This website shows the latest revision of the cubic atomic models.
The cubic atomic model is a alpha-based model. This means that it presumes that all atoms are actually made up of a combination of alpha-particles or a helium nucleus. Atoms cannot all be made out of helium nucleus, so the model also adds Deuterium particles. In this model all atoms are made up of combinations of helium or deterium atoms. For more explanation of the basic principles behind the cubic atomic model, please see the original web site at http://franklinhu.com/buildatm.htm.
The new model accomodates the observed ionization pattern and electron orbital shells. Any atomic model needs to account for why the energy required to ionize successive electrons from an atom fall into distinct groups. These are currently grouped into electron orbitals which have 7 energy levels and within these levels are electron shells labeled S, P, D, and F.
Below is a chart showing the relative ionization energies required to ionize all 36 electrons from a Krypton atom. The chart shows that the first few electrons require little energy while the last electrons require a great deal of energy. This chart was built from information gathered from the ionization charts at www.webelements.com. The original ionization charts show the absolute energy required to ionize the various electrons. I have reformatted and re-charted this data to accentuate any large differences in the ionization energy from one electron to the next. The chart shows large jumps which exactly correspond to the accepted electron orbital shells. I have labeled these electron shells in the chart.
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This is helium. I have only shown half of the atom since the other half of the atom is the mirror image. The whole atom would appear if the table were a mirror, so the whole helium atom would appear to be a cube - which is the same as the original cubic model. All of the following pictures also only show half of the atom.
This is Neon. If you look at the above chart, Neon includes the 10 right-most electrons in the chart. You can see a grouping of 6 electrons (2P) followed by 2 electrons (2S) and finally another 2 electrons (1s). The initial ionization of the first six electrons is accounted for by removing the outter most 3 squares in this picture. (The squares being made up of 2 red protons and 2 black electrons). The first comes from the rightmost red/black cubes. The second comes from the bottom and the third come from the leftmost cubes. The 4th, 5th and 6th come from the remaining cubes on the edges. The next group of 2s electrons come from the top and bottom of the atom. This leaves us with the helium atom to acount for the 1s electrons. This is shown in more detail on the page showing atoms hydrogen to neon
This is argon. This is basically an extended version of neon. The 3p electrons come from the bottom 3 squares. The 3s come from the top/bottom. After removing these and rearranging to make it symmetric, we get back to neon
This is Krypton. The 4p electrons are accounted for by the 3 bottom squares. The 4s electrons come from the top/bottom. The next group of 10 electrons which make up the 3d electron level come from the top most 5 squares running across the middle of the atom shown here. (It is running in a diagonal in this picture). After you remove these, and rearrange to make it symettric, you get back to argon.
This is Xenon. The 5p electrons come from the bottom 3 squares. The 5s come from the top/bottom. The 4d come from lower set of 5 squares running through the center. After you remove these, you are back to Krypton.
This is Radon. The 6p electrons come from the bottom 3 squares. The 6s come from the top/bottom The 4f electrons come from the band of 7 squares running down the diagonal. The 5d electrons come from the band of 5 squares below the 4f electrons. After you remove these, you are back to Xenon.
As this series of pictures show, the atoms along the noble elements are built up using a naturally extending geometric sequence. This sequence eliminates the empty spaces between the arms of the atoms and can fully account for the electron ionization energy groupings assuming that the electrons ionize in approximately an outermost fashion and electrons in the same band in the atom ionize with approximately the same energy. We see jumps in the ionization energy when electrons ionize from a different band.
