In chemistry, Rutherford's atomic model refers to the theory that shows how an atom is internally structured. This theory was raised by the physicist Ernest Rutherford in 1911. In order to prove his theory, he performed his famous gold foil experiment. Thanks to this, Rutherford is considered to be the creator of both nuclear physics and the chemistry of atoms.
Before Rutherford's model was accepted as valid, the scientific community validated it was the atomic model proposed by the British scientist Joseph Thomson, which stated that there were only negatively charged electrons, introduced into positively charged atoms.
This model was considered by many to be filled with a lot of simplicity, as it featured a compact, static atom. While Rutherford, through his experiment, was able to discover that the positive charge present in the atom is agglutinated in its nucleus and assumed that the atom would have to be made up of an electron shell rotating around a central nucleus with a positive charge. For science this model was much more dynamic and hollow, however the laws of classical physics saw it as a bit unstable.
Below are the bases that support Rutherford's theory:
- The atom is made up of two elements: a nucleus and a shell.
- Inside the atom's shell, electrons can be seen rotating at high speed around the nucleus.
- The nucleus represents the small part that is located in the middle of the atom that has a positive charge.
- The nucleus has the universality of the mass of the atom.
The experiment of Ernest Rutherford consisted release a flow of alpha particles on a thin sheet of gold and depending on the behavior of the flow of particles impinging on the gold foil, he derived the following conclusion:
- The rays for the most part, pierced the sheet, this caught his attention, reaching the conclusion that the atom is absolutely empty.
- Only a small part of the particles deviated, therefore the nucleus did not appear very large.
Rutherford's model disregarded Thomson's, since for Thomson the atom was not broken down by the nucleus and the crust
