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Biographies and History [22 KB]

Here are biographies of some of the famous scientists that have contributed and/or developed the modern idea of the atom and the covalent bond.

John Dalton
J.J. Thomson
Ernest Rutherford
Niels Bohr
Werner Heisenberg
Max Planck
Erwin Schrodinger
Wolfgang Pauli
James Chadwick
GN Lewis
Linus Pauling



Here, we take a look at the history of the development of the covalent bond from the early 1800's, since the majority of the development of the atom occurred within the last two centuries.

Here is an insight into the times before the 1800's:

    Atoms, or indivisible particles, are proposed as the primary building blocks by Greek philosopher Democritus (circa 400 BC).
    Alchemy, which was magic and science combined with a purpose of converting copper to gold, was introduced into the Roman Empire from China (circa 1 AD). For many centuries, alchemy was the only form of chemistry that existed and has been called the basis for modern chemistry.
    In 1661, English chemist Robert Boyle defined an element as a substance that cannot be broken down into simpler substances.
    With the discovery of carbon dioxide by Joseph Black in 1755 and of oxygen by Joseph Priestley in 1774, accuracy in experimenting becomes necessary and is stressed upon.
The developments in chemistry in the last two centuries:
    John Dalton, who is known as the Father of Chemisty, develops the Modern Atomic Theory in 1808. It stated that every element consisted of indivisible particles with a mass different from that of any other element. At this time, Modern Chemisty is born.
    Amadeo Avogadro shows the relationship between the volume and the number of molecules, and its temperature and pressure.(1811)
    Dmitri Mendeleyev devises the Periodic Table in which elements are arranged by their chemical properties and atomic masses. From this, many similarities in properties were observed among the elements.
    British Scientist J.J. Thomson discovers the negatively charged electron in 1897.
    Niels Bohr and Ernest Rutherford depict the atom as a tiny, dense nucleus with electrosn orbiting around it (1913).
    Henry Moseley dfiens the atomic number of an element as the number of protons in its nucleus (1914).
    G.N. Lewis explains chemical bonding in terms of electrons shared between the elements (1916).
    Wolfgang Pauli proposes his exclusion principle in 1924, explaining how the electrons fill "shells" around the nucleus.
    The covalent bond is explained in terms of quantum mechanics by W. Heitler and F. London in 1927.
    James Chadwick proves the existence of neutron in the nucleus of most atoms in 1932.
    Roald Hoffman and Kenichi Fukui explain the process of chemical reactions in terms of quantum mechancis (1981).
    Fullerenes, a new class of carbon compounds, are discovered in 1985.

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