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.
Atom economy yield, because a high-yielding process can still result in substantial byproducts. Examples include the Cannizzaro reaction, in which approximately 50% of the reactant aldehyde becomes the other oxidation state of the target; the Wittig reaction, which uses high-mass phosphorus reagents that ultimately become waste; and the Gabriel synthesis, which produces a stoichiometric quantity of phthalic acid If the desired product has an enantiomer the reaction needs to be sufficiently stereoselective even when atom economy is 100%. A Diels-Alder reaction is an example of a potentially very atom efficient reaction that also can be chemo-, regio-, diastereo- and enantioselective. Catalytic hydrogenation