Atom of Ernest Rutherford, bombarded a metal foil with alpha particles to observe how they scattered. They expected all the alpha particles to pass straight through with little deflection, because Thomson's model said that the charges in the atom are so diffuse that their electric fields could not affect the alpha particles much. However, Geiger and Marsden spotted alpha particles being deflected by angles greater than 90°, which was supposed to be impossible according to Thomson's model. To explain this, Rutherford proposed that the positive charge of the atom is concentrated in a tiny nucleus at the center of the atom.
Hot atom a hydrogen atom with hydrogen atoms on a silicon surface and a reaction of an oxygen atom with oxygen molecules on Pt(111) have been reported. Hot atoms can also be generated by degenerating molecules on a metal surface with UV light. It has been reported that the reactivity of an oxygen atom generated in such a way on a platinum surface is different from that of chemisorbed oxygen atoms. Elucidating the role of hot atoms on surfaces will lead to a deeper understanding of the mechanism of reactions. Hot atom In physical chemistry, a hot atom is an atom that