Energy Levels, Energy

Sublevels, Orbitals, and the

Pauli Exclusion Principle
Prepared by:
Mr. Jerwel P. Plata, LPT
 Energy Level
• Electrons orbit the nucleus in circles.
• The energy levels are numbered 1, 2, 3, etc. The smaller the number, the closer the
energy level is to the nucleus.
• It is represented by small letter ‘n’.
• The value of n is sometimes called the principle quantum number.
• Each energy level can only hold a certain number of electrons. The first energy
level can only hold 2 electrons, the second can only hold 8, and the third can only
hold 18.
Energy Level
Energy Level
• Look at the chart below and see if you can detect a pattern:

n Maximum number of electrons

1 2

2 8

3 18

4 32

• As the energy level increases, so does the number of electrons that can fit into the shell.
Sublevel
• Within each energy level are sublevels. The sublevels are labeled
s, p, d, and f.
• The first energy level has an s sublevel. The second energy level
has s and p sublevels. The third energy level has s, p, and d
sublevels. The fourth energy level has s, p, d, and f sublevels.
Orbitals
• Within each sublevel, there are orbitals. This is the final location of the
where electrons reside.
• Each sublevel has a certain number of orbitals.
Sublevel No. of orbitals
s 1
p 3
d 5
f 7
Orbitals
Pauli Exclusion Principle
• When electrons occupy orbitals, they spin on their axis.
• If two electrons occupy an orbital, the must spin in opposite
directions. This rule is called the Pauli Exclusion Principle.
Pauli Exclusion Principle
 Electron
Configuration
Prepared by:
Mr. Jerwel P. Plata
Electron Configuration
• Electron configurations describe where electrons are located
around the nucleus of an atom.
• While writing electron configurations, a standardized notation is
followed in which the energy level and the type of orbital are
written first, followed by the number of electrons present in the
orbital written in superscript.
Electron Configuration
Filling of Atomic Orbitals
• Aufbau Principle
• This principle is named after the German word ‘Aufbeen’ which means ‘build up’.
• The Aufbau principle dictates that electrons will occupy the orbitals having lower
energies before occupying higher energy orbitals.
• The energy of an orbital is calculated by the sum of the principal and the azimuthal
quantum numbers.
• According to this principle, electrons are filled in the following order: 1s, 2s, 2p, 3s, 3p,
4s, 3d, 4p, 5s, 4d, 5p, 6s, 4f, 5d, 6p, 7s, 5f, 6d, 7p…
Aufbau Principle
• Electrons fill the orbitals according to a pattern. This pattern can be
determined if we first draw the following diagram:
Pauli Exclusion Principle
• The Pauli exclusion principle states that a maximum of two
electrons, each having opposite spins, can fit in an orbital.
• This principle can also be stated as “no two electrons in the same
atom have the same values for all four quantum numbers”.
• Therefore, if the principal, azimuthal, and magnetic numbers are
the same for two electrons, they must have opposite spins.
Hund’s Rule
• This rule describes the order in which electrons are filled in
all the orbitals belonging to a subshell.
• It states that every orbital in a given subshell is singly
occupied by electrons before a second electron is filled in an
orbital.
• In order to maximize the total spin, the electrons in the
orbitals that only contain one electron all have the same spin
(or the same values of the spin quantum number).
Hund’s Rule
Here are the rules for Filling the
Orbitals:
• Choose the lowest energy level "n."
• Choose the lowest sublevel, s, p, d, or f.
• Fill the orbital with a maximum of 2 electrons, and have them
spin in opposite directions.
• Before a second electron can be placed in any orbital, all the
orbitals of that sublevel must contain at least one electron, and
spin in the same direction (Hund's rule)
 Examples
• Draw the electron configuration of Hydrogen.
• Draw the electron configuration of Beryllium.
• Draw the electron configuration of Carbon.
• Draw the electron configuration of Fluorine
Electron Configuration
• Instead of drawing arrows, an abbreviated form of the electron
configuration uses superscripts. The number of the superscript is
the number of arrows. If the 3p orbitals hold “5” arrows, you
would write 3𝑝5 .
• We can abbreviate the electron configuration further if we use the
configurations of the elements on the far right vertical column of
the periodic chart (He, Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe, and Rn).
Electron Configuration
• The first two columns on the left side of the periodic table are where
the s subshells are being occupied. Because of this, the first two rows of the
periodic table are labeled the s block. Similarly, the p block are the right-
most six columns of the periodic table, the d block is the middle 10
columns of the periodic table, while the f block is the 14-column section
that is normally depicted as detached from the main body of the periodic
table. It could be part of the main body, but then the periodic table would be
rather long and cumbersome.
End of Presentation