Electron Configurations Powerpoint 1
Electron Configurations Powerpoint 1
C o nfiguratio
ns
Electron Arrangement in an Atom
• The arrangement of electrons in an atom is its
electron configuration.
• It is impossible to know where an electron is
or how fast it is traveling at any given time
(Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle? Walter White?).
• Models of the atom, such as the Bohr model are
very inaccurate (oops!) according to modern
atomic theory.
•Atoms and electrons are more
complicated than planets orbiting
the Sun.
Energy Levels
• There are “shells” or energy levels around an
atom. The farther away an energy level is
from the nucleus, the more energy the
sublevel has.
Electron Orbitals
• Orbitals are clouds of probability within an
energy level, so an actual orbital is a region of
space, where an electron might be found.
• Two orbital clouds are pictured below.
There are more dots near the center of the
picture, because an electron is most likely to
be near the nucleus (center) of the atom (the
electron which is negative is attracted to the
positive protons).
Types of Orbitals
• Within the energy shells are different shaped
orbitals (represented by the letters s, p, d, and
f) that can contain different total numbers of
electrons. A number can be placed in front
of the orbital letter to represent the energy
level that an orbital belongs to.
Singles First: the owner of the building wants Hund’s Rule: The electrons must be placed
to have the tenants spread out as much as into the orbitals in such a way that no pairs are
possible. For that reason singles are placed in put together unless absolutely necessary. That
rooms before couples. If couples must be is, single electrons must be placed into boxes
placed into a room then all of the other rooms first and then paired up if necessary.
on that floor must already have a single in
them.
Opposite “Gender” Only: When two people Pauli Exclusion Principle: Electrons
are placed in a room they must be of opposite come in two varieties based on the direction
genders. No men may room together and no they are ‘spinning’. There is an Up spin and a
women may room together. This is an Down spin. Up and Down spins are always
arbitrary rule on the part of the owners: in a paired together and Up-Up or Down-Down
just world we wouldn’t have to follow it. But combinations are not allowed. No two
quantum mechanics has nothing to do with electrons can ever be in the same place at the
justice. same time.
The Periodic Table – A Cheat Sheet for Knowing
the Order of Filling Electron Orbitals
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Practice!
• Fill in the electron orbitals corresponding to
He, then write out the complete electron
configuration.
More Practice
• Fill in the electron orbitals for Si, then write
out the complete electron configuration.
1s22s22p63s23p2
Electron Configs
with Elements in the d Block
B
Ne
C
N
F
Noble Gas Notation
• This is much shorter and more convenient than writing
out the entire electron configuration.
• Use the symbol for the noble gas that is just before the
element you are configuring. (The noble gas and
the element will have the same configuration, or inner
electron structure, up to that point)
• Then complete the configuration that comes after the
noble gas for the element in question.
• Example: The complete configuration for Na is
1s22s22p63s1. Neon is the noble gas that comes before
Na on the periodic table. So the noble gas notation
for Na would be:[Ne]3s1
Practice!
• Write the noble gas notation for the following
elements:
– Chlorine [Ne]3s23p5
– Beryllium [He]2s2
More Practice
• Which element has the following
configuration: [Xe]6s2?
Barium
Electron Configurations
and Valence Electrons
• The outermost shell of electrons in an atom is the
valence shell and it contains the valence
electrons.
• The outermost shell contains the electrons that
can interact most with the rest of the world.
• A full valence shell contains 8 electrons (2 from
an s orbital and 6 from a p orbital), unless you’re
hydrogen or helium (only want 2 to fill their
outermost s shell to become stable).
How many valence electrons in….
• Oxygen - 1s2 2s2 2p4