ELECTRON

CONFIGURATION
DESCRIBING WHERE ELECTRONS ARE
LOCATED AROUND THE NUCLEUS OF AN ATOM
 REVIE
W
Question:
What are the early models of the
atom and who are their
proponents?
 REVIE
W
Scientists found out that it is not possible to
know the exact position of the electron. So,
Bohr’s idea that electrons are found in
definite orbits around the nucleus was
rejected.
 REVIE
W
Three physicists led the development of
a better model of the atom.
These were Louis de Broglie,
Erwin Schrodinger, and
Werner Karl Heisenberg.
 REVIEW
•Louis De Broglie
proposed that the
electron (which is
thought of as a
particle) could
also be thought of
as a wave.
REVIEW
• Erwin
Schrodinger used
this idea to
develop a
mathematical
equation to
describe the
hydrogen atom.
 REVIEW
• Werner Karl
Heisenberg discovered
that for a very small
particle like the
electron, its location
cannot be exactly
known and how it is
moving. This is called
the uncertainty
principle.
Instead, these scientists believed that there is only a
probability that the electron can be found in a certain
volume in space around the nucleus. This volume or
region of space around the nucleus where the electron
is most likely to be found is called an atomic orbital.
Thus, we could only guess the most probable location
of the electron at a certain time to be within a certain
volume of space surrounding the nucleus.
Principal Energy Level (Shell)
Sublevel (Subshell)
Orbital
Principal Energy Level (Shell)
•Energy levels (also called electron shells) are
fixed distances from the nucleus of
an atom where electrons may be found.
Electrons are tiny, negatively charged particles
in an atom that move around the positive
nucleus at the center. Energy levels are a little
like the steps of a staircase. You can stand on
one step or another but not in between the
steps. The same goes for electrons. They can
occupy one energy level or another but not the
space between energy levels.
 Checkpoint
!

Where can you find details about

the energy level of an electron?
 How many electrons can a given energy level hold?
The maximum number depends on the number
of orbitals at a given energy level. An orbital is
a volume of space within an atom where an electron
is most likely to be found.
It can be calculated using this formula:
Where n = energy level
Energy Level Maximum Number of
Electrons
1 2
2 8
3
18
4
32
5
50
6
72
7
98
ENERGY
SUBLEVEL
(SUBSHELL)

•The principal
energy levels or
shells may have
one or more
sublevels. These
sublevels are
assigned with
letters: s, p, d, and f
These letters refer
to the shape of the
orbital.
s (Sharp)

p (Principal)

d (Diffuse)

f (Fundamental)
 Number of
Orbitals

s (Sharp) = 1

p (Principal) = 3

d (Diffuse) = 5

f (Fundamental) =7
 Number of Electrons in Each Orbital

Each orbital holds two electrons which differ in a property

known as spin. Orbital: A region of space within an atom
where an electron in a given subshell can be found. Any
orbital can hold a maximum of 2 electrons with opposite
spin.
Activity Get your notebook and copy the table below. Complete the table by
filling in the missing cells with what was discussed.

Principal Energy Sublevel/s Number of Orbitals Number of Total Number of

Level Electrons per Electrons in the
sublevel Energy Level

1
2
3

4
Writing the Electron
Configuration
(Orbital Notation)
•One tool that helps in
visualizing how the electron
shells and sub-shells are
filled is an orbital diagram,
but this can be awkward as
it takes up a lot of space on
pages and files, so a
shorthand notation was
developed to represent the
electron configuration in a
more textual fashion.
 Electron
Configuration Chart
 The Aufbau
Principle
states that electrons fill lower-
energy atomic orbitals before
filling higher-energy ones
(Aufbau is German for
"building-up"). By following
this rule, we can predict the
electron configurations for
atoms or ions.
Example:
Example:
Example:
 Try This:
What is the Electron Configuration
of Boron?
 Try This:
What is the Electron Configuration
of Silicon?
 Try This:
What is the
Electron
Configuration of
Barium?
 Try This:
What is the
Electron
Configuration of
Potassium?
 Try This:
What is the
Electron
Configuration of
Bromine?
 Try This:
What is the
Electron
Configuration of
Gold?
Checking of Mastery
Answers Ahead
…
Answers
ELECTRON
CONFIGURATION
IN IONS
 Try This
1) Ti2+
2) As5+
3) I-
4) F-
5) O 2-
 Orbital Diagram
Orbital diagrams are a common way of showing
electron configurations in which the orbitals are shown
as boxes and the electrons as arrows.
Illustration of Orbitals
s =1
p =3
d =5
f =7
Example
 Pauli Exclusion Principle
Pauli's Exclusion Principle states that no two electrons in the
same atom can have identical values for all four of their
quantum numbers.
In other words,
(1)no more than two electrons can occupy the same orbital, and
(2)two electrons in the same orbital must have opposite spins
 Hund’s Rule of Maximum
Multiplicity
(Hund’s Rule)
It states that in an atom's ground state the electron
enters the lowest energy orbital first and later the
higher energy orbitals.
Every orbital in a subshell is singly occupied with one electron
before any one orbital is doubly occupied. This means that one
electron goes into each until all of them are half full before
pairing up.
Try This
How does the Electron Configuration help us locate
an element in the Periodic Table?