Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
A system of one or more electrons bound to a nucleus is called an atom. If the number of electrons is different from the nucleus's electrical charge, such an atom is called an ion. The wave-like behavior of a bound electron is described by a function called an atomic orbital. Each orbital has its own set of quantum numbers such as energy ...
In chemistry and atomic physics, an electron shell may be thought of as an orbit that electrons follow around an atom's nucleus.The closest shell to the nucleus is called the "1 shell" (also called the "K shell"), followed by the "2 shell" (or "L shell"), then the "3 shell" (or "M shell"), and so on further and further from the nucleus.
This tendency is called the octet rule, because each bonded atom has 8 valence electrons including shared electrons. Similarly, a transition metal tends to react to form a d 10 s 2 p 6 electron configuration. This tendency is called the 18-electron rule, because each bonded atom has 18 valence electrons including shared electrons.
The outermost electron shell of an atom in its uncombined state is known as the valence shell, and the electrons in that shell are called valence electrons. The number of valence electrons determines the bonding behavior with other atoms.
Elements in the same column have the same number of valence electrons and have analogous valence electron configurations: these columns are called groups. The single exception is helium, which has two valence electrons like beryllium and magnesium, but is typically placed in the column of neon and argon to emphasise that its outer shell is full.
Fundamentally, an atomic orbital is a one-electron wave function, even though many electrons are not in one-electron atoms, and so the one-electron view is an approximation. When thinking about orbitals, we are often given an orbital visualization heavily influenced by the Hartree–Fock approximation, which is one way to reduce the ...
The bonding in carbon dioxide (CO 2): all atoms are surrounded by 8 electrons, fulfilling the octet rule.. The octet rule is a chemical rule of thumb that reflects the theory that main-group elements tend to bond in such a way that each atom has eight electrons in its valence shell, giving it the same electronic configuration as a noble gas.
Lithium has two electrons in the 1s-subshell and one in the (higher-energy) 2s-subshell, so its configuration is written 1s 2 2s 1 (pronounced "one-s-two, two-s-one"). Phosphorus (atomic number 15) is as follows: 1s 2 2s 2 2p 6 3s 2 3p 3. For atoms with many electrons, this notation can become lengthy and so an abbreviated notation is used.