What is Electron Configuration?
Electron Configuration is defined as the distribution of electrons in different atomic orbitals of an element. Moreover, in order to represent the electron configuration of an element, an electron-containing subshell, along with the number of electrons in it, is shown as a sequence. For instance, in hydrogen, the electronic configuration is represented as 1s1.
But not all element electron configurations can be represented in standard forms because of their length due to large atomic numbers. In such cases, an abbreviated notation is employed to describe electron configuration. And in this abbreviated notation, the atomic subshells of the noble gas electronic configuration are replaced by the noble gas symbols inside a square bracket.
Uses of Electronic Configuration
Now that we have a good understanding of the Electronic Configuration. Let us now talk about the various benefits or the importance of Electronic Configuration.
- To understand the atomic spectra of various elements, an
- As explained above, the properties of the elements can only find out using electronic configuration
- Besides this, the valency of all elements directly depends on the number of electrons in an atomic orbital, which in turn is determined using electronic configuration
Moving on to our next topic, how to write the Electronic Configuration for various elements. Regardless of the method, this process mainly depends on three main steps Shells, Subshells, and Notations.
- Shells
Firstly, in shells, the maximum no of electrons is accommodated based on the type of element and more importantly, on the principal quantum number (n). Thus, based on the shell, the principal quantum number varies. For instance, in the first shell, which is K, the principal quantum number n is 1. Below are some examples of shells and their principal quantum numbers.
- Subshells
Unlike the shells, the subshells are categorized with the help of the azimuthal quantum number (I). However, this quantum number is directly dependent on the principal quantum number (n). And therefore, based on the number of shells in an element, the subshells also vary.
- Notation
The notations are basically the subshell labels, which include the subshells name, shell number as well as the electrons in the subshell (represented using superscript).
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