Electron
Configuration
What is Electron Configuration?
Electron configuration is the distribution of electrons of an atom in orbitals/energy
levels.
What is an Energy Level / Orbital?
A region in space where the probability of finding an electron is the greatest.
There are different types of orbitals around the nucleus.
• s-orbital
• p-orbital
• d-orbital (don’t need to know)
• f-orbital (don’t need to know)
The s-orbital
The s-orbital is a spherically shaped region that is arranged symmetrically around
the nucleus. There is only one s-orbital in each energy level and they differ in size.
The p-orbital
The dumbbell shaped p-orbitals occur in groups of three, at right angles to one
another, and we differentiate between the different p-orbitals using x, y and z
notation. The p-orbitals occur from the second energy level onwards.
Overlapping of s-orbitals and p-orbitals
d-orbitals and f-orbitals
Orbital blocks as found on the Periodic Table
Electrons have a mass of 1 1837 amu and don’t contribute to the mass of the
atom. Electrons, however, move in orbitals / energy levels that make up the volume
of the atom.
Electrons will possess different energies, depending on which level they are found in.
Energy levels closer to the nucleus have a lower energy compared to energy levels
further away from the nucleus.
Aufbau Diagram
The Aufbau principle is used in order to place the electrons around the nucleus of an
atom.
Aufbau principle:
• Electrons will always first occupy the orbitals that have the lowest possible
energy values.
• Pauli’s Exclusion principle:
Each orbital contains a maximum of two electrons, provided that the
electrons’ spins are in opposite directions.
• Hund’s rule:
No electron pairing takes place in p-orbitals until all the orbitals in the group
contain at least one electron.
Electrons are indicated by arrows ( and/or ).
Electrons in the outermost energy level are called valence electrons.
The electrons found in the inner, full energy levels are called core electrons.
Example:
Chlorine
Number of valence electrons:
Number of core electrons:
Highest filled energy level:
Group number on Periodic Table:
Period number on Periodic Table:
Group number (Roman numerals) corresponds to the number of valence
electrons.
Period number corresponds to the highest filled energy level.
Electron configuration notation (sp notation)
A short way of showing the electron configuration of an atom is by using the
electron configuration notation.
1s 2s 2p 3s 3p 4s
Aufbau Diagram and Electron
configuration for the first 20 Elements
Hydrogen Helium
Lithium Beryllium
Boron Carbon
Nitrogen Oxygen
Fluorine Neon
Sodium Magnesium
Aluminium Silicon
Phosphorus Sulfur
Chlorine Argon
Potassium Calcium
Worked Examples
1. Draw an Aufbau/Energy level diagram and give the Electron configuration for
each of the following:
1.1 Na
1.2 O2-
1.3 Al3+
Image References (in order of use):
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Periodic_Table_2.[Link]
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Orbital_representation_diagram.[Link]
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