Electron Structure

Question 1

What is the electronic configuration of an atom?

Answer 1

describes the arrangement of electrons in shells

Question 2

How are electrons placed?

Answer 2

Into shells starting with the lowest energy level first

Question 3

how many electrons can the third and fourth shell hold?

Answer 3

-18
-32

Question 4

What is an orbital?

Answer 4

A region around the nucleus that can hold two electrons, with opposite spins

Question 5

What do the energy levels (shells) of principal quantum numbers contain instead of having precise energy values?

Answer 5

subshells

Question 6

What do subshells contain?

Answer 6

-orbitals with different energy values

Question 7

What spins can electrons have?

Answer 7

-up spins
-down spins

Question 8

What is an electron?

Answer 8

-cloud of negative charge
-the negative charge cloud has the shape of the orbital occupied by the electron

Question 9

what must two electrons in the same orbital have?

Answer 9

opposite spins

Question 10

what are the different sub shells?

Answer 10

-S
-P
-D
-F

Question 11

what is an s-subshell?

Answer 11

-contains one orbital (the s orbital)- it is an electron cloud with the shape of a sphere
-The greater the shell number (n), the greater the radius of it’s s-orbital

Question 12

what is the p-sub shell?

Answer 12

contains 3-orbitals, each orbital is an electron cloud held within a dumb-bell shape

Question 13

what is a d sub shell?

Answer 13

-Contains five orbitals

Question 14

how many orbitals does an f-sub shell contain?

Answer 14

Seven orbitals

Question 15

What happens to electrons in the same orbital?

Answer 15

They repel

Question 16

What happens if we have orbitals with the same energy?

Answer 16

we put electrons in into individual orbitals before we pair them

Question 17

how do all electrons spin?

Answer 17

on axis: either clockwise or anti clockwise

Question 18

What is the electronic configuration for chromium and copper?

Answer 18

They both only contain one electron in the 4s (half filled)

Question 19

Why do chromium and copper have only one electron in the 4s orbital?

Answer 19

-by placing an electron into 3d sub shell, this creates either a full or half filled 3d orbital, which gives the atom increased stability

Question 20

when electrons are lost where are they lost from?

Answer 20

-Electron shells (when positive ions are formed)
-or will be added to the outer energy levels (when negative ions are formed)

Question 21

what happens when electrons are lost in transitional metal ions?

Answer 21

-The 4s are always lost before the 3d electrons (d-block elements)

Question 22

What is each block named after?

Answer 22

The subshell containing the highest energy electron for elements in that block