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Summary: Electronic Structure
Electron configurations - Introduction
- Electron configurations record where electrons sit in an atom using symbols for energy levels, orbital types, and electron counts.
- They help explain atomic structure and how atoms behave in chemical reactions.
Atoms: a stage for Orbitals
- Positively charged nucleus attracts negatively charged electrons.
- Electrons occupy distinct regions called orbitals, forming geometric patterns around the nucleus.
- The Pauli Exclusion Principle prevents electrons from sharing identical quantum states, shaping orbital occupancy.
Orbitals as apartments
- Energy levels act like apartment buildings; lower energy levels are closer to the nucleus.
- Electrons prefer lower-energy orbitals but spread out as more electrons are added, producing the periodic filling pattern.
Locating an electron
- Specify both the electron's energy level (distance from nucleus) and the orbital type to pinpoint its location.
- Electron configurations map the combination of energy levels and orbital types for all electrons in an atom.
Notation for electron configurations
- Notation lists orbitals with superscripts showing how many electrons occupy each orbital.
- The sum of all superscripts equals the atom's total number of electrons (its atomic number).
Orbital types and occupancy rules
- s, p, d, f orbitals have maximum electron capacities: s = 2, p = 6, d = 10, f = 14.
- General tendencies: electrons prefer orbitals nearer the nucleus and strive to fill orbitals, but quantum effects can cause exceptions where electrons occupy orbitals farther out.
Creating electron configurations
- Use an electron-configuration table: rows represent energy levels and columns represent orbital types.
- Trace the filling order across the table until the total number of electrons is assigned.
- Use the Noble gas shortcut to abbreviate long configurations by replacing inner filled levels with the nearest preceding noble gas symbol.
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