Dalton's Atomic Theory

Democritus first suggested the existence of the atom but it took almost two millennia before the atom was placed on a solid foothold as a fundamental chemical object by John Dalton (17661844). Although two centuries old, Dalton's atomic theory remains valid in modern chemical thought. Dalton's Atomic Theory 1) All matter is made of atoms. Atoms are indivisible and indestructible. 2) All atoms of a given element are identical in mass and properties 3) Compounds are formed by a combination of two or more different kinds of atoms. 4) A chemical reaction is a rearrangement of atoms. Modern atomic theory is, of course, a little more involved than Dalton's theory but the essence of Dalton's theory remains valid. Today we know that atoms can be destroyed via nuclear reactions but not by chemical reactions. Also, there are different kinds of atoms (differing by their masses) within an element that are known as "isotopes", but isotopes of an element have the same chemical properties. Many heretofore unexplained chemical phenomena were quickly explained by Dalton with his theory. Dalton's theory quickly became the theoretical foundation in chemistry.

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We might as well attempt to introduce a new planet into the solar system, or to annihilate one already in existence, as to create or destroy a particle of hydrogen. John Dalton, A New System of Chemical Philosophy, 1808)

Vocabulary atom chemical change hypothesis stoichiometry

John Dalton (1766-1844) developed the first useful atomic theory of matter around 1803. In the course of his studies on meteorology, Dalton concluded that evaporated water exists in air as an independent gas. He wondered how water and air could occupy the same space at the same time, when obviously solid bodies can't. If the water and air were composed of discrete particles, Dalton reasoned, evaporation might be viewed as a mixing of water particles with air particles. He performed a series of experiments on mixtures of gases to determine what effect properties of the individual gases had on the properties of the mixture as a whole. While trying to explain the results of those experiments, Dalton developed the hypothesis that the sizes of the particles making up different gases must be different. He later wrote [1] "...it became an object to determine the relative sizes and weights, together with the relative numbers of atoms entering into such combinations... Thus a train of investigation was laid for determining the number and weight of all chemical elementary particles which enter into any sort of combination one with another." Dalton's exceptional gift for recognizing and interpreting patterns in experimental data lead him from a problem in meteorology to the idea of atoms as fundamental constituents of matter. He realized the vital theoretical connection between atomic weights and weight relations in chemical reactions. He was the first to associate the ancient idea of atoms with stoichiometry. Some of the details of Dalton's original atomic theory are now known to be incorrect. But the core concepts of the theory (that chemical reactions can be explained by the union and separation of atoms, and that these atoms have characteristic properties) are foundations of modern physical science.

Dalton's Atomic Theory

It was in the early 1800s that John Dalton, an observer of weather and discoverer of color blindness among other things, came up with his atomic theory. Let's set the

stage for Dalton's work. Less than twenty years earlier, in the 1780's, Lavoisier ushered in a new chemical era by making careful quantitative measurements which allowed the compositions of compounds to be determined with accuracy. By 1799 enough data had been accumulated for Proust to establish the Law of Constant Composition ( also called the Law of Definite Proportions). In 1803 Dalton noted that oxygen and carbon combined to make two compounds. Of course, each had its own particular weight ratio of oxygen to carbon (1.33:1 and 2.66:1), but also, for the same amount of carbon, one had exactly twice as much oxygen as the other. This led him to propose the Law of Simple Multiple Proportions, which was later verified by the Swedish chemist Berzelius. In an attempt to explain how and why elements would combine with one another in fixed ratios and sometimes also in multiples of those ratios, Dalton formulated his atomic theory. The idea of atoms had been proposed much earlier. The ancient Greek philosophers had talked about atoms, but Dalton's theory was different in that it had the weight of careful chemical measurements behind it. It wasn't just a philosophical statement that there are atoms because there must be atoms. His atomic theory, stated that elements consisted of tiny particles called atoms. He said that the reason an element is pure is because all atoms of an element were identical and that in particular they had the same mass. He also said that the reason elements differed from one another was that atoms of each element were different from one another; in particular, they had different masses. He also said that compounds consisted of atoms of different elements combined together. Compounds are pure substances (remember they cannot be separated into elements by phase changes) because the atoms of different elements are bonded to one another somehow, perhaps by hooks, and are not easily separated from one another. Compounds have constant composition because they contain a fixed ratio of atoms and each atom has its own characteristic weight, thus fixing the weight ratio of one element to the other. In addition he said that chemical reactions involved the rearrangement of combinations of those atoms. So that, briefly, is Dalton's theory. With modifications, it has stood up pretty well to the criteria that we talked about earlier. It did not convince everyone right away however. Although a number of chemists were quickly convinced of the truth of the theory, it took about a half century for the opposition to die down, or perhaps I should say die off. Let me point out again the difference between a model of atoms and a theory of atoms. A model focuses on describing what the atoms are like, whereas the theory not only talks about what the atoms are like but how they interact with one another and so forth. Dalton's model was that the atoms were tiny, indivisible, indestructible particles and that each one had a certain mass, size, and chemical behavior that was determined by what kind of element they were. We will use that model of an atom for now, but we will modify it considerably in a later lesson.

Five main points of Dalton's atomic theory 1. Elements are made of extremely small particles called atoms. 2. Atoms of a given element are identical in size, mass, and other properties; atoms of different elements differ in size, mass, and other properties. 3. Atoms cannot be subdivided, created, or destroyed. 4. Atoms of different elements combine in simple whole-number ratios to form chemical compounds. 5. In chemical reactions, atoms are combined, separated, or rearranged.

Dalton proposed an additional "rule of greatest simplicity" that created controversy, since it could not be independently confirmed.
When atoms combine in only one ratio, "..it must be presumed to be a binary one, unless some cause appear to the contrary".

This was merely an assumption, derived from faith in the simplicity of nature. No evidence was then available to scientists to deduce how many atoms of each element combine to form compound molecules. But this or some other such rule was absolutely necessary to any incipient theory, since one needed an assumed molecular formula in order to calculate relative atomic weights. In any case, Dalton's "rule of greatest simplicity" caused him to assume that the formula for water was OH and ammonia was NH, quite different from our modern understanding. Despite the uncertainty at the heart of Dalton's atomic theory, the principles of the theory survived. To be sure, the conviction that atoms cannot be subdivided, created, or destroyed into smaller particles when they are combined, separated, or rearranged in chemical reactions is inconsistent with the existence of nuclear fusion and nuclear fission, but such processes are nuclear reactions and not chemical reactions. In addition, the idea that all atoms of a given element are identical in their physical and chemical properties is not precisely true, as we now know that different isotopes of an element have slightly varying weights. However, Dalton had created a theory of immense power and importance. Indeed, Dalton's innovation was fully as important for the future of the science as Antoine Laurent Lavoisier's oxygen-based chemistry had

John Dalton's Atomic Theory

John Dalton, the father of modern atomic theory, developed the atomic theory in the early nineteenth century. According to him, all elements are made of atoms and the purity of an element is attributed to the presence of similar atoms.

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Though the earliest theories about atoms were proposed by Democritus and Aristotle, the first accepted theory was proposed by John Dalton. John Dalton (1766 1844), an English chemist, physicist, and meteorologist, is honored mainly because of his contribution to modern atomic theory and color blindness. It was the research studies on properties of atmosphere and gases in 1803, which made him realize about the particles (later called atoms) and their weight. John Dalton's Initial Work John Dalton had a strong interest in meteorology, and did extensive studies regarding nature of atmospheric gases. He found out the formation of compounds by combining oxygen and carbon dioxide. Later, John Dalton published the first table on relative atomic weights that included six elements, viz., hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous, and sulfur. He stated the atomic weight of hydrogen to be 1. It was not confirmed as to how he derived the atomic weights. In Dalton's laboratory notebook (dated September 1803), he indicated that the relative weights of the gaseous elements could be found out from the studies of other compounds, such as water, carbon dioxide, and ammonia. In his notebook, the elements were represented by symbols. He was the first person to propose the idea of identifying an element by its symbol. Much later, elements started to be represented by their abbreviations. For example, 'H' is the abbreviation of the element hydrogen. The same research paper was published in 1805. John Dalton's Atomic Theory The existence of atoms had been mentioned by many other pioneers before John Dalton actually put forth the atomic theory. However, there was no elaboration on the atomic weight part. As per the lecture given by John Dalton in 1803 in the Royal Institution (London), atoms of one element differed from those of other elements by their relative weights. Following are some of the important points proposed by John Dalton in his atomic theory.
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All elements are made up of tiny indivisible particles, known as atoms. Atoms of the same element are identical with respect to their size, weight, and properties. Atoms of different elements are different from each other and can be identified by their relative weights. Atoms can neither be divided into smaller particles nor destroyed. Chemical reactions occur due to the rearrangement, combination, or separation of the atoms. Atoms combine in the ratio of whole numbers such as 1:1, 1:2, 2:3, etc. Atoms of two or more different elements combine together to form chemical compounds

In 1808, John Dalton published a list of elements along with their atomic weights in his 'New System of Chemical Philosophy', for which he received the Royal Medal in 1826. He referred the masses of elements as weights. Since then, chemists used either 'atomic weight' or 'atomic mass'. In spite of the fact that there are some flaws in his work (for example, he had assigned the atomic weight of oxygen as 7), John Dalton was the pioneer who had given a pathbreaking view to future experiments.

In order to honor his work, scientists referred one atomic mass unit as 'Dalton' (abbreviated as Da) for many years. In 1886, Eugen Goldstein, a German physicist, discovered positive charged particles in atoms. Later, J. J. Thomson, a British physicist, discovered the electron by using a cathode ray tube in 1897. In contrary to John Dalton's assumptions that atoms are indivisible, he suggested that atoms are made up of smaller particles. In 1911, Rutherford, a student of Thomson, put forth the view that an atom consisted of a dense positive core at the center (nucleus), surrounded by electrons. He named the positive particles in the nucleus as protons, and stated that protons were larger than the electrons and carried an equal and opposite charge to electrons. In the year 1932, James Chadwick discovered the electrically neutral particle in the atom and named it as the neutron. In John Dalton's atomic model, the concept of isotopes of an element is not mentioned. They represent different types of atoms of an element, which have different atomic masses but possess similar properties. Also, in contrary to what Dalton had stated earlier, destroying atoms is possible with the help of nuclear reactions. This way, the modern atomic theory was expounded in the later years. By Ningthoujam Sandhyarani Last Updated: 8/30/2011