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This page shows the electron configurations of the neutral gaseous atoms in their ground states. For each atom the subshells are given first in concise form, then with all subshells written out, followed by the number of electrons per shell. For phosphorus (element 15) as an example, the concise form is [Ne] 3s 2 3p 3.
The configuration that corresponds to the lowest electronic energy is called the ground state. Any other configuration is an excited state. As an example, the ground state configuration of the sodium atom is 1s 2 2s 2 2p 6 3s 1, as deduced from the Aufbau principle (see below).
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 small irregularities that arise in the d- and f-blocks are quite irrelevant ...
For example, the table shows that the first pair of vertically adjacent atoms with different ground-state term symbols are V and Nb. The 6 D 1 ⁄ 2 ground state of Nb corresponds to an excited state of V 2112 cm −1 above the 4 F 3 ⁄ 2 ground state of V, which in turn corresponds to an excited state of Nb 1143 cm −1 above the Nb ground ...
As an example, consider the ground state of silicon.The electron configuration of Si is 1s 2 2s 2 2p 6 3s 2 3p 2 (see spectroscopic notation).We need to consider only the outer 3p 2 electrons, for which it can be shown (see term symbols) that the possible terms allowed by the Pauli exclusion principle are 1 D , 3 P , and 1 S.
The ground state of a quantum-mechanical system is its stationary state of lowest energy; the energy of the ground state is known as the zero-point energy of the system. An excited state is any state with energy greater than the ground state. In quantum field theory, the ground state is usually called the vacuum state or the vacuum. If more ...
This notation is used to specify electron configurations and to create the term symbol for the electron states in a multi-electron atom. When writing a term symbol, the above scheme for a single electron's orbital quantum number is applied to the total orbital angular momentum associated to an electron state. [4]
The rule then predicts the electron configuration 1s 2 2s 2 2p 6 3s 2 3p 6 3d 9 4s 2, abbreviated [Ar] 3d 9 4s 2 where [Ar] denotes the configuration of argon, the preceding noble gas. However, the measured electron configuration of the copper atom is [Ar] 3d 10 4s 1. By filling the 3d subshell, copper can be in a lower energy state.