Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Each s subshell holds at most 2 electrons; Each p subshell holds at most 6 electrons; Each d subshell holds at most 10 electrons; Each f subshell holds at most 14 electrons; Each g subshell holds at most 18 electrons; Therefore, the K shell, which contains only an s subshell, can hold up to 2 electrons; the L shell, which contains an s and a p ...
In this way, the electrons of an atom or ion form the most stable electron configuration possible. An example is the configuration 1s 2 2s 2 2p 6 3s 2 3p 3 for the phosphorus atom, meaning that the 1s subshell has 2 electrons, the 2s subshell has 2 electrons, the 2p subshell has 6 electrons, and so on.
Each shell can contain only a fixed number of electrons: The first shell can hold up to two electrons, the second shell can hold up to eight (2 + 6) electrons, the third shell can hold up to 18 (2 + 6 + 10) and so on. The general formula is that the nth shell can in principle hold up to 2n 2 electrons. [1]
For atoms with many electrons, this notation can become lengthy and so an abbreviated notation is used. The electron configuration can be visualized as the core electrons, equivalent to the noble gas of the preceding period, and the valence electrons: each element in a period differs only by the last few subshells. Phosphorus, for instance, is ...
The superscript y shows the number of electrons in the subshell. For example, the notation 2p 4 indicates that the 2p subshell of an atom contains 4 electrons. This subshell has 3 orbitals, each with n = 2 and ℓ = 1.
For each atom the subshells are given first in concise form, then with all subshells written out, followed by the number of electrons per shell. For phosphorus (element 15) as an example, the concise form is [Ne] 3s 2 3p 3 .
In the case of electrons in atoms, the exclusion principle can be stated as follows: in a poly-electron atom it is impossible for any two electrons to have the same two values of all four of their quantum numbers, which are: n, the principal quantum number; ℓ, the azimuthal quantum number; m ℓ, the magnetic quantum number; and m s, the spin ...
The p orbital can hold a maximum of six electrons, hence there are six columns in the p-block. Elements in column 13, the first column of the p-block, have one p-orbital electron. Elements in column 14, the second column of the p-block, have two p-orbital electrons. The trend continues this way until column 18, which has six p-orbital electrons.