Electron
Configuration for
Elements Above
Atomic # 18
Electron Shells
• Periods on the periodic table are similar
because they have the same number of
electron shells.
• Within these shells there are layers
called sublevels', a shell can have
between 1 and 4 sublevels.
Sublevels of Electron
Shells
Sublevel
s
p
d
f
How Many
Electrons can it
Hold?
2
6
10
14
Electrons Shells and their
Sublevels
Shell or Period #
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Sublevels Allowed
s
s, p
s, p, d
s, p, d, f
s, p, d, f
s, p, d
s, p
Blocks on the Periodic Table
**the period and block an element lives in indicates
the sublevel their final electrons are filling, that
element will have full shells for all prior blocks.
Aufbau
Diagram –
unfortunately,
sublevels do not
always fill in order.
You can use the
diagram to the right
to understand how
they fill.
Standard
Notation
of Fluorine
Number of electrons
in the sub level 2,2,5
2
1s
2
2s
5
2p
Sublevels
How is the electron
configuration written?
•
Each row of an electron configuration table is sort of like a sentence.
Each 'sentence' is made up of smaller 'words'. Each 'word' follows this
format:
•
The first number is the energy level. We can tell right away that an
atom of gold contains 6 energy levels.
The lowercase letter is the sub-shell. The sub-shells are named s, p, d
and f. The number of available sub-shells increases as the energy level
increases. For example, the first energy level only contains an s subshell while the second energy level contains both an s sub-shell and a
p sub-shell.
The number in superscript is the number of electrons in a sub-shell.
Each sub-shell can hold only a certain number of electrons. The s subshell can hold no more than 2 electrons, the p sub-shell can hold 6, the
d sub-shell can hold 10 and the f sub-shell can hold as many as 14.
•
•
Example:
• The electron configuration for Nickel
would look like:
– 1s22s22p63s23p64s23d8
You Try:
• Write the full electron configuration for
gallium.
– 1s22s22p63s23p64s23d104p1
One more…
• Write the full electron configuration for
palladium.
– 1s22s22p63s23p64s23d104p65s24d8
Abbreviated vs.
Unabbreviated Notation
• Unabbreviated: list all sub shells as we
did in the previous examples
• Abbreviated: list the last noble gas
prior to the element then all subshells
that fall after this:
– Example – abbreviated version of palladium:
• [Kr] 5s24d8
Why is this important?
• Understanding the electron
configuration of an atom will help us
identify what type of ion or compound
an atom will typically form.
Electron Configuration
Song
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vb6
kAxwSWgU
• 1s2