Is the Electron System a Misinterpretation of Bohr?

Helmut Albert

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Translation from German: DeepL plus

„Ist das Elektronensystem eine FehlinterpretationBohrs?“ (2021)

Responsible for the content:      

Helmut Albert, Talstraße 63', 79102 Freiburg / Germany

hm.albert@t-online.de

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Inhalt

1.      Atomic Structure and Atomic Mass

2.      State of Science

3.      Mendeleev's and Meyer's Theses

4.      Bohr´s Atomic Theory

5.      The Checkerboard-like Atomic Structure

6.      Bibliography

7.      List of Figures

8.      Biography

Atomic Structure and Atomic Mass

Until today there is a contradiction between the views of Dmitri Mendeleev (1834-1907) and Lothar Meyer (1830-1895) versus those of Niels Bohr (1885-1962), on the cause of the chemical properties of the elements, which has never been addressed. While Bohr and with him the present science, assumed that the chemical properties of the elements depend on almost massless electrons of the atomic shell, Dmitri Mendeleev and Lothar Meyer saw it quite differently. In contrast, they postulated that the chemical properties depend on the atomic mass. However, as we know today, the carriers of the atomic mass are not the electrons, but the protons and neutrons. Therefore the question arises whether there is a proton-neutron system instead of the electron system, on which the chemical properties and valences of the elements depend?

At the beginning of the paper, the state of science concerning the periodic table and the atomic structure is presented. Thereby the shell model, or orbital model and the Bohr atomic model are shown as the atomic models which are decisive for today's atomic conception. Likewise, the nuclear shell theory, which was only published in 1948, is presented, which refers exclusively to the atomic nucleus. An important aspect of the atomic nucleus and its nucleons is the atomic mass, which is also examined in this chapter.

This is followed by a discussion of the content and significance of the periodic table of the elements. It is shown that the periodic table of the elements is not only a clear table of the elements, but can be understood as a starting point for a logically comprehensible atomic structure. The focus is also on the theses of Mendeleev and Meyer that the chemical properties of the elements depend on the atomic mass. Thereby the question arises, how their statements and theses are to be interpreted with today's knowledge about the basic building blocks of the so-called atomic nucleus?

The following chapter deals with the opinion of Niels Bohr. He represented, with regard to the chemical properties of the elements, a virtually opposite view as Mendelejew and Meyer. Niels Bohr, who based his Bohr atomic model of 1913 on the nuclear-shell atomic model of his teacher Rutherford, saw the chemical properties of the atoms as depending on the massless electrons in the atomic shell. He substantiated this view with his "Aufbauprinzip" published in 1921, in which he juxtaposed the protons with one electron per period in the circular arrangements of his electron system. Thus he could explain schematically electric charges of atoms.

Finally, in the last chapter it is clarified which theses and views, in the question of the atomic structure, lead further and which end in a dead end. Have the views and theses of Mendeleev and Meyer been interpreted correctly by science so far? Or has an atomic theory been taught for more than 100 years which represents an error? What is the connection of Mendeleev's and Meyer's theses with the present knowledge about protons and neutrons? The answers to these questions are given together with the presentation of the only possible atomic structure in the last chapter of this paper.

State of Science

Periodic table and atomic models

The "Periodic Table of the Elements" (PSE), published by Mendeleev in 1869 and somewhat later by Lothar Meyer, comprised 63 elements at that time, arranged in periods and groups according to their atomic mass and chemical similarity. Today, in addition to synthetic elements, the periodic table comprises a total of 117 elements. Unlike then, today the elements of the periodic table are listed according to their increasing proton number, called atomic number . With the proton number of an element an exact classification of the elements is possible, which was not possible in this way because of the atomic masses. Especially because most elements have several isotopes with different atomic masses. At the end of a period of the PSE there is always a noble gas. According to today's conception the electron configuration of the noble gases should be particularly stable and is therefore aimed at by all atoms. This idea is the basis for the explanation of chemical reactions of the elements.

The electrons were the very first particles postulated as atomic building blocks and are located in the atomic shell according to the nuclear-shell atomic model of Ernst Rutherford, from 1911. In the successor model, the Bohr atomic model of 1913, this idea was adopted and has been part of all atomic models since then. Bohr's model, however, differed from the predecessor model in that it provided for fixed orbits around the atomic nucleus for the electrons of the atomic shell. In his later modification of the atomic model, he changed the orbits to electron shells. It was not until the so-called "Aufbauprinzip" in 1921 that Bohr included the periodic table of the elements in his electron theory by basing the periods of the PSE on the structure of its electron shells. The chemical properties of the elements depend thereafter on the occupation of the electron shells. According to this theory all atoms (with exceptions) try to get a shell fully occupied with eight electrons. This rule, called the rule of eight or octet, represents the noble gas configuration, which all noble gases already have in their ground state.

The orbital model, to which Werner Heisenberg and Erwin Schrödinger in particular contributed, builds directly on Bohr's atomic model. However, in contrast to earlier models, electrons in quantum physics are no longer defined as particles but as waves in certain orbitals. Orbitals can have spherical or dumbbell shapes and other forms. Nevertheless, the atomic structure and the related bonding theories are still based on Bohr's atomic theory. In addition to the orbital model, there are other abstract concepts of the atom, such as the box model of the chemist Linus Carl Pauling, who developed a representation of the orbitals in the form of a row of boxes. A box represents an orbital in which there is room for a maximum of two electrons with opposite spin.

After the discovery of the neutron in 1932 there were several efforts to find a structure of the so-called atomic nucleus. Finally proton and neutron seemed to be made for a particle system. But it was not until 1948 that Maria Mayer Göppert and Hans Jensen published the nuclear shell theory, which proposed a nuclear shell order. The scientists assumed that the arrangement of protons and neutrons is similar to Bohr's electron system. According to this theory, the protons and neutrons move individually or in pairs around the atomic center. Thereby they postulated atoms which should have a high stability due to "magic numbers" similar to the noble gas configuration of the atomic shell.

Among the various properties of atoms, atomic mass is a property that played a central role in the creation of the first periodic table. Today, the atomic mass of an element can be expressed in kilograms. For convenience, however, a unit has been established for atoms called the atomic mass unit, which is 1/12 of the carbon atom C12. One could also consider an atomic mass as the "integer multiple" of a hydrogen atom, as William Prout(1785-1850) did already in