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In each term of an electron configuration, n is the positive integer that precedes each orbital letter (helium's electron configuration is 1s 2, therefore n = 1, and the orbital contains two electrons). An atom's nth electron shell can accommodate 2n 2 electrons. For example, the first shell can accommodate two electrons, the second shell eight ...
Note that these electron configurations are given for neutral atoms in the gas phase, which are not the same as the electron configurations for the same atoms in chemical environments. In many cases, multiple configurations are within a small range of energies and the irregularities shown below do not necessarily have a clear relation to ...
The terms 'singlet oxygen' and 'triplet oxygen' derive from each form's number of electron spins. The singlet has only one possible arrangement of electron spins with a total quantum spin of 0, while the triplet has three possible arrangements of electron spins with a total quantum spin of 1, corresponding to three degenerate states.
In carbon monoxide (CO, isoelectronic with dinitrogen) the oxygen 2s orbital is much lower in energy than the carbon 2s orbital and therefore the degree of mixing is low. The electron configuration 1σ 2 1σ* 2 2σ 2 2σ* 2 1π 4 3σ 2 is identical to that of nitrogen. The g and u subscripts no longer apply because the molecule lacks a center ...
In contrast, the first and second excited states of dioxygen are both states of singlet oxygen. Each has two electrons of opposite spin in the π* level so that S = 0 and the multiplicity is 2S + 1 = 1 in consequence. In the first excited state, the two π* electrons are paired in the same orbital, so that there are no unpaired electrons.
Electron wavefunctions for the 1s orbital of a lone hydrogen atom (left and right) and the corresponding bonding (bottom) and antibonding (top) molecular orbitals of the H 2 molecule. The real part of the wavefunction is the blue curve, and the imaginary part is the red curve. The red dots mark the locations of the nuclei.
Molecules of triplet oxygen contain two unpaired electrons, making triplet oxygen an unusual example of a stable and commonly encountered diradical: [2] it is more stable as a triplet than a singlet. According to molecular orbital theory , the electron configuration of triplet oxygen has two electrons occupying two π molecular orbitals (MOs ...
The process to calculate all possible term symbols for a given electron configuration is somewhat longer. First, the total number of possible states N is calculated for a given electron configuration. As before, the filled (sub)shells are discarded, and only the partially filled ones are kept.