Compliments to your arrival, readers!
We have an extremely structured read for you today!
Not getting the electronic pun?
YOU WILL SOON!
Electronic Configuration
- is the notation that describes the orbitals that electrons occupy
- also shows total number of electrons in each orbital
- helps us understand the structure of the periodic table of elements
- proposed electrons existed in specific energy levels
- when it absorbs/emits specific amount of energy it instantaneously moves from one orbital to the next
Quantum of Energy: energy difference between two particular energy levels
Ground State: when all electrons of an atom are in the lowest possible energy
Excited State: when one ore more of an atom's eletrons are in energy levels other then the lowest available level
Orbital: region of space occupied by an electron in a particular energy level
Shell: set of all orbitals having the same 'n' value
Subshell: set of orbitals of the same type
Now let's get into the meat of the lesson today!
Orbitals
- are split into 4 different types (s, p, d, f)
- each subshell consists of:
- 1 s-orbital
- 3 p-orbital
- 5 d-orbital
- 7 f-orbital
- maximum of 2 electrons can be placed into each orbit
- the maximum number of electrons in each subshell is
- 2 s-subshell
- 6 p-subshell
- 10 d-subshell
- 14 f-subshell
This is how the orbitals are filled in for neutral atoms |
- Always start with the lowest energy level first
- Figure out how many electrons you have (neutral atom = atomic number)
- Start at the lowest energy level (1s) and add until nothing is left
- Each electron has an opposite spin designated by upward and downward arrows
- A good analogy of this is: when you're sitting on a bus, you don't sit beside another person until all the empty rows are taken up.
- The written form of this is 1s2 2s2 2p2
For Negative Ions
- Add electrons (equal to charge) to the last unfilled subshell, starting with where the neutral atom left off
- Start with the neutral configuration, remove electrons from the outer most shell first
- If there are electrons in both the s and p-orbitals of the outermost shell
- Electrons in p-orbitals should be removed first
- The set of electrons for an atom can be divided into two subsections (boy do we canadians love dividing everything into sections, and even SUB-sections!)
- the core electrons
- set of electrons with configuration of the nearest noble gas before it (above it)
- normally take part in chemical reaction
- the outer electrons
- consist of all electrons outside the core
- is a way of showing the electron configuration in terms of the core and the outer electrons
- Locate the atom and note the noble gas above the element
- Replace the part of the electronic configuration that has the configuration of the noble gas with the noble gas symbol in brackets
- Follow the core symbol with the electron configuration of the remaining outer electrons
- there are two notable exceptions to electronic configuration
- chromium
- 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p6 4s1 3d5
- copper
- 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p6 4s1 3d10