5.3: quantum mechanics and the wave nature of matter

Louis De Broglie theorized that if light can have material properties, matter should exhibit wave properties, developing the slit experiment to create a new model of the atom
electrons move trough “slits”
* a particle can only move through one slit at a time
* a wave can move through multiple slits at a time

electronic structure: the structure of electrons within an atom
Louis De Broglie, Edward Schrödinger, and Werner Heisenberg were on the front line of the development of quantum mechanics
quantum mechanics (aka wave mechanics) was a completely new approach to the atomic model

quantum mechanics

Schrödinger’s equation: Ĥψ = Eψ
* ψ = wave function
* E = total energy of the atom
each solution to Schrödinger’s equation is a probability of where an electron could be found in space
the wave function is a function of the coordinates x, y, and z
orbital: a solution to the wave function
  * orbitals are not the same as Bohr orbits
  * 1s orbital: the wave function corresponding to the lowest energy for the hydrogen atom
  * s orbital: a spherical orbital contained by every energy level → volume changes by level but shape does not
  * p orbital: an orbital consisting of two lobes contained by the second energy level and up
  * d orbital: an orbital that generally contains four lobes contained by the third energy level and up
orbitals are essentially regions of space in which the probability of finding an electron is ≥ 90%
heavily correlated to nuclear charge and ionization energy
  * nuclear charge is determined by the size of ions and properties of the atom
  * ionization energy describes the minimum amount of energy required to remove an electron from the ground state of a gaseous atom or ion, and requires more energy to remove each successive electron from the atom
  * ground state: the lowest-energy state of an atom
  * excited state: higher-energy states of an atom (n ≥ 2)