Bohr's Postulates and Model

1. The electrons revolve around the nucleus in circular orbits.
2. the orbit of the electron around the nucleus can be only some special values of radius. In these special radii orbits, the electron does not radiate energy as expected from Maxwell’s laws. These orbits are called stationary orbits.
3. The energy of the atom has a definite value when electrons are in a given stationary orbit. But the if more energy is provided to the atom, the electron can jump from one stationary orbit to another stationary orbit of higher energy. If it jumps from an orbit of higher energy (E2) to an orbit of lower energy (E1), it emits a photon of radiation. The energy of the emitted photon will be E2 – E1.

The wave length of the emitted radiation is given by the Einstein-Planck equation

E2-E1 = hυ = hc/λ

4. In stationary orbits, the angular momentum l of the electron about the nucleus is an in integral multiple of the Planck constant h divided by 2 π.

l = nh/2 π

This assumption is called Bohr’s quantization rule.