE
AMOUNT OF ENERGY. WHILE REVOLVING IN THESE PERMITTED ORBITS
, AN ELECTRON DOES NOT RADIATE ANY ENERGY . IT DOES RADIATE
OUT SOME ENERGY WHEN JUMPS FROM ONE ORBIT TO THE OTHER.
• IF E1 AND E2 ARE THE ENERGIES CORRESPONDING TO TWO ORBITS
BEFORE N AFTER THE JUMP, FREQUENCY OF EMITTED RADIATION IS
GIVEN BY :
• E2 – E1 = HF
• WHERE H= PLANK’S CONSTANT (= 6.63× 10 ˆ -34 J-S
Electron distribution of different atoms:
 ELECTRON SUBSHELLS:
• ELECTRONS ARE PLACED INTO AVAILABLE SHELLS, STARTING WITH THE LOWEST ENERGY LEVEL.
EACH SHELL MUST BE FULL BEFORE THE NEXT STARTS TO FILL. THIS MODEL BREAKS DOWN AT
THE N=3 SHELL BECAUSE EACH SHELL HAS SUBSHELLS.
• A SUBSHELL IS A SUBDIVISION OF ELECTRON SHELLS .
• SUBSHELLS ARE LABELLED AS S, P, D, AND F IN AN ELECTRON CONFIGURATION. EACH
SUBSHELL CAN HOLD A DIFFERENT NUMBER OF ELECTRONS.

SubShell Electrons
s 2
p 6
d 10
f 14
 ELECTRONIC
CONFIGURATION:
• THE ARRANGEMENT OF ELECTRONS IN DIFFERENT SHELLS AND SUB-SHELLS
IS KNOWN AS THE ELECTRONIC CONFIGURATION OF A PARTICULAR
ELEMENT.
• THERE ARE A SET OF RULES TO REMEMBER WHILE DISTRIBUTION OFF
ELECTRONS IN DIFFERENT ORBITS.
• IT FOLLOWS A STANDARD NOTATION IN WHICH ALL ELECTRON-
CONTAINING ATOMIC SUBSHELLS (WITH THE NUMBER OF ELECTRONS THEY
HOLD WRITTEN IN SUPERSCRIPT) ARE PLACED IN A SEQUENCE.
• FOR EXAMPLE, THE ELECTRON CONFIGURATION OF
• HELIUM WILL BE 1S2 .

• LITHIUM WILL BE 1S22S1 OR [HE] 2S1

• OXYGEN WILL BE 1S22S22P4 OR [HE] 2S²2P⁴.
• NEON WILL BE 1S22S22P6 OR [HE] 2S²2P⁶
• SODIUM WILL BE 1S22S22P63S1. OR [NE] 3S¹
• HOWEVER, THE STANDARD NOTATION OFTEN YIELDS LENGTHY ELECTRON
CONFIGURATIONS (ESPECIALLY FOR ELEMENTS HAVING A RELATIVELY LARGE ATOMIC
NUMBER). IN SUCH CASES, AN ABBREVIATED OR CONDENSED NOTATION MAY BE USED
INSTEAD OF THE STANDARD NOTATION. IN THE ABBREVIATED NOTATION, THE SEQUENCE
OF COMPLETELY FILLED SUBSHELLS THAT CORRESPOND TO THE ELECTRONIC
CONFIGURATION OF A NOBLE GAS IS REPLACED WITH THE SYMBOL OF THAT NOBLE
GAS IN SQUARE BRACKETS.
 RULES :
• THE THREE RULES THAT DICTATE THE MANNER IN WHICH ELECTRONS ARE FILLED IN
ATOMIC ORBITALS ARE:
• THE AUFBAU PRINCIPLE: ELECTRONS MUST COMPLETELY FILL THE ATOMIC ORBITALS OF
A GIVEN ENERGY LEVEL BEFORE OCCUPYING AN ORBITAL ASSOCIATED WITH A
HIGHER ENERGY LEVEL. ELECTRONS OCCUPY ORBITALS IN THE INCREASING ORDER OF
ORBITAL ENERGY LEVEL.
• PAULI’S EXCLUSION PRINCIPLE: STATES THAT NO TWO ELECTRONS CAN HAVE EQUAL
VALUES FOR ALL FOUR QUANTUM NUMBERS. CONSEQUENTLY, EACH SUBSHELL OF AN
ORBITAL CAN ACCOMMODATE A MAXIMUM OF 2 ELECTRONS AND BOTH THESE
ELECTRONS MUST HAVE OPPOSITE SPINS.
• HUND’S RULE OF MAXIMUM MULTIPLICITY: ALL THE SUBSHELLS IN AN ORBITAL MUST
BE SINGLY OCCUPIED BEFORE ANY SUBSHELL IS DOUBLY OCCUPIED. FURTHERMORE,
THE SPIN OF ALL THE ELECTRONS IN THE SINGLY OCCUPIED SUBSHELLS MUST BE THE
SAME (IN ORDER TO MAXIMIZE THE OVERALL SPIN).
 ELECTRONIC CONFIGURATIONS ARE USEFUL FOR:

• ELECTRON CONFIGURATIONS PROVIDE INSIGHT INTO THE CHEMICAL

BEHAVIOUR OF ELEMENTS BY HELPING DETERMINE THE VALENCE
ELECTRONS OF AN ATOM.
• PREDICTING THE PROPERTIES OF A GROUP OF ELEMENTS (ELEMENTS WITH
SIMILAR ELECTRON CONFIGURATIONS TEND TO EXHIBIT SIMILAR
PROPERTIES). IT HELPS CLASSIFY ELEMENTS INTO DIFFERENT BLOCKS (SUCH
AS THE S-BLOCK ELEMENTS, THE P-BLOCK ELEMENTS, THE D-BLOCK
ELEMENTS, AND THE F-BLOCK ELEMENTS).
• DETERMINING THE VALENCY OF AN ELEMENT.
 ELECTRON CONFIGURATION OF OXYGEN

• THE ATOMIC NUMBER OF OXYGEN IS 8, IMPLYING THAT AN OXYGEN ATOM HOLDS 8

ELECTRONS. ITS ELECTRONS ARE FILLED IN THE FOLLOWING ORDER:
• K SHELL – 2 ELECTRONS L SHELL – 6 ELECTRONS
• THEREFORE, THE ELECTRON CONFIGURATION OF OXYGEN IS 1S2 2S2 2P4, AS SHOWN IN THE
ILLUSTRATION PROVIDED BELOW:
 REFERENCES:

• BASIC ELECTRONICS BY B.L. THERAJA.

• BASIC ELECTRONICS BY B. GROBS.
• ELECTRONICS FUNDAMENTALS BY T.L. FLOYD
• HTTPS://BYJUS.COM/CHEMISTRY/DIFFERENCE-BETWEEN-ELEMENT-AND-COMPOUND
• HTTPS://REVISIONSCIENCE.COM/A2-LEVEL-LEVEL-REVISION/CHEMISTRY-LEVEL-
REVISION/ATOMIC-STRUCTURE-BONDING-PERIODICITY/SHELLS-AND-SUBSHELLS